Pondering Poland, Wild Camping near Mostki Village
Zagan the motorhome’s facing out over a lake, topped off with a wall of pines (N51.06076 E20.90898). We’re near the village of Mostki, which is, ah, in the Polish sticks. We’re nowhere, albeit a rather pretty, calm, and free nowhere (we found the location in park4night.com). And we’re now pondering, wondering what to think about Poland.
Wild camping near Mostki, Poland
The lake we’re facing in our freebie camping spot
Feet up, time for a brew after a few hour’s driving
By the way, since we’re in his namesake’s native country, Zagan should actually be written Żagań (and pronounced like this!). Our roaming home’s named after a town in Poland, far from here, which was close to Stalag Luft III, the real-world scene of The Great Escape. For me, Żagań was one of the highlights of our last foray into Poland (blog post here), which probably explains why we chose the name Żagań! We also really enjoyed Krakow (blog post here), basing ourselves for the city at the incredible salt mines at nearby Wieliczka (blog post here).
Chicks on the lake
Our last run through the country was from east to west, from Ukraine to Germany. This time we’re heading from the south, near Zakopane, up to the north-east, where Poland’s edged off by its 65 mile border with Lithuania. And I’ll be honest, we’re struggling to choose a route, as we can’t find stuff we want to see en-route. Warsaw would be an obvious place to head for, but it seems the main talking point is the horrors of WW2 it endured. The port city of Gdańsk sounds interesting, but is way, way off the direct path. Even the option of heading into the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad was discussed for a while, before being discarded. It sounds like the visa and insurance costs to get in just aren’t balanced off by anything anyone would actually want to see.
Budget replacement for the cafetière I smashed the other day
Having only ever spent a few days in Poland, we’re both a bit ambivalent about it.
Cost wise, it’s a no-brainer. The beer is ridiculously cheap (30p a pint for decent bottled stuff from a supermarket – on offer mind!). Croissants came in at 14p each at Lidl. We picked up 10GB of 4G internet access today for £6. The aire last night cost £8 including services. Tonight we’ll free camp, in a lovely spot, and it seems like wild camping’s no problem if you can track down decent places. Most roads are toll free for our 3.5 tonne vehicle and on the whole are good quality, having just been rebuilt. Diesel is coming in at about 75p a litre. We’ve not eaten out yet, but we’re guessing that’ll not bust the bank. Hell, the sun’s even started shining!
Polish SIM – some ‘fun’ was had buying and activating the thing, but we got there
The problem, if there is one, is the feel of the place, which is always dangerous to write about after just a day or two. Poland feels like it has a few gems of places to visit, which are quite extra-ordinary, but outside of those highlights we sense there’s a serious amount of mediocre. Today, after we crawled out of Krakow, we’ve spent hours passing rolling fields sporting enough bill-boards to kill a planning officer, in between nothing-towns of three story houses with rusting metal fences and corrugated roofs.
Satnav decision: centre of Krakow looks like the fastest route…
Charlie’s about to like Poland, a LOT! Pigs ear and chicken foot treats await
I’m fairly certain we’re being far too harsh on the place, and just need to get our acts together in planning. For example, we tried to park in the centre of Kielce today for a look-see. No dice. The only spot we could find was a patch of gravel, which the police immediately evicted us from. Nicely, in English, and with shaken hands, but even a scrubby bit of dirt was closed for some reason. After more tight reversing and staring at packed car parks, we gave up and continued north. Sheer laziness? Could be.
I’m tempted to think Poland’s past decades of being hammered endlessly by external powers has left little to see but reminders of war? The country feels like it’s washed away the most obvious indications of enforced communism and soviet domination, stuff I find interesting, and replaced them with billboards, legions of manic drivers and a road building programme to rival the Romans.
Yeah baby! Fantastic Polish roads! But hold on a minute, what’s that in the distance?
