It was just by a chance that we arrived to Bakałarzewo. We were looking for a quiet place to park for the night nearby Wigierski Park Narodowy and the small parking by the lake was indicated on one of the maps of possibilities for wild camping.
And the town/village was a very positive surprise to us: with a river and a lake and full of history! We enjoyed our time there a lot! Just layzing by the lake (with a sandy beach), visiting the local playground and paying a visit at small bunker.
The guide for bunker impressed us with his passion for history. You should not miss this 30 minutes excursion just at the border of the village.
View from from the bunker
And in the afternoon of the next day a lovely couple joined us for the evening and a little bit of the morning! Thank you Asia and Mirek for the joyful and valuable time we that we spent together!
On our way to the North of Poland I wanted to visit a special place, nearby a village called Ateny (Athens :-), where I spent several summer holidays camping in a tent with my parents when I was small. Very small…
Unfortunately the place has changed and my memories are very faded so the landscape did not ring any bell…
Anyway, the area still looks very attractive for spending summer there.
Our camp was set up nearby a big campsite of scouts.Looking for memories from Mum’s childhood…
Afterwards we had several stops at viewpoint on Wigierski National Park. This natural reserve must be gorgeous when seen from the water level.
Augustów definatelly is not our cup of tea… Too loud, too crowded and full of entertainments…
After a long walk in the city centre and along the lake, we decided to go back to the nature and stay for the night at the shore of Białe lake. The place was pretty empty until the sunset when 3 other cars arrived within on hour. Anyway the night was quiet and peaceful 😀
Tykocin should be very beautiful and full of history but to us it occured very touristic and disappointing… Visiting the castle was tempting but it is only possible with a guided tour of about 1h which is not doable with our kids right now. The boat trip was fully booked for the next hours and the church was full of people. Or maybe it was simply too hot and we were not in a mood for explorations 😉
Castle in Tykocin
The hidden beauty of that day, or even the whole region, was the European Stork Village in Tykocin. Lovely old houses surrounded with peaceful and gorgeous nature. And by the storks, of course…
Our friends (few days after our visit) were wise enough to ask there if they could stay overnight. There was no problem and the price was 1/3 of a campsite price.
In the end of our visit there we discovered a tick in Julia’s forehead. It already was very deep inside so we left the storks in a hurry to find a doctor in Tykociny. We were lucky to get help easily and quickly which should not be taken for granted in the Covid times…
Once the tick was removed we grabbed some food (Bistro Krypno: delicious and at reasonable prices!) and ice-cream and drove North to the Tsar’s road (Carska droga) with high hopes to spot a moose!
Rafał drove very slow and carefully but we did not spot neither a moose/any other animal nor the police/national park rangers…
For that night we ended up in a camping in Rajgrod. Because we arrived very late, we were standing almost outside, just at the gate, but in a quiet and empty field. But the campsite was full, veeery much full. And seeing that nonexisting level of privacy and the crowd of people in the Covid times, I suddenly realised again how lucky we are to be able to do wild camping 😀
Kruszyniany – although the place is very touristic, it is worth a visit. In just 20min long guided tour to the mosque one can learn a lot of history and interesting stories about the Tatars from the village and in Poland. The guide is a very interesting person as such! Do not miss the cemetery!
Mosque in Kruszyniany Cemetery in Kruszyniany
We had a late lunch in the local restaurant serving Tatar’s traditional food. Everything was tasty and of good quality but our kids did not share our enthusiasm towards the new tastes 😉
Few kilometres North from Kruszyniany, there are Krynki with a roundabout connecting 12 streets (unique in Poland!).
When driving towards Supraśl we knew that we will get some rain at last. But we were lucky to reach the town right after the heavy rain was over.
Driving into the rain…SupraślAfter rain in SupraślThe deeper the better!
Lovely small town with lots of history and several picturesque places. It is definitely worth a longer walk, but we were running pretty late and hungry.
We spent a quiet night at Kopna Góra, a recreational area prepared and managed by the State Forest Authority.
When travelling slow, you have the luxury of stopping just for fun. Yours or your kids. Combining the two is even better and sometimes it’s pretty easy 🙂 A stop to prepare coffee and play in the sand is a good choice 😀
Visiting Skit in Odrynki was a very relaxing experience. The walk on a wooden sidewalk surrounded by the grass, water and birds… I have to admit that the choice of location for this hermitage was excellent!!!
On our way to the hermitage…
After buying honey and having a friendly and very informative talk to one of the four hermitage custodians, we drove a little bit further to a free campsite in Bondary, on the shore of the Siemianówka reservoir. We stayed there for 3 nights and would not mind to stay longer. In the weekdays it becomes more quiet after 6 but the nights were very peaceful. The playground, sandy beach, a possibility to swim and the free shower made the time very easy for all of us.
Nerby Siemianówka lake, in Trzcianka and two other villages, you can find old wooden houses, some of them with beautifully painted windows:
And colourful eastern orthodox churches full of history and sometimes also people eager to share these stories with you!
After having voted in the presidential elections (we really hoped for changes…not yet though…) we were back on the road towards the East. We arrived to Białowieża hungry and a local road closure made it difficult to reach the restaurant of our choice so we ended up dining at “u Pasibrzucha”. The service was slooooow but the food was all right. For the night we selected two parking lots in the National Park, but the parking in front of the bizon reserve was further from the road. And there were 3 other campervans staying overnight so we joined them. It was very nice to sit all together and talk about being on the road. Such random “meetings” with their friendly and cheerful holiday atmosphere can we truly inspirational!
In the morning we visited the Bizon reserve (with our fellows from the parking) and drove to Białowieża to see the the museum in the Park.
In the Bizon reserve
On our way towards towards artificial lake Siemianowka we had several stops to observe the beautiful nature…
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