17th Sept
2015
What a terrible
drive – Most of it, anyway
We were hoping to
meet up with Tomasz for lunch today, but unfortunately he got a last minute
meeting call, and had to take a rain check.
No problem – Tomasz, if you are reading this, thank you for your
hospitality and we owe you a dinner in Australia – Next year ? So we had a long pack up, got lots of
internet done, and eventually left the camp site at about noon, and made our
way out of Warsaw.
It really is a
pretty desperate road, especially for the first 2/3rds. Once we got out of Warsaw suburbs (which took
a while, and they don’t look like much fun), We stopped at an enormous shopping
centre for some much needed groceries, wine, and beer (our cellar is small, so
needs re-stocking frequently !), and eventually got on a freeway with only
about 260 kms to