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Published: June 13th 2007
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Komańcza
So we topped the summit and were in Poland. On the way down Roman stopped off for us to have a look at a new Uniate church (Greek Catholic) shrine that had been built close to a spring that never freezes, even when the outside temperature drops to minus 25C.
We were staying at Roman’s again and decided that we would have a little amble around the rest of the day. That turned out to be a fine little walk along the Komańcza village trail which goes into the wooded hills. There's lots of information boards along the way full of facts about the local area. It was warm again, but at 500 - 600m above the sea, the cool breezes stopped us from getting too hot. On the hilltop we had a grand view of the village below and the Bieszczady mountains beyond. Could this be our future home? We dropped down the hill to pass the site of the ancient Orthodox church, illustrated in my last blog on Komancza, which had burnt to the ground last year. It’s now being rebuilt, with the help of the Forestry Department.
Back at Roman's he asked
us if we could help with some haymaking, so we went out to the field above to poke about the dried grass with some sharp agricultural utensils and pile the hay into stacks. Our work was accompanied by the annoying screech of a strimmer used by an idiot neighbour who'd rather spend more on petrol and shatter the peace for a week than hire a tractor for half and hour. Andrzej, a lawyer from Wrocław and a keen visitor to the Bieszczady, turned out to have a lot of local knowledge about developments in the area - he worked particularly hard in the field. We finished off the evening round a bonfire with a beer and sausages for the carnivores.
On Sunday, we had a day to go out wandering in the hills. We caught a PKS bus up the valley to Smolnik, not far from Nowy Łupków. The little forest railway has been renovated as far as the edge of Smolnik, we noted. Smolnik is a long village, it took a while to walk past it. One house had some peacocks (Peacocks! in the Bieszczady! - how very odd!) - a bit ostentatious I thought, until we realised
Green Acres
View towards the Bieszczady Mountains from the hills above Komańcza the owners had come from India! We sauntered on, with a very warm southerly breeze on our backs until we reached Mików, (one of many villages forcibly depopulated after World War Two) and took the decision to go “off piste” on unmarked tracks to the summit of Chryszczata, a mountain of 997m. It was a gamble that payed off: the track was pretty clearly defined and the climb easy. We reached the summit ridge on a couple of hours and passed a World War One cemetery commemorating a battle between the Austrians and Russians. We made a quick visit to the top, because it was there, and with raindrops threatening, made our way back down following the Red Trail. We passed by Duszatyn Lakes, an important Nature Reserve. These lakes had been created exactly 100 years ago by a landslide following heavy rain. There were three lakes, but the lowest had been drained by a local lord, keen to get at the fish. These days he would probably claim to be a “custodian of the countryside”! We stopped off for some fine perogi at Duszatyn, before the short but stiff little climb over to Komańcza. A fine day out! We
got back to see Andrzej working again - and so he got the nickname of "Roman's Slave".
Monday was business day - we spoke with the council about potential for the railway, but learnt that the track was in a parlous state. It is early days still to depend on the line, and I am not that keen on being car-dependent there - the roads are used as racetracks and the annual death toll of 7000 in Poland is hideously high. I learnt that fact from Roman's relative who was visiting from Germany. We were lazing about in the shade, as the breeze had stopped and it felt very hot. Roman surveyed our idleness, and invited us to gather a bit more grass from the lawn that he'd scythed before the rain came. You too can be Roman's slave, where there's is great home cooked, locally produced food on offer at
Accommodation @ Roman Byc. That evening on our way back from the lovely viewpoint on the hill, we had some unpleasant comments from some youths, and a log seemed to have been thrown in our direction behind us. Not good, it reminded me of hassle I had experienced in the
Environmental Benefits of the Forest
It says here amongst other stuff:
...Point 7: 1 hectare of forest can absorb 140 - 230 tonnes of CO2 and 45-70 of particulates annually.
Source: Komańcza Forestry. 1990s in Poland. With traffic, strimmer and the village dogs' chorus (at 7pm sharp), it had been a bit noisy in the village. So, no rural idyll then.
Having said that - we did hear a wolf again calling in the distance on the Low Beskid range. A golden eagle soared above us on the first day. The countryside is rich in fauna and flora, and there is a palpable sense of wildness.
On Tuesday, we got up early to get the bus to Sanok and another to Rzeszów. Our Rzeszów bus had a knackered gear box in Brzozów, but it was a fortunate place for mechanical dysfunction: we were stopped outside a shop that sold doughnuts! (and of course Polish doughnuts are unsurpassable). The driver told us that a Warsaw bound bus was following and we call all get on that. Which we did. For some stupid reason, this bus did not stop at Rzeszów bus station like all the other buses, but a tiny one in a car park outside the Regional Government Office. Which was a sod, because we now only had ten minutes to catch the train to Kraków - it would have been
no problem at the bus station
next to the railway station. So we had to ask where the hell to go, and dash off - we had a plane to catch! It turned out nice, as we made it with minutes to spare, and caught the express to Kraków. Once there we had enough time for a feed at “Wega”, a great veggy restaurant at ulica Sw. Getrudy, before catching the shuttle train to Balice airport and back to Britain.
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