W-wa Jeziorki: New asphalt for Gaj Żelechowski

It is a measure of how quickly rural Poland is getting on with it. Farm tracks, dirt roads, dusty in summer, muddy in spring and autumn, are being asphalted over, year by year, making life easier for local folk. Apples no longer get bumped and bruised as tractors haul the wooden crates in long trains on their way from the orchards to collection points. Shoes and clothing, cars and houses are cleaner.

The village of Gaj Żelechowski (pop. 160) has been provided with full end-to-end asphalt, so residents can now drive into it from the south and the east along a decent road. Below: at the eastern end of the village. Note solar panels on the roof of the house on the left; the government-subsidised boom is over. Those who got the subsidies (I did, both for Jeziorki and Jakubowizna) did well. I am still waiting, however, for my promised government subsidy for installing a solar energy storage system.

Below: photo taken from the western end of the road, 609 metres of freshly laid asphalt. I'm getting that rural U.S.A. of the 1940s vibe strongly, all shotgun shacks and sharecroppers.

Below: on the corner. To the right – Gaj Żelechowski, straight ahead and left, Dąbrowa Duża. Behind me, from where the asphalt runs out, it's 860m of dirt track which joins the Jakubowizna-Machcin road.

Below: from the south, looking north from Dąbrowa Duża. In the foreground, the old asphalt. On the map (below) this is the red line running north-south.

Below: OpenStreetMap showing the new asphalt (red) and how it connects with previously existing asphalt (orange). Note the right-angle dog's leg on the red bit, this corresponds with the photo above. Connecting this corner to the Jakubowizna-Machcin road will be a huge boon to local people.