Travels with Spaniels: New country, new currency and some very dodgy driving

It's three months and 6,759 miles since we left home in Darwen to set off on this 12 month European adventure and tonight finds us preparing for our second night in Poland, having crossed the border from Lithuania yesterday afternoon. Autumn is short in this part of the world and the chill winds are beginning to blow. We expect it to fall to -3℃ tonight so the heater may well be left ticking over to keep us all snug and cosy.

We nearly took her home but the pups objected

Yesterday morning we enjoyed a lovely forest walk with the spaniels on the edge of the spa town of Brištonas. Elsa was able to have a run off the lead but Max had to be kept secure due to the closeness of the river and its inviting ducks. We then headed South West on the A5, stopping at a Circle K service station in the town of Marijampolë to top up with fresh water. The countryside hereabouts is pretty flat and featureless, bisected by the E67 road which seems to be the main route for trucks heading up and down between northern and southern Europe.

Our lunch stop was a few hundred yards off the main road where we parked outside a church surrounded by just four houses. Congregations must be small here and the large cemetery looks set to cater for deaths for a considerable period into the future Hardly had we stopped when the pups started going berserk and we discovered we had an audience in the shape of a tiny kitten that was mewing outside. It seemed totally unmoved by Elsa's hysterical barking and sat placidly outside the van, happy to allow Neri to go out and pick it up. We were only able to leave after a good search underneath Florence, just to make sure it was not sheltering from the rain squalls that were now rattling our windows.

Another forest walk

We crossed into Poland late in the afternoon noting that, while there seemed to be all the infrastructure of what had been a closed border, the buildings were completely deserted. The only sign that this was a frontier were a couple of vehicles with armed customs officers leaning against them. They barely glanced at us as we crept through, being careful to comply with the 20 kph speed limit. We seemed to be the only ones who did as cars and 40 tonne trucks shot past us.

We rapidly came to the conclusion that driving standards in Poland were the worst we had come across so far. Speed limits and Give Way signs are treated by locals as advisory only and having someone in front of you is seen as an immediate challenge to creep as close as possible to the rear of the offending vehicle before swerving out to overtake, often in the face of oncoming traffic. Bad enough when it's a car but a little intimidating when it's a massive truck. However we were amused that Polish road signs warning of potential dangers had suitably added graphics to ram the point

Beware of pedestrians

home.

As we approached the small city of Suwalki we saw a large off-licence and felt it would have been rude not to stop and have a look. We discovered that wine is very cheap in Poland, even cheaper than Lithuania. Indeed, there were several Lithuanian registered cars in the car park. Having topped up with the essential red and white, we went to look for a cashpoint. Poland isn't in the Euro and having seen their very nice notes, I hope they never join. A quick visit to a supermarket for some milk and then we drove down to the car park of a local museum at the wonderfully named village of Stary Folwark where we had planned to stay the night. We had been advised to ask permission first but, on arrival, we discovered the museum closed at 3pm so we parked up.

The cash is very picturesque

Crossing into Poland meant our clocks went back an hour so we woke early and were gone well before the museum opened at 10 am. Just up the road was a trail through part of the Wigry National Park. Technically you are supposed to buy a ticket to enter the park but the office, like most of the tourist attractions in Poland, seems to close down for the winter so we enjoyed a free walk that took us through a lovely bit of forest which included a lake with a beaver lodge. We also stopped to admire the tall clay and wood bee hotels which were situated along the path. There were plenty of information boards in Polish and English which gave us details of the local flora and fauna.

Bee hotels

We headed south to the resort town of Augustow where we parked up by the canal for lunch. The waterway is an amazing piece of engineering that runs for more than 100 km from close to the village of Wizna in N E Poland to Belarus. Described by experts as a 'technological marvel' it utilises natural lakes and rivers to provide a waterway that was built to bypass huge customs duties imposed by Prussia on Polish and Lithuanian goods passing through its territory. Originally used by commercial shipping, mainly carrying forest products, it fell victim to the coming of the railways, in the same manner as canals in England & Wales. Today it is one of Poland's official historical monuments.

A plaque celebrating the Augustow canal

Late afternoon saw us arrive at the remains of an ancient hill fort near the village of Korycin. The old wooden defences have been completely reconstructed and a 1949 windmill has been added to the site after being moved from elsewhere. There is plenty of information about the original Bronze Age settlement, that was still being used as a watch tower in the 11th century AD. All in all it is a very impressive site which looms behind us as I type this. They have also been kind enough to allocate two spaces for motorhomes although, at this time of year, it is highly unlikely we will be jostling for space with anyone else.

Our impression of Poland in the short time we have been here has been a very positive one. People are extremely friendly, a family stopped to admire the spaniels and practice their English this morning. Even where people speak no English they go the extra mile like the checkout operator in a supermarket who helped me with the Polish instructions on the card machine.

Recreated defensive works on the hill fort

Some things have changed from the motorhome point of view. Having wild camped in forests throughout Scandinavia and the Baltic countries, we are now in a country where wild camping in national parks is not allowed and, in October, most campsites are shut down for the winter. We will be relying more than ever on our app, Park4Nights, to suggest places where we can spend the night. One of those places is a secure car park in Warsaw. We are heading for the Polish capital tomorrow, no doubt dodging the mad truck drivers on the way.