Hipolitów

Villages are there to be discovered; here's one that's easy to miss being off the main roads - the tiny village of Hipolitów (population in 2018: a mere 38 souls); bordered to the west and north by forests, to the south by orchards and to the east by the Czarna river, which has a tendency to burst its banks and spill over into the marshy meadows alongside it. To the east of the Czarna is the much larger village of Sułkowice, home to the famous police-dog training centre.

I called by last weekend and again today, to approach it from different angles and get a feel for the spirit of the place.

Below: a small farm in Hipolitów, as seen from the road running into Sułkowice, ulica Ogrodowa ('garden street').

Below: track running through the significant tracts of forest to the west of Hipolitów; sandy soil - birch, aspen and fir predominate. These are state-owned forests - Lasy Państwowe. Here and there, patches of heathland, where no trees grow, only low scrub.

Below: a homage to Ansel Adams' Aspens.

Below: descending from the forest into Hipolitów from the west. Unlike my local forest above Jakubowizna, there's no sign of recent tree-felling activity around here. Lasy Państwowe has felled as much timber in 2022 as in the past five preceding years.

Below: houses begin to appear, new ones at that - it's quite likely that the population has grown since 2018, with newcomers' cars bearing Warsaw or Piaseczno plates. The current online map of the local authority shows 24 individual plots - a mixture of brand new energy-efficient houses and tumbledown wooden cottages.

Below: altared states. Traditional wayside chapel, Hipolitów. Most villages around here will have one.

Below: view from the bridge, looking down the road towards Sułkowice. Note the yellow post by the side of the road, indicating the presence of a recently laid gas pipeline to Hipolitów.

Below: view from the bridge II - looking south towards Chynów beyond the treeline. The river Czarna flows north, eventually reaching the Vistula near Czersk.

Below: just across the bridge, around the corner, the border.

Below: if this were England, the building at the top of the lane would be a pub - the Royal Oak, the Fox and Hounds, the Crown - something like that; a place to rest my legs and sup back a frothy pint of ale before continuing my journey. A tin of insipid beer from a village shop isn't something I'd pause for - even if there were a shop here. Which there isn't, but then everyone has a car. I even spotted some electric cars!

Left: looking north from the edge of Hipolitów, towards the settlement's furthest-flung house. I am getting a strong vibe around here, that rural-USA-1940's feel.

Below: a bit more of that same vibe... a row of medium-tension pylons bringing electrical power to rural communities. The police-dog training school is behind the trees to the right of this picture.

Below: hard to believe that this is a river valley - the Czarna is down there somewhere... well before the treeline... Such flat lands flood easily.

Below: blink and you'll miss it - the roadsign to Hipolitów from  ulica Ogrodowa. The one way in by car.

One by one, I am visiting all settlements surrounding Jakubowizna to a radius of 5km on foot; still a few to go. Quiet, peaceful and pleasant.

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