The driver was quite good. He has the very difficult conditions of bad roads, extremely heavy traffic and petty border officials to deal with on a daily basis. If not for his tirade at some official we would probably have been longer. When we arrived in Przemysl and relayed our border story to the hotel matron she told us that a guest was 8 hours at the border the day before. Stories like this can sure turn your day around, can't they!
Yesterday we walked down to the San river. It is an 8 minute stroll from our hotel in the countryside through farmlands. The river looks perfect for our purposes and we are getting excited to be on the water.
A local attraction for Przemysl is the castle at Krasiczyn which is about 15 kms. west of the city. We walked out to it and toured the property. There were paths around a couple of ponds which weaved among some very large oak trees. The castle still has it's original portico with the date MDCXIIII engraved in it's stonework. This must one of the earliest typos still in existence as IIII should have been IV.
A beautiful spot none the less.
We are relaxing around the hotel and getting supplies for the river. We are starting tomorrow morning and must then say goodbye to some comforts. The pace of the river appears relaxing and we will only need to guide ourselves along as we are in no hurry. The shoreline is filled with birdsong and the silt in the river from the recent wave is settling. If the weather continues to be as good as the last week has been then we can expect to be amply compensated for our efforts.
After 14 days and 250 kms. of river travel we have now arrived in Kazimierz Dolny on the Visla river. The first 170 kms. were on the San river. The silt which I thought was settling seems rather to be a fixture as sand lines the banks without a break. This has been a blessing as clean beaches to camp on are 'round every bend and always appear when we want to stop for the day. We have had mostly cloudy and cool weather conditions with short rain squalls occassionally. On only one day did we have continual drizzle and so we decided to stay off of the water that day and remain in camp. When the sun comes out it can be quite warm but mostly we are wearing rain gear and even gloves. The wind can have a coolness to it especially if it comes from the north as that is our direction of travel. As you can see from the photos below, the skies can still have some drama to them when there are breaks between the rain clouds that let the light through.
We do get some nice days too!
We got a real sense of the wind when we entered the Visla. The wind was out of the north and worked against the north flowing current to create a seemingly endless series of high waves on this very large and powerful river. We camped immediately for 2 nights and watched the performance. When the wind quieted somewhat we timidly edged our way along the shoreline. The destruction of the recent high water was obvious as trees and debris was strewn hurricane fashion at amazing heights above the present waterline. Here's a photo of a town along the river and some of the waves we experienced that day. The canoe is visible in the foreground.
Usually we see nothing but birds and animals including foxes and deer as well as the occasional fishing Pole with his fishing pole. The rivers flucuate too much for any buildings to be anywhere close to the river. We hear tractors now and then and pass under a bridge or two each day but we are really surprised at how quiet the rivers are. We are the only boat on the river and except for barking farm dogs in the distance we hear nothing else at night.
Here's a look at what a typical kitchen set-up looks like at 0730 before the porridge is dished out. A little wind break made with a tarp and a few sticks can be handy for keeping some of the sand out of meals!
Entertainment is slim so we have to bring our own. Diana has her Kindle reader filled with books which helps her relax. We also bought ourselves a travel ukulele on-line from a German manufacturer and had it mailed to our guesthouse in Krakow. This too has been great and helps pass the afternoons and evenings.
Kazimierz Dolny is a popular Polish tourist destination with charming historical buildings. There is a lovely boardwalk along the river and boat operators are taking the tourists up river a couple of kms. to take photos of a castle ruin. While we are here there is a Polish folk music festival and the town is filled to capacity and there is a very colorful festive atmosphere. We plan on spending a few days here to relax and soak it up.
We have arrived in Warsaw after 400 kms. and 26 days of river travel. The weather turned hot and sunny while we were in Kazimierz Dolny and never changed for 10 glorious days straight. The river was moving us along at an ever increasing speed but was remaining as flat as a pond. Whenever the river was approaching a town, a few diversion jetties made out of rock and concrete debris were built out into the river flow to keep the strength of the river away from the shore as much as possible. We had been able to recognize these divesions further up river by the turbulence in the water but we were able to pass right over them. Now, however, with the water level still dropping they became an obstacle and it was necessary to watch for them and then paddle around to avoid grounding. Campsites remained plentiful despite our closing in on the more populated areas around Warsaw. The number of fishing Poles of course kept increasing.
Here are some photos of this last section of the Visla. The first is of the very nice family who owns the campground in Kazimierz where we stayed for 5 days. They were quite helpful letting us store our canoe inside the building behind us. Michael, the young lad in the photo is their grandson who lives in Ireland but comes to help run the campground for the summer. He speaks excellent English and so helped us find out and bit more about what was happening around us. These folks were so great they loaded our gear including the canoe onto a trailer and drove us down to the river when we were ready to leave. We felt like we were welcomed like family and will miss all their hospitality including the fresh bread rolls delivered to us every morning.
As the wind would sometimes build up in the afternoons we got into the habit of camping around 12 or 1300. Most afternoons Diana would set herself up with her Kindle and relax while reading. There was always a swim in the river for relaxing too!
A strong wind storm blew up while we were setting up camp just 14 kms. from Warsaw. This came up very quickly and as we set up close to the water we were exposed to the full force of it. I spent a couple of hours trying to build some kind of barrier from the wind and eventually we were able to eat a spartan dinner of peanut butter SANDwiches. Paddling was out of the question for the next day as well but we were entertained by a small shorebird who was sitting on 3 eggs right beside us. We didn't see her until we had set up camp and so avoided her nest as much as possible.
One of the perks of being outside all day is simply just looking up one moment and seing some gorgeous colours and light. Here's one such moment on the Visla.
This next picture is taken on the morning of our last paddle into Warsaw. After the photo was taken we packed up the tripod and stepped into the canoe and paddled down river to meet a small family of wild swans. These birds are magnificent in flight. Their wing beat creates a very large sound and with their necks stretched out they are absolutely huge in flight. The final shot is of us after we have packed up the canoe and all the gear at our take-out spot.
We hope these notes and pictures are finding everyone well. We will be able to be in touch more closely for the next month. If you have any questions or comments we are at dsvelnis@gmail.com. We'd enjoy just hearing what everyone is doing this summer.