Krakovka Bay (Yuzgou)

Krakovka Bay is an open bay of the Sea of Japan on the coast of the Partizansky urban district in Primorsky Krai, lying between Cape Laplace and Cape Sysoeva. Two rivers, the Krakovka (Yuzgovskaya) and the Pribrezhnaya, flow into it, and its shore is lined with light sand and pebbles.

Geography

Krakovka Bay stretches along the coast and is open to the sea, exposed to winds and currents; because of the Primorsky Current, the water here is noticeably colder than in the sheltered bays west of Cape Povorotny. The seabed near the shore is scattered with underwater rocks, so both anchoring and swimming call for caution. Locals call the right-hand part of the bay Sevastopolskaya, while the left-hand part is piled with bizarre boulder formations. The uninhabited island of Prizma lies just offshore.

History and names

The bay was first described in July 1860 by the expedition of Lieutenant Colonel V. M. Babkin aboard the schooner Vostok, which was surveying the Far Eastern coast. Until the mid-20th century the bay was known as Yuzgou (also spelled Südgou), a Chinese name meaning "right ravine"; another name, Dyanhogou, meaning "mountain ravine", was also used. The bay received its present name, Krakovka, in 1972, during a mass renaming of geographic features across Primorsky Krai.

Settlement of the bay began in 1902, when the village of Krakov was founded on its shore, later giving its name both to the bay and to the river flowing into it. In the 1930s a fishing collective farm, "Suchansky Partizan", operated here. In the same decade a coastal artillery battery, No. 529, belonging to the 79th Separate Artillery Battalion, was built on the shore; its structures survive to this day and are of interest as a monument to the coastal defenses of the Soviet Pacific coast.

Krakovka Bay today

Today Krakovka Bay is valued above all for its untouched nature: visitors come here for hiking, fishing and summer holidays on its wild beaches. There is no permanent population or infrastructure in the bay, which is exactly what draws people looking for secluded spots on the Primorsky coast, away from developed resorts.

Getting there

The bay is most easily reached by car: the road runs from Nakhodka through the village of Khmylovka, after which the surface becomes an unpaved, rough dirt road, so the drive from Khmylovka to the bay can take about two hours.