Further explorations on foot from Jakubowizna, uncovering territories new. Across the DK50 northward I go, through Sułkowice, across the Czarna river and the railway line towards Budy Sułkowskie and then into the forest. I've not been here before. Soon after leaving the road, the trails become unclear, overgrown; in one place a bee-keeper has installed an apiary right across a forest track, fencing it off and watching over it with CCTV cameras. I detour around the humming beehives, through the undergrowth, picking up the track on the other side. It runs through low-lying land and, filled with water, resembling more and more a stagnant river as I navigate its fringes. After a while, I make it onto drier land.
Below: boggy ground – it looks solid enough, but the ground is sodden.
Below: The terrain starts to rise. The forest takes on a different character, there are more pines, the soil sandier. Strong sunlight streaming through the trees sets off that wonderful smell of coniferous resin, reminding me of summer holidays in Stella-Plage.
A footpath takes me further up the hill, until I reach the summit, at a height of 126m above sea level (and about 14m higher than the boggy ground I'd just traversed).
Below: view from the top of Hill 126, the highest point in the forest. Here, it becomes my sad duty to have to pick up and stow in my rucksack scattered litter including plastic water-bottles, a beer can, empty vape liquid containers and bits of broken bicycle light. I later dispose of these responsibly in a waste bin. How can anyone leave their shit up here is beyond me.
Below: the OpenStreetMap view of the forest (click to enlarge, open image in new tab and see at full scale). I walked through the entire forest from south-east to north-west without encountering a soul.
Below: ulica Główna (Main Street) in Ławki (as I've point out before, Ławki literally means 'little benches'). Note the amenities: a bus stop integrated into the Warsaw WTP agglomeration public transport network; a pedestrian-friendly speed limit; five-a-side football pitch, play park and outdoor fitness apparatus. Plenty of new houses; new asphalt links either end of this stretch of village road with Gabryelin and Biały Ług. The bus serving Ławki, by the way, is the L19, one of the L-for-Local routes that provide services across the nine poviats (districts) bordering Warsaw. As Ławki lies in the southernmost part of the Piaseczyński poviat, the L19 (which starts its journey from Pieczyska) goes further south than any other bus route in the WTP system. But Chynów is in Grójecki poviat; being the next poviat out beyond Piaseczyński and not bordering Warsaw directly, we don't get any WTP L- routes out our way.
Below: Ławki – where the streets have twee names. I've mentioned this phenomenon before in a
blogpost about Polish street names – full-on
Polnische Romantizmus. I can imagine a meeting of ladies in floral dresses at the local town hall coming up with these: from the top – Wild Corner Street, Spellbinding (or Bewitching) Street, and Morning Dew Street. These new street names are in keeping with the spirit of our age. Streets named after famous people or historical dates are so
passé.
Having missed a southbound train by a few minutes at Czachówek Południowy, I continue northward to the next station, Czachówek Górny, at the centre of the Czachówek diamond, where the Warsaw-Radom line crosses the Skierniewice-Łuków line. While waiting for the Koleje Mazowieckie train to take me the three stations back to Chynów, I snap this empty coal train heading east (below), hauled by ET22-669. This freight-only line is busy; a few minutes later, an aggregates train heads west towards Skierniewice.
This really is a most beautiful time of year; my favourite quarter – from the vernal equinox to summer solstice. It's worth making the most of days like these. Total of over 19,000 paces walked today.
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2 comments:
'Everyone's a critic' they say, so I hope my following observations don't come across as nitpicking. I'd be torn between Charming and, as you say, Bewitching for Czarująca whilst definitely preferring Wild Nook for Dziki Zakątek. What do you think?
Picking up rubbish during walks with our dogs is something I often do, setting an example to my son. I don't know if it's Harcerstwo or the contact with nature it afforded that has made even the thought of littering nature something abhorrent to our very DNA. It's heartbreaking to see how people are numb to such behaviour. And such desensitization extends to the way many people in the countryside treat their dogs. Iza recently reported one of our neighbours to OTOZ (Ogólnopolski Towarzystwo Ochrony Zwierząt). Here's hoping we don't find ourselves regretting doing so as there is a certain inclination amongst some countryfolk here in Poland towards feuding.
@adthelad
Czarująca comes from the word 'czar' which is a spell, or indeed a charm, so charming would be good here! And I like 'Wild nook' most poetic! Re: dogs - round here many of my neighbours are former police-dog trainers from the police-dog school in Sułkowice just across the way. Dog training classes are de rigeur around here; the human-dog interface is way more civilised than in Jeziorki!
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