EASTERN ADVENTURES 2 – Floating through the Forest, and another woodland stay.

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We were kayaking on the Sokołda river on an upper part of the river that was not normally navigable, it being too shallow. Recent heavy rain had raised the level of the river allowing us to kayak on this quiet upper section. However, the other side of the coin was it was pretty narrow with constant tight bends. It was when we got stuck in a diagonal fashion by the powerful current wedging the ends of the boat into the reeds, that I was able to assess the depth of the river. A bit too deep and somewhat impractical for putting an oar in to shove us back in motion! …

…We had started out from Supraśl near Białystok, with kayaks in tow. Our host offered us the option of starting further upstream to have a bigger experience of the little Sokołda river. This sounded good. So we went another 10 miles or so further to the northern edge of the forest, a place called Straż.

We have been in kayaks before, but we hadn’t had the chance to navigate a river properly - only a short trip to the lower reaches of the Rospuda. This, as we soon found out, was very different. For starters, none of this lazy-river, lake type experience: the water was moving quickly, and that meant that our reactions and movements had to be on the ball constantly. There was no chance to just drift about. This is something we were going to learn as soon as we cast off from the bank: the current took us away, and within seconds we came up against our first obstacle, a low concrete bridge. It was then pertinent to make a controlled landing and to carry to boat and our belongings over the obstacle. Well, we landed the boat anyway.

So we swirled and swished our way down, stopping off when we came across a low bridge to manoeuvre the kayak out. We came across a good landing spot for lunch, a grassy bank, near the hamlet of Dworzysk; it was handy because there are few landing spots because of the marshy, reedy banks of the river. This would have been a great camping spot – but we had reached it too early and so would have to carry on to the village of Sokołda, which had a camping field a bit too close to the road.

We carried on that afternoon in the increasingly warm sunshine, heading south through a marshy landscape surrounded by the central part of the Knyszyn Forest. At one point we passed some very beautiful sections of river and even passed an eagle which was perched on a dead tree by the river. It gave us a baleful look and just sat there. Further on we heard and saw cranes as they took off and landed in the wet meadows. There are no landings or jetties on the river, deliberately so, to discourage mass tourism. At a micro-hydro power plant a small hand written sign was our only clue to get the boat out (it wasn’t obvious exactly where) to go round the weir. Slowly the shadows grew longer and the colours deeper as we edged our way through terrain that could only be explored by boat.

Around 6pm we arrived at the hamlet of Sokołda, and schlepped our stuff, tent etc. up the road to the field. It wasn’t quite the wilderness I had hoped for, but a shop nearby was open from 6am next morning. Doughnuts! We pitched our tent as far as practical away from the road and yappy dog (which belonged to the shop and fortunately was transported away when they locked up). We built a fire, which was very necessary to keep off the mosquitoes which went ballistic as the sun went down. Slowly the mist gathered in the shallow valley below and gathered round us. Kasia went to the river to fetch some water for some tea, and after her third trip (the first two ended up inadvertently irrigating the fire: cue for some moderately creative but vehement Slavonic cursing), we had a welcome brew. We retired to the tent after supper and settled down to our knobbly and chilly reposes but it was fine save for the odd truck rumbling through at 2am (short cutting to Lithuania presumably).


Next day we were back on the river wending our way down. Controlling the kayak was getting easier until we reached the very narrow section where we almost got stuck. This is where we learned/improvised the “paddle in opposite directions to turn the boat 90º trick”… After a bit. The weather was hotter and we were paddling directly into the sun. We had lunch near Surażkowo and dispatched the doughnuts bought at the shop: they were particularly good after this hard work! After we passed the confluence with the Supraśl river the river got wider and the bends were easier to predict and control. We even got some longer straight stretches to get some speed up, too, but the strong sun was taking its toll on us and we were getting headaches. We pulled in for a break and a chance to check with a GPS were exactly we were. Kasia went for a dip in the river, but found it a bit weedy, and it did nothing for her headache. Some passing girls confirmed that we were indeed near Supraśl, but subsequently demonstrated their level of decorum correlated very closely with their social skills, which could only be described as disappointing.

