Breakfast here was even better than in our last hotel in that they provide decent sized cups so we could all have proper cups of tea – it’s funny how little things can make a difference. Once fully rehydrated and refreshed, we set out to see what we could of this area, the valley of the Biebrza river. One primary differentiating feature over this particular river valley and elsewhere in the world is the fact that the river has never been substantially altered by man, it takes its own course through the wetlands, a course that is forever changing, leaving oxbow lakes and ponds behind as the water levels wax and wane over the year. It is a large area, almost 60,000 hectares and as such, is home for many rare species of animals and plants. For instance there are 900 vascular plant species, including 18 orchids, 298 species of birds have been recorded including the whole Polish population of the rare (15 breeding pairs) spotted eagle, 48 mammalian species including 20 wolves and finally 18 species of reptile and amphibians. In short, a naturalist’s paradise and one that we were keen to have a look at. Here is Wikipedia’s take on the place :-

There was a down side to today’s plan and that was the weather. Heavy showers were forecast for the whole day which normally, wouldn’t be an issue as at home we have more than adequate waterproof walking gear but here all we had were light anoraks and in my case, nothing (left it on the boat, duh!) so I had bought an ill-fitting disposable polythene tourist coat thing which looks daft and is as effective as a chocolate fireguard. Still, with luck we could avoid the worst of things and we set off to the park headquarters a few miles away, in the village called Osowiec-Twierdza. Here we bought tickets for the park at a few zlotys each and were shown a 10 minute briefing film on the area, in a room that contained stuffed specimens of elk, beaver and a variety of birds – all of which had been the victims of traffic accidents. At least it gave us the opportunity to see these animals close up, we would be unlikely to see them in the wild and indeed we didn’t. The Park ranger recommended a walk to us, showing us the map which I photographed, a walk which would take us to some lookout points and hides and out onto the marshes. It was reckoned to be about a 3 hour walk, so that should take us through to lunchtime.

The path initially took us through woodland, and we encountered our first problem – swarms and swarms of big, aggressive and hungry mosquitoes. Me with my bare legs was a particularly attractive target but fortunately Julie had packed our ‘deet’ –based mosquito repellent which proved to still be very effective, despite its antiquity! After some 15 minutes we came across our first lookout point, a wooden tower affording views out over the wetlands and it was here that we saw our eagle. I’m afraid I don’t know whether it was a greater or lesser spotted one or even a golden eagle but it was big and as is usual with raptors, it was being mobbed by other birds but in this case it was another, smaller raptor, some sort of falcon, I think. Very dramatic!

Once we exited the forest we had a couple of false starts on the path, principally because we followed the signs rather than looking at the map on my phone. The signs took us to a camp site whereas the map took us at 90° to that and we continued on our way. It was then that the heavens really started to open and at this juncture, we thought of the 3 miles or so of walk ahead of us through open marshland and decided to give up and return to the car.

Another suggestion the park official gave us was to drive south on a road that followed the river, ending up near the village of Strekowa Gora, about 20 miles away. Again, there were lookout points on the way so we decided to do that, in the hope that we could correlate the lookout opportunities with dry periods. The road took us through dense woodland, consisting mainly of stands of pine and silver birch, millions of trees and as the road was as straight as an arrow for kilometres at a time, it was quite soporific to drive. However the occasional passing car kept me awake as the road is quite narrow, just enough for vehicles to pass one another but with a ditch on the right hand side it concentrated the mind. At the end of the road was an observation platform, one recommended by the park official as being a good spot to see elk from, albeit later in the day than we were here. Sure enough there were no elk or at least perhaps not. Right at the end of the capabilities of our binoculars there was a deer of sorts and it may have been an elk but may not, we really couldn’t tell. Also at some considerable distance we watched a large fox hunting, it was so large that I initially thought it might have been a wolf but its behaviour was very fox like.

On the way home, we stopped by a park facility, a 400m boardwalk out into the marshland. It was lovely out there, there was a whole lot of sky to look at and a zillion plants but no bird or insect life and our visit was cut short by the arrival of the next heavy shower, it caught us on the way back and we were pretty damp by the time we reached the shelter of the car. That was it in terms of exploring, we got back to our rooms by 17:00 and were pleased to have had a good day, despite the weather.

We had dinner in the hotel restaurant once more and this time, again as there was no beef available, Rosemary and I had pork schnitzel and Julie had zander and we all enjoyed the meal. The beer I’d had (Żubr or bison beer) was presented in a nice Pilsner Urquell glass, a really heavy pot and I enquired of the waiter whether I could buy one and he said no, but 2 minutes later he brought me a glass and said that I could have it! Nice chap and he got a good tip! Speaking of bison, again Julie and I had a Żubrówka each (ie bison grass vodka) and Rosemary had a cognac and with that, it was bed time.