A walk through the wild winter woods

The weather is as good as it can be at this time of year. Crisp snow falling gently, temperature -3C; a proper Polish winter. Time to get out and experience it fully. No point of crossing Puławska and going to the Las Kabacki forest - too many Nordic skiers, Nordic walkers, Nordic joggers - one will not capture the essence of the season in the company of crowds.

So off I go by train, using the services of Koleje Mazowieckie, from W-wa Jeziorki to Czachówek Górny. My return ticket costs 8.04 złotys (£1.75) for a 33km (21 mile) ride. From Czachówek, onwards through the woods, entirely devoid of human presence, to Ustanówek, and from there, home by train. Total length of walk, a mere four miles (6km) but good to get out after too long a time sitting indoors.

I alight at Czachówek Górny, cross the railway line at Czachówek Środkowy and disappear into the woods. The atmosphere reminds me immediately of the woods around Bastogne, as portrayed in the TV miniseries Band of Brothers. Time to dig in, shivering, and wait for the German shells to start exploding in the tree tops.


Right: Other than the tracks of some hares or deer, the woods were without signs of life, still; no wind, just snow gently settling. The woods are outlying remnants of the Lasy Chojnowskie forests that sweep in a wide arc from the south-west to the south-east of Warsaw. Underfoot, the snow is as it should be - deep, crisp and even, making a khruu - khruu - khruu sound beneath my snowboots.

Above: crossing the Zielona river, to the south of Ustanówek. More snow is expected overnight and throughout Sunday.

As the woods run close to the railway line, I hoped to get a shot I've been after for years now, to pay homage to the illustrations by Jan Lenica for Julian Tuwim's poem Lokomotywa (below). OK, so it's an electrically-hauled passenger train, not an 0-6-0 steam loco with tender, but the klimat is almost there.

Lokomotywa has been a firm favourite of mine since early childhood. It is quite something to literally step into an illustration picture from a much-loved book! (Shame there was no hedgehog to pose for me.)

After a few days, Poland's transport infrastructure has adjusted to the weather. The main roads have been salted, the trains are running to time.