A few days in Poland: My 21st favourite country so far

December 19, 2013

I had been informed that Poland did a better job of clearing the roads than Slovakia and I was pleased that the main road that I entered the country on had cleared the shoulder of snow, as opposed to merely pushing the snow onto the shoulder. However, when I turned off the main road onto a smaller road it was a little less well treated. There were large raised tracks of what was essentially solid, and very slippery, ice. I was able to weave in and out of these icy blocks of doom, but one time I hit one and the bike instantly slipped out from under me leaving me momentarily pedalling in mid-air like a cartoon character before gravity intervened and brought my feet back down to the ground, which I made a perfect landing on. Having made such a smooth landing I continued running along the road and for a second considered leaving the bike behind. It was slowing me down after all, but then I remembered it had my sandwiches in so I went back and picked it up.

This sign certainly wasn't kidding. The raised bits in between the tarmac were solid ice.

The conditions worsened as I climbed through more mountainous regions.

I had been considering following this road east into the Bieszczady National Park. Robert had told me that these mountains were truly spectacular and because they were so high, I might be able to cycle up above the low-lying clouds and I could imagine that this inversion effect, looking down on the clouds from snowy peaks, might possibly result in it being the most beautiful thing I ever saw. But now the state of this dangerous icy road made me feel like cycling up into the higher mountains might possibly result in it being the last thing I ever saw. So I gave up on this suicidal idea and cycled north instead, which took me on a road which, as you can see from the picture above, was quite adventurous enough. And then, beyond the town of Rymanow, I descended out of the mountains and into a broad flat plain. Suddenly the snow was almost all gone and so were the clouds, the sky was clear, I could see grass again! I forgot how wonderful grass looks to a man looking for a place for his tent!

It's really such a luxury to be able to sleep somewhere where there isn't freezing cold icy snow underneath you, one that we all take too much for granted I'd say

The next day there was sunshine and blue skies and I took the back roads north through some nice scenery. The road climbed again and I periodically passed through snowy areas, but the roads were clear of snow and the only problem was the terrible, terrible drivers. Two of the worst pieces of driving that I'd seen in the whole five months happened on these two days (yeah, driving a van full speed around a corner on the wrong side of the road, that’s sensible.) It put me in a bad mood and made me decide somewhat moodily that Poland was my 21st favourite country of the 21 visited thus far.

On the plus side, the blue skies and white snow made the world very pretty

But the roads were clear of snow and ice. Is this the worst you've got for me, winter?

Things got no better when I was sat at a bus stop trying desperately to figure out how to transfer my chocolate spread, which had frozen solid inside its glass jar, onto my bread. I quickly realised that my blunt pocketknife was as useless as an item of cutlery as it was as a weapon and gave that up. I decided that the thing to do was to stuff the offending jar of chocolate spread up my jumper to warm it up. As I was doing this a stray cat appeared from under my bike and looked at me suspiciously, possibly because I was being weird. I decided to throw it some bread which it ate happily. Not wanting to give up any more of my food before the chocolate spread was ready I had a rummage through my pannier and found some stale flips which I scattered on the ground, thinking that I had made a new friend. Maybe this cat would accompany me now on my journey around the world. It could sit on the back of the bike, perched between tent and sleeping bag, grinning merrily at the world and oh dear, the cat had a little nibble at a couple of the flips and then turned its nose up and walked off in that pretentious way that they do. I had lost a friend. I pulled out the jar - the chocolate spread was still frozen solid. Sigh

Sniff, sniff, nibble, nibble, no thanks!

Things could have got a lot better when I was sitting on a bench in a small town when a very enthusiastic and friendly man came and spoke with me. Stan told me he had done a bike trip through Romania with a friend and was so very nice. He wanted to offer me a place to stay and I wanted so very much to accept, but he said that he had to go to work now and he was running a bit late.

"What do you do?" I enquired.

"I'm a teacher."

"Stan, it's three o'clock in the afternoon! You're not a bit late, it hardly seems worth going at all now!"

But he did go, and I had another night out in the cold.

That night I left the main road to find somewhere to camp along a side road. The road was all covered in ice and the bike slipped and I fell off again, this time with no grace whatsoever. Down I went, instinctively putting my arms out as I fell, then instantly remembering not to do that (I broke my arm once landing this way) and instead rolling and landing on my side and skidded down the road like the bobsled guy who jumped a little too late. I got up sheepishly and, satisfied that no one had been around to see it, walked carefully along the road until I found a camping place in the snow.

On my final full day in Poland I followed a main road towards and through the town of Przemsyl. The road was sort of following a river, but was still quite up and down and boring. Przemsyl was much better though, with some nice churches and cobbled streets and a proper cool castle. I spent quite a bit of the day exploring the town and then headed towards the Ukrainian border. Just before it I found an unusual place to camp along an old railway line and underneath a giant pipe which was carrying oil or something. It wasn't the most romantic of campsites, but it did the job, and I was itching to get on to Ukraine come the morning

Sorry Poland, you're not going to be winning the award for 'Best Deer Picture' with this wooden effort

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