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Published: September 9th 2017
Bison in Białowieża National Park
Apologies for the poor photo but it was almost pitch black and this photo is taken with 8-second shutter speed.#23 – Slice the marrow, sprinkle with salt, pepper and olive oil, then grill for ~20 minutes. Serve with grilled ocypki and cranberry sauce (ocypki is Polish smoked sheep’s cheese).
There are few reasons for an alarm to be waking you at 2:30am. That’s more a time for going to bed than getting up. One of the reasons I would, and did, get up at that time, would be the chance of seeing a magical animal. I’ve had a thing for bison ever since seeing one in High Park in Toronto. That one was in a pen, which made me quite sad as it was such a huge majestic beast. I later found out that we have bison in Europe, but not many. There are about 2500 in the wild, most of which are in Poland. I saw Indian bison, or gaur, in Periyar National Park in Kerala, but they don’t look that dissimilar to African buffalo and didn’t sate my craving to see wild bison. The European ones look just like the North American ones that once roamed in their 10s of millions before hunters nearly wiped them out. The European bison is the biggest wild animal on the
continent at 2 m tall and weighing over a tonne; that makes them even bigger than their North American cousins.
#77 – Hollow out the marrow, stuff with turkey mince fried with onion, garlic, chopped fresh tomatoes and lots of fresh herbs, bake for about 40 minutes.
We picked up a Białowieża National Park ranger at 3am. After a drive of about 20-mintes we pulled over and our guide got out and immediately pointed into the adjacent field and said “Bison!”. Actually, he said “Żubry!” because he didn’t speak a word of English and thus was significantly cheaper than a guide that we could both understand (the 6-hours’ worth still costs a healthy £45 though you do get a private guide as they don’t put groups together). We climbed a viewing tower and only when aided by a pair of binoculars did we get a good view of the bison. Not because they were far away, at about 100 m distant they were the closest our guide said he’d ever seen them, but because it was still very dark and the large lens lets more light into your eye than your eye alone. (I know that from reading
#31
Slice marrow thinly, fry in breadcrumbs, serve with a cheese omelette with rocket and baby tomatoes from the garden. World War II submarine novels, like the excellent Das Boot, where up on the conning tower on watch they would be scanning the horizon with binoculars even in the dead of night).
#65 – Marrow soup. Just a bit of garlic and onion and otherwise all marrow.
We counted 50 bison and watched them for over an hour as they grazed and gradually divided into two groups, one going into the forest one way and the other group in another direction. That was the reason for getting up so early; as day breaks they head into the forest and are impossible to find. Whereas in the pre-dawn gloom they graze in the open areas. The darkness meant photos were almost impossible. I attempted a few snaps by balancing my camera on the edge of the tower, pointing it to where I thought the bison were, and setting the shutter speed to around 8 seconds. You then have to hope the beasts do not even twitch for that 8 seconds. The benefit of the impossibility of photographing them meant we were content to just watch for an hour or so as the little ones ran around, the big bull
Partisan's grave in Białowieża National Park
Polish partisans still controlled the forest when the Germans were knocking around in World War Two. glared at us threateningly, and the mothers just minded their own business. As dawn broke we tried to get a bit nearer to a group that had wandered off but they heard us coming and formed a defensive ring around the little ones before charging off into the forest never to be seen again. Apparently, such a sighting, any sighting, is uncommon and we felt extremely privileged.
#89 – Chicken, marrow and mushroom pasta. Fry the chicken and veg, add chopped fresh tomatoes and herbs, mix in some cooked penne and grate lots of parmesan on the top.
We did see a lone old bull later on but otherwise that was it for wildlife sightings. We saw bison prints, deer tracks, and even very fresh wolf prints, but no more animals. We were back at our tent in Białowieża village at 08:30 as everyone else was getting up and we felt like we had already had a whole day. Fortunately, the forecast thunderstorms had held off while in the forest but arrived now, meaning we didn’t feel at all guilty for having a lengthy mid-morning snooze in the tent.
