Dawidy Bankowe, Łady, Zamienie and back

After two days during which I only managed around an average of 7,000 paces, a good long walk was in order. So I set off through Jeziorki, crossed the tracks and headed to Dawidy Bankowe, thence to Łady (pron. 'Wuddy') to hook round towards Zamienie and Zgorzała before returning home.

Below: ul. Miklaszewskiego snakes around from Dawidy Bankowe to Łady, taking a zigzag route. The road is narrow with hardened verges for passing.

I've commented many a time about how the flatness of the landscape and the overhead cables and wires give Warsaw's exurbs an American Mid-Western feel.

Below: further along ul. Miklaszewskiego, looking towards Łady. I get to the corner and turn left, into the fields.

Below: this is farming country. Many small fields lie fallow, but there are increasing numbers of larger, consolidated fields on which cabbage, potatoes, carrots and beetroots are grown. Sad to see, however, many potatoes dumped by the side of fields - maybe the wrong calibre for the demanding supermarkets. This field is in Łady.

The last few weeks have been very wet. This morning I was awakened by the sound of rain on the roof - which surprised me, as I'd checked the weather forecast on Meteo.pl before going to sleep - no rain was meant to fall today. The fields are sodden and this kind of walk can only be done in wellies.

Below: looking south-west towards Podolszyn and Janczewice on the horizon. It's around here that Warsaw gives up the ghost in trying to develop; it's still solidly agricultural, with pockets of exurbia like Lesznowola and Magdalenka between here and the deep Mazovian wieś that lies beyond.

Below: looking from the fields of Podolszyn towards Zamienie, and the new housing developments that have sprung up around the old BioMed vaccine plant that closed in 2004. The new streets are named after spices and flavourings; ul. Arakowa, ul. Waniliowa, ul. Bakaliowa, ul. Szafranowa, ul. Karmelowa.

Below: the white building is a block of flats, almost empty. If you're going to move out of town, you might as well live in a house. This development is not my cup of tea - neither architecturally, nor in terms of its town planning.

Below: the path that leads from the new housing estate into Zakłady Zamienie. Note the hexagonal paving slabs. Very little remains of the plant, to see it two years after it closed (in a scandalous state, given the biologically hazardous materials inside) click here.

Below: the abandoned checkpoint at the entrance, on ul. Zakładowa. A strange atmosphere pervades the place; to the west and north of it, new housing estates, but inside - silence, emptiness.

Below: the same checkpoint back in January 2009, five years after the vaccine plant had closed. There was still a guard on duty here.

Left: a drainage ditch runs right around Zamienie, like a moat. This is the section from ul. Dawidowska marking the southern boundary of Zakłady Zamienie. The house in the distance and everything to the left of the ditch lie in Zgorzała. Across ul. Dawidowska (behind me) are the Action and Pommier warehouses. One day, the S79 will be extended south this way.

Below: bonus shot from near the end of my walk - an EN57 electrical multiple unit - one of the increasingly rare unmodernised stock - approaches the 'up' platform at W-wa Jeziorki. To the left, you can see the new 'down' platform being built, and the gap that awaits the new 'down' track.

Good long walk achieved. Around 15,000 paces /12km/ eight miles.

This time five years ago:
Town planning and the Sublime Aesthetic

This time six years ago:
On the long road from Zero to One

This time seven years ago:
Łódź Rising