Bialowieza National Park

We travel from Warchau, via Siedlce, Hajnowka to Bialowieza. The region of  Mazovia lies around the capital Warchau and it’s here about rolling green hills full with numerous cathedrals, castles and palaces. From time to time it seems as if life has stood still here with wooden carts, women with scarves tied around their heads who are working on their their fields and the capital seems far away.

The station of Bialowieza is really in the middle of nowhere and we decide to look for a place where we can have some breakfast. It all looks bleakly modern and we end up in a sort of football canteen where we order some food. In time we are back on the station where we wait in vain for the bus. A woman reminds us of the "S" behind the time on the board which means that this bus only comes when the schools are open and since it is vacation time we have to wait for a bus that comes hours later.

We walk back to the center and order a "Zubr" (means “bison” in Polish) beer in a bar and write our diary. I also do some reading in our travel guide until we can return to the station. We have not yet arrived or the rain is pouring from the sky and we are forced to leave the plastic chairs at the stop to remain somewhat dry.Not a good start to visit a National Park. 

Finally the bus arrives and without any delays and/or problems we get out at on of the last stops in Bialowieza village. Lakes, forest, animals and green patches of agriculture that is what the province Podlasie has to offer apparently. It still rains when we search and look for our intended hostel which looks like a big wooden barrack.

It is cozy and warm in there and we sit down at the long picnic tables that have been placed in the "living room" and where the fire crackles in the fireplace. The purpose of our visit here is seeing the wild animals such as the lynx, wolf, elk and bison and problem is that these are mainly during the twilight hours to see, a time that people are mostly inside.

Camping in the forest is strictly forbidden, you are obliged to go with a guide and on a piece of paper stuck on the wall it is pointed out the danger that border crossing with Belarus is made easy and you get a big fine if they catch you. Before we go to our room we make another walk in the Palace park where now only a brick-made gate is left. First there was a "hunting lodge" for the Polish kings; in 1894 it became a castle for the Russian tsar. The Nazis destroyed everything when they left unfortunately. 

After an early breakfast, we want to take the bus to Pogoszelce as we have decided to go independently into the old forest along the western side. We want to avoid the tourist hiking and biking trails, just like the "reserve" which is a disguised zoo.

But the bus leaves at the end of the afternoon and we decide to try to hitchhike to get there earlier; but not after we have left our big bags and made purchases with the girl from the hostel who knows exactly what we’re planning to do. There is a strong chilly wind blowing and it seems we see everytime the same cars passing and those won’t pick us up. As soon as we want to give up, the black car that has the record of passing us at least 5 times, stops and takes us.

We walk the yellow bike path but decide after a few hundred meters to go into the forest. First we spray oursevles full with insect repellent because there are many bugs and flies that are after us. Despite the fact that we have a map and compass with us, we draw our route and try to mark it by placing branches on the path. If we find the river, we know we are at the boundary of the "protected area"; hopefully here we can spot some “wild” life. 

We continue our walk after our lunch in relative peace before we walk back and head east towards an open field with tall grass and heaps of shit. These can not be other than bison, we conclude. Furthermore, some parts of the grass have been completely squashed down to the river that looks more like a ditch.

We follow some large footprints and these lead us to a forest where the ground is completely turned over. Branches were also broken down and pieces of tree trunk were eaten. We assume that this is fresh and that the group of bison may have been here yesterday evening during the rain and we decide to camp close tot his place.

Suddenly a deer is watching when I clear my bag and the red squirrels are interested. A little further on we find a suitable place to set up our tents but suddenly we hear a jeep and we hide behind some bushes. Perhaps a ranger who explores his area and we hear the sound fading away luckily. It seems sensible to use some tree trunks as a fort around our tent to keep the group of bison at bay. We eat a quick bite, filter our water and get ready for the evening; first hang our food bags in the trees and then completely pack up against the mosquitoes. Then we find two trees that can be climbed to spot them from the animals. 

From the top of these trees we have a beautiful view on one side over the field and the river and on the other side into the forest and our camp. It is dead silent when we are sitting or better said “hanging”  in the trees on some sound of the jeep of the patrol and the accompanying dog that invariably runs every half an hour. For an hour and a half, if our muscles become something stiff, we hear a sound at the river. We are quiet and try to spot a silhouette but see nothing. It will probably have been a beaver or otter.

When we climb out the trees we hear an owl flying over our heads that does not trust the whole thing and we crawl into our tent a bit disappointed. It's a weekend and the buses are already running so little that we have to pick up quickly in the early morning and have to rush to the bus stop. After our quite night we pack up and see again two deers looking at us. We say goodbye to our spot and try to find back our trail from yesterday. Still mocking about the lack of big animals we look around us and suddenly we see a "wild pig" lying 5 to 10 meters away.

We have to wake it up because we have to pass but we are aware. And we are lucky it wakes up, starts to scream and rushes into the bushes. After a few hours we are back in the hostel.