20 miles of roadworks, as a brand new road was being built
I got quite attached to this lorry, as he helpfully picked our way through contraflow after contraflow
More effort is needed I reckon to find a Poland we really enjoy. Give us a few days and we’ll see what we can do. The sun’s lowering in the sky now, golden hour, as a few folks arrive to walk or cycle the lake. Ju’s cooking and a beer’s (hopefully) chilling in the fridge. The map’s out and our internet access is wildly fast, so we’ve no excuse for getting some research done. All ideas appreciated by the way – if you have any Polish favourites to the north-east of the country, please punt ’em over!
Cheers, Jay
Bonus pic – Any ideas what type of bird this is? They are singing away in the reeds around the lake, so Ju has decided they are reed warblers!
I appreciate the honesty of your post. I love Central Europe and its amazing cities and sights. However, the rural areas can be rather bleak. Having followed your journeys for a good while now I can totally understand why those earlier journeys stuck to a coastal route, there is something fresh and magical about the sea, the coastline, and the towns that develop on the coast. I share your love of the mountains so the Alps etc are also magical. We have to acknowledge, some of the European hinterland is less exciting! I have only really done the area around Krakow so can’t give much advice, only to say that everyone tells me the Polish Lake District is beautiful and Gdansk is worth a visit! Happy travels!
Hi Jay 😊 it’s Matt Dilnot – interesting read on your travels in Poland ! Extra interesting for me as my partner is Polish and I regularly go over 2 / 3 times a year. In fact I’ll be going to Kraków a week on Sunday- a first time visit for me as my partner’s family are from the north of the country. I know you said that its a little bit off your track but Gdstank is beautiful and worth a visit and definitely a firm favourite of mine along with nearby Sopot ( largest wooden pier and where the first shots of WW2 were fired ) If you like the communist history etc I recommend going to the Solidarity museum In Gdansk which is where the fall of communism began. Don’t forget to drink some good Polish Vodka 👍😉 also very cheap like the beer ! Other places I like are Torun and Malbork which has the largest brick castle in the world. I can’t wait to explore the south, enjoy the rest of your Polish tour and I’ll be following your adventures mate 👍😊 na zdrowie guys 🍻
Hi Matt, great to hear from you! Thanks for the tips, currently contemplating life over a filthy cheap beer and pondering next steps. All info appreciated! Greetings to your other half, and enjoy Krakow, we did! Cheers, Jay
How about having a look at some of these?
http://theculturetrip.com/europe/poland/articles/the-10-most-beautiful-towns-in-poland/
Hi to you both. I have been following your blog for ages now, and am currently 10 months into a 12 month trip. We travelled round Poland last August, and had some good advice from our Polish friend. He recommended Sandomierz and Kasmierz Dolny which are both eastwards on the map shown above.
We loved the ‘Lake District’ of Masurian in the far north east of the country. Stunning scenery. We also loved Sopot and Gdansk in the north.
We drove down the east side of Poland and it was basically farms and industry for hundreds of miles.
Thanks Julesey – we’re in the campsite at Sandomierz at the moment, what a fab spot – just a short walk from a great little town – perfect! Jay
Hi Ju and Jay,
Do you actually follow Craig and Joanne” blog? Ourbumble.com? They are ahead of you somewhere in Norway…and they are good at finding nice locations! Another tip for Norway but you might already know: fuel prices are cheaper On Sundays… Maybe on wednesday nights too!
Hi Chris, yep mate, Joanne and Craig popped in to see us in the UK before we set off for this trip, so we keep a close eye on them! And yes, completely agree, they’re expert wild campers, always finding cracking spots – the one they got in Carcassone was incredible! Cheers, Jay
Oh and they did Denmark and Sweden too on this trip!
I think it was Sandomierz that had the amazing church. Looks nothing from the outside but the murals are a real surprise. Also, we did the tour of the underground tunnels.
If you like, have a look at our blog ianandjuleseytraveleurope.wordpress.com and look in the archive for last August.
Hi both
Loving the blogs. A great source on information and insparation. I think the bird is a Marsh Warbler. There’s a free app I’ve got on my phone called “Chirp” which is great for identifying birds and has their song as well.
All the best
Nick
Ooooh, I might have to download that as we don’t have a clue about any of them other than a sparrow, robin or blue tit!