#8 – Sausage and vegetable stew; the main
vegetable being marrow, but also a few potatoes and peppers.
The core protected area of Białowieża National Park is only accessible with a guide, the rest has abundant walking and cycling trails. Our trip to see the bison didn’t actually take us into the core area, rather it took us to where there was most chance of seeing wildlife, which at the time, as was correctly supposed by our guide, was elsewhere in the park. Therefore, we also booked a walking tour into the core of the national park. This was just a short cheap group trip with a park ranger starting from the national park office in Białowieża village. It was nice to see the old growth forest but the trip got a bit tedious with excessively thorough descriptions and history of every single thing we passed. The most abundant wildlife here are the vicious mosquitos which chuckle to themselves as you spray on the DEET then land on where you just sprayed and bite you anyway.
#16 – Chop marrow into cubes, drizzle with some rapeseed oil, sprinkle on some spicy spices, roast for about 45 minutes and serve with a rack of ribs.
The
Grabarka - The Holy Mountain of Crosses
An 18th century site of cholera curing miracles. trip began in Warsaw. Warsaw is one of the few places you can fly to directly from Newcastle and as a congratulatory gift for getting her new lectureship position, Magdalena’s parents had offered to pick us up there (it’s a 2.5-hour drive from Puszczykowo) and we would have half a day to look around. That half a day was more a gift for me as Magda hates the place. I, on the other hand, rather liked it. We parked in the shade of Stalin’s gift to Poland, the imposing Palace of Culture and Science, then embarked on a mother-led tour of the squares, parks and palaces. The Old Town is lovely. It was systematically destroyed in the war but has since been sympathetically reconstructed and restored. It certainly seemed worth a weekend.
#24 – As #23 but replace the ocypki with halloumi.
The main purpose of this trip wasn’t to visit the places I’ve mentioned and will go on to mention. It was a plan to spend August working from home in a place that actually has a summer. In Newcastle, summer is a myth. We are both very busy at the moment finishing off PhDs and both
Branicki Palace, Białystok
Apparently known as Poland's Versailles (I discover a few weeks later as I'm typing this). work better at home without the distractions at university of meetings, seminars, workshops, meetings about meetings, etc. In Poland, we could work from the garden, forage for dinner from the garden (hence the multiple massive marrows that tested our imaginations for recipes), and have lunchbreaks that included a cycle through a forest national park to rivers or lakes. I could also have one-on-one Polish classes with a teacher in the village. After a few days, we gave Magdalena’s parents a lift back to Warsaw airport and after dropping them off we continued to eastern Poland for the events described above and in the next blog (an excellent couple of side trips to Belarus). It was a successful trip. We both got papers submitted for publication and got a lot of thesis written as well as living very healthily (a massive marrow a day) and enjoying not having to get dressed in the morning in the morning because of the lovely weather.
#90 – Sausage and mash. But, you guessed it, mashed marrow rather than potato.
My flight back to Newcastle departed Wrocław at 06:30am, which meant having to spend the night there. However, Wrocław was great too. The
main square is gorgeous and there are churches seemingly on every street corner. Much of the old town is spread across several islands in the River Oder, with its banks offering many nice spots to sit and eat and watch the world go by. One highlight of the place was the Panorama Racławicka. This huge painting measures 114 x 15 m and commemorates the eponymous battle in 1794 between Russia and a Poland striving for independence. It was painted in the 19
th century and is now housed in a specially built rotunda where it is complemented with hedges, fences, artillery carriages and other props to give it a 3-D appearance as though you are in the battle with it raging on all sides. You have to book a time slot and I would definitely recommend it. Wrocław turned out to be an unexpected bonus; even more so than the unexpected bonus of Białystok in eastern Poland that we only visited as somewhere to leave the car and catch the bus to Belarus but it turned out to be a lovely little place. Until I get around to writing the Belarus blog, feel free to enjoy the marrow recipes.
#101
– Bonus marrow tip: always keep the seeds in for a nice bit of crunch.
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