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12-23-20 | 06:01 AM

#21

Geepig

Senior Member

Joined: Sep 2020

Posts: 745

Likes: 206

From: Eastern Poland

Bikes: Romet Jubilat x 4, Wigry x 1, Turing x 1

A trip to Pliszczyn

With the Christmas break upon us, I thought it would be nice to recount a recent trip we made, where one of my machines again travels further than to a local dumpster. It began the other week when wifie found a description of a new 'eco' trail on Facebook, replete with viewing tower at its midpoint. It is located on the other side of the city, in what is still a rural area in the downstream valley of our main river, the Bystryca. The city is creeping ever closer, and rural places where we walked 10-15 years ago have been completely consumed, so we feel the need to continue enjoying such places now.

We headed out on a sunday morning, the weather was mild for the time of year and slightly sunny. I gambled on finding a place to park at the midpoint, on a low hill overlooking the the valley, where they had built the small viewing tower and supplied picnic tables. This meant driving several kilometers along narrow and winding country lanes, which is the kind of thing I love anyway. The village was called Kolonia Pliszczyn, a satellite ‘colony’ settlement near the original Pliszczyn. These kolonia are common around here, with some villages having up to five of them, all neatly numbered on the map in Roman numerals when there is more than one.

We enjoyed the view, took some coffee, checked the maps and headed off, wifie with her Nordic walking sticks and me on Tigger. Dogs barked, chickens clucked, and a cat ran off to escape a local lad driving too fast in his Audi. The lane was good tarmac until we exited the other side of the village, as we rode/sticked onto the flat valley floor. Becoming gravel it twisted and turned between the drainage ditches as we left the last wooden cottages behind and headed out over the river meadows.

Tigger abandoned on the Pliszczyn meadows

The going was good for both of us, especially when the lane became a wide path and mounted a flood control embankment that crossed the valley. We could see dozens of golden dried grasses and reeds, with areas of deceptively green meadow between. Up until a few decades ago most of the small farmers here would also have a cow or two for their own needs, and these meadows formed essential sources for grazing and silage while their other fields were up on the surrounding low hills and plateaus. Now such cows are rare, with everyone buying their milk products in local supermarkets, and the only remaining impact on the immediate area we could see were the occasional rows of pollarded willows, from back when they were used to produce the raw materials for baskets and fencing. If you check out satellite pictures of the location you can see the outlines of the former strip fields on the meadow as they fade back to nothingness.

I could stop and take photographs, jump on my bike and ride ahead to the next viewpoint, while wifie enjoyed herself with her sticks. Eventually we came to a new steel bridge, to narrow for any motorised traffic except motorbikes. It passed over the river near a decaying and still rather large mill, somewhat reminiscent of a Constable painting. We love this valley, the meadows, the cornfields and green woods in the summer. There are no astounding mountains (been there, seen them) nor great oceans crashing on sandy shores (lived there), in fact everything is undulating when it is not quite flat, the roads wind or are as straight as arrows, and the only reason you may never see it is because you have never seen it in a great film. I have, and the film, Dwa Ksiezyce, is everything about the atmosphere that is so hard to capture.

Tigger tries to blend in with something more technological on the Pliszczyn meadows

On the other side of the bridge the lane became a series of concrete blocks, to take it over a wet and marshy area as we skirted around a second village, Turka, a significantly growing settlement since the 1950s for people wishing to live outside the city. The blocks soon have my handlebars rotating down if I ride standing up, so I wrench them back into position and sit instead, even though it makes for a harder ride with most of my weight on the back wheel. Still, since I am riding slowly, with frequent stops to admire the view and wait for wifie, it is hardly something I need to sweat. We passed a seating area and soon after the lane takes a hard left and we are making our way across the valley again, but with a slightly wilder and more agricultural feel. The few people we were passing dwindled to almost none, the lane becomes rougher with occasional stretches of concrete block paving, and some beautiful reed beds.

The sun, never very high at this time of the year, has clearly passed its zenith and we have entered a winter's afternoon. The end comes when we meet a tarmac road crossing the valley, with a kapliczka (shrine) on a low mound to mark the junction. Neatly maintained by locals, I spy a rake with a homemade handle and a brush stashed discretely among the wands growing around one of the three willow trees surrounding the cross and lanterns. Usually there are four trees, but over the years it is reasonable that one may have been lost.

The Bystryca River near Turka

We head back, not reluctantly as it still feels like an adventure, we stop for a rest at the seating area, and then continue on. While passing through Pliszczyn we kick a few windfall apples to make them roll down a slope, a simple pleasure we both share. Back at the tower and it is now buzzing, with five people our age seated at one of the tables and speaking loudly over their packeted biscuit and tea lunch. We break out our homemade soup and coffee.

When they leave on their much more expensive bikes they turn their nose up at my machine. It is OK, I have been there many times before, people confusing looks with performance. I used to attend various Trail Rider meets back around the UK on my home modified C70 trail bike, and the cold shoulders of the morning would become grudging admiration by the end of the day after I had outrode many of them on the more difficult trails. Books and covers...

#romet #rower #bicycle #wigry #jubilat #shopper #poland #polska

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