A place in the country, everyone's ideal

As I mentioned last year, Ziggy and Zosia's place in Mamrotowo is a beautiful house in a beautiful village. And surrounded by beautiful countryside. A cycling expedition is called for.

The route is mainly off-road - or more precisely, on-road, though the roads round here tend not to be asphalted. There's a lot of forest track too, either damp clay (good) or dry sand (bad).

Left: Instinct suggests we head straight on. The map's too vague. We take the counter-intuitative decision and turn right, which proves to be correct. Destination - hardware store in Eksportowo Łomżeńskie, where Ziggy will buy 500 x 14ml tinlets of Humbrol Authentic oil paints for his front door. MC10, Polish Crimson (as per the Napoleonic lancers). Sadly, the paint proved unavailable.

From time to time, the sandy trails get too much for a bike. The fat tyres on my Cannondale mountain bike prove the better able to cope than Ziggy's skinny-tyred Kelly's trekking bike.

Above: This unasphalted road from Czarny Stok towards the main road was properly hardened and a good surface for cycling along. Downhill was a blast. In the end, we covered 35km (ie what I'd do riding to work and back, though without the traffic).

Right: The Triple Rock Baptist Church? Guest preacher, the beloved Cleophus James? Certainly looks the part (could do with some neon though) Looking quite un-Polish, the Catholic Church in Nowiny Zdroje.