Two weeks in Poland

We spent a couple of weeks in Poland; not really part of the main trip, but more a chance for Sylwia to say her goodbye's. Here's a few photos:

Beany got to ride a child's quad bike. The bike belongs to Maciek, the 10 year old son of a friend of Sylwia's still living in Sylwia's home village Kolno (population about 1,000).

I discovered another use for my new water tank and pumps! I can wash the car anywhere now.

These are some photos from a route we plotted between Kolno and the nearest town, Biskupiec.

The landscapes around this area of Poland tend to be either heavily forested or agricultural. And there are lakes everywhere, some quite large.

This is a village we came to out of the forest - the road is still unpaved.

After finding the original route I plotted from Kolno to Biskupiec wasn't challenging enough I just had to go deeper into the forest..... and we got stuck!  The mud doesn't look all that bad in the photos, but photos sometimes don't really show it very well.  I.e. you can see the front wheels were half buried in the mud and they're bigger wheels than car wheels.

It was however a good test for the new traction boards.  With a bit of digging away the excess mud we eventually drove out on the grippy boards.  If that hadn't worked I'd have had to resort to using a winch, shackles and steel rope off of a nearby tree.

Beany filling a bottle of filtered water from the new tap.

After departing from Sylwia's home region in Poland the first destination was Warsaw.  The next few photos are walking through the old town of Warsaw.  Warsaw was virtually completely destroyed in WWII fighting and after the war many buildings were built afresh, but in an old style.

Our hosts Ania and Mateusz, whom we stayed with in Warsaw.

Further south from Warsaw, my attempt at night photography in Krakow.

Micky Moo and Beany eating kebabs in the centre of Krakow.

Micky Moo, Beany and I waiting while Sylwia went on a tour of Aushwitz.  I've been to Aushwitz 10 years ago and didn't need to go again.

Later that night at our campsite near Zakopane.  The campsite was quite basic without any lighting, though as can be seen here we have plenty of light.  Zakopane is a mountain resort in the Tatra mountains.  This was our last stop in Poland, as the other side of the Tatra mountains is Slovakia.

Micky Moo escaping from the tent.

These photos are from a walk we did in the Tatra Mountains, in a place called Dolina Koscieliska.  Miles and miles of stunning forests, mountains and rivers. Beany turned out to be a wee good walker - over 8 km to Jaskinia Mrozna (Cold Cave - six degrees all year round) and back, the last stretch to the cave up a steep hill and then steep down. He needed to be carried a bit on the way back but that's all the help he asked for.

This was the start of a 480 metre walk through a cave - Jaskinia Mrozna.  I was warned to watch my head height with Micky Moo in the backpack, but the warning proved really quite inadequate.  In some of the photos you'll see the spaces were so tight I had to literally crawl on hands and knees to get through.  It felt like a long 480 metres! But it was fascinating all the same.

Back to our campsite outside Zakopane.

While we waited for Sylwia to go to the dentist I just pointed the car up a random 4wd track I could see on the map.  The scenery is lovely everywhere.  The farm buildings in this photo are abandoned as far as I could tell, though the land is clearly still being farmed.

And finally here are some photos of Polka, Beany and Micky Moo walking through the main street in Zakopane - Krupowki.  After this we got in the car and headed through the mountains into Slovakia.

This is where we also had dinner the night before, following the walk. We picked a restaurant we'd dined at years ago when visited Zakopane with four-month-old Beany. Despite the location on the main touristy street the food was absolutely amazing. Highly recommended if anyone ends up in Zakopane - Steak Chata it is called.

Driving to East Poland in 2 Days!

1,600km in two days seemed somewhat optimistic but we did it. Two long days in the car and really only doable owing to motorways on which we could travel at 140km/hr, but Beany and Micky Moo were pretty good all the way.

The next few photos are from the drive across Europe, staying in cheap motorway hotels along the way.  (Clicking on any photo will display them all full screen like a photo album).

Our first night upon arrival in Eastern Poland.  This is the communist era apartment block where relations of Sylwia's live.

It might not seem a lot by Western standards, but they keep their little apartment immaculately and the views from the kitchen window are lovely.  They are surrounded by open land, grow their own vegetables and tend their own beehives for honey. Many Polish people living in the countryside keep their own chickens and other animals.  I think they are quite content.

Sylwia's aunt used to live with us to look after Beany when he was little and she's still very fond of him indeed.  Beany chatted away to her, telling her how to make loom band bracelets, and though she listened intently she didn't really understand a word - she doesn't speak English.

Biskupiec, just down the road and the biggest town serving the nearby villages.  Sylwia's home village, Kolno, is 15 minutes drive from here.  In towns and villages like this you can get a big delicious meal in a restaurant for the equivalent of about £3 (NZ$6).

This is Sylwia's flat in the tiny village of Kolno, which she owns with her brother.  Their flat is the two upper left windows.  The building is communist era (with concrete walls about half a metre thick!) and was the family home when her parents were alive.

Our expedition prepared Mitsubishi Shogun (Pajero) has been attracting attention all the way from London. Quite a few people stop and stare.  Mitsubishi and other Japanese 4wd's are especially well liked across Eastern Europe and Russia, where there's plenty of tough terrain (we spotted quite a few in the Spanish Pyrenees last summer too). Yet probably few people living in these places can afford such a vehicle.  I'm keeping ours under close watch!

The many tiny villages around here are separated by rolling countryside, farms, vast dense forests and numerous lakes. It's very beautiful!  In the next couple of days we'll be giving the car and our off-road mapping equipment a bit of a test run by navigating from Sylwia's village of Kolno back to the town of Biskupiec, entirely off-road through the forest.  It will be good preparation for Romania and Albania.  I've plotted a route that looks good and am looking forward to it.  The locals go into the forests around here to pick blueberries and mushrooms so perhaps we'll stop and do some of that too.

So, now that the big drive over here is done we'll stay here for about a week.  I have a few London linked issues to take care of before we start the main part of the trip and Sylwia wants to catch up with friends and family.

Water Tank and Shower - Part 1

There's still much to do, but with the main components now installed it was time to do some testing tonight.

In the photo below you can see the water tank and two electric pumps mounted on the wall behind.  Not visible on the other side of that wall is the heat exchanger unit, which is plumbed into the car heater/coolant lines.  The large pump is for the shower and it pumps 11 litres per minute.  The small pump will supply water between the tank and a tap - it pumps at 4 litres per minute.  Both pumps have built in pressure switches, so physically turning a tap on/off triggers the relevant pump to switch on/off. But I'll also have manual power switches to isolate the pumps when traveling.

The water was coming through the heat exchanger at over 30 degrees, but for complete control over temperature just recirculate the water through the heat exchanger until it comes up to the desired temperature and then turn off the car engine.

I got it up to around 39 degrees in about 3 minutes, which test showerer Beany actually found a bit too hot initially.

Waiting to shower.

Success! It works.

This was just a test run.  Once  it's completed. I think we'll have a shower tent to allow normal shower privacy.