The next section was really beautiful. At Stary Most (Old Bridge) Kasia remembered an instruction to turn off at the weir to what looked like a stream but was in fact an old canal. It was very narrow at first and was festooned with low overhanging branches which put Kasia off, but I checked the map and reckoned that we needed to continue. We passed under trees with leaves of red green and yellow, cool in the shade of the woods. We were following a group of swans along the winding canal and finally emerged at a large bridge where the swans, seeing a dead end, panicked slightly a made a hasty about turn through the rushes and reeds. We pulled out our kayak whilst been gawped at by a couple on the bridge - I was relieved we had handled our boat competently to turn 90º and land at a narrow gap in the vegetation rather than just be entertainment for some tourists. We staggered out with all our stuff in bags and figured out if we had reached the right spot or not. We were back in Supraśl ok, but whether or not we should go any further along the canal was anyone’s guess. So we called the hire place, but it took a few attempts, and meantime the mozzies took a renewed interest in us. As it turned out, we had reached the right end point. We got picked up and taken to the bus terminus in Supraśl. After our hot little adventure it was just the time to experiment with some weird American multi coloured ice cream granules. I have absolutely no idea what flavour they purported to represent, but hey, it was cool and sweet, which was optimum for the few minutes wait before the bus back to Białystok!

Next day, after a welcome scrub and shower, we set off for Poczopek, on the north eastern edge of the Knyszyn Forest. We had a few days’ stay there where there were stables, and a chance for Kasia to have a good bit of horse riding in the forest. I took the opportunity to get up early and grab a few pictures. We even managed a hot walk in the forest and managed to triple our mileage by forgetting our excellent map. Nevertheless it had a bit of family interest – we passed the spot where Kasia’s family had once owned some wet meadows, now increasingly forested – possibly because Krynki Forestry were now the owners!

At the final part of our stay we paid another visit to friends – Kasia’s cousin Dorota, who had also recently moved out of the city. Their place was in the centre of the forest but very different to our first stay at Magda’s and Zbyszek’s. The house was brand new and had a sunny, open position in a clearing at the edge of the hamlet of Lipowy Most. Dorota and her husband had recently moved out of Białystok to live there permanently, and the change for them was so much, and so good, that even the rain felt good there. Perhaps it wasn’t like Pennine rain then: the thick clouds, incessant drizzle and low levels of light can be depressingly grim if it lasts a few days.

We went for a short walk in the forest and found a big handful of Parasol mushrooms – delicious when fried in breadcrumbs. Back at the house it felt very Scandinavian, with the modernistic décor and the addition of some atmospheric Swedish music. I was given the honour of being test pilot for some new cocktails being devised by Dorota’s husband; they were pretty good! Like Magda and Zbyszek they showered us with gifts of home made food and goodies so underlining the warm welcome we had enjoyed.

Next day was our last, and so we made our way back to Białystok and then it was the train home the following day. We broke our journey by meeting a friend in Warsaw before the overnight train to Cologne. Polish Regional Railways (now one of the privatised operators) provided us with a convenient earlier train which was absolutely fine if you were going to go for a 20 minute journey. Which Białystok – Warsaw isn’t; it is 110 miles. In fact, it is one of the few lines re-engineered for high speeds. So, in a inspired bit of reverse marketing, Polish Regional Railways put on a re-furbished commuter unit with a slight moderation of the a*se breaker seats of the 1980s and tight leg room. Unsurprisingly, the rest of the journey was much faster than this!

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Photos

Dawn, Sokolda
At 5.30am. Damp and misty.

near Dworzsyk
lunch spot on a grassy knoll; opposite is a nature reserve.

Kayak Trip
Kasia with our boat - beached on a flooded track. This was one of several low bridges to negotiate.

Dorota's lounge
Lipowy Most

Comments

[Łukasz]

Next visit
Next time when you will be visiting Podlasie u should take a road to Kiermusy near Tykocin. Surely you fall in love in this place. Best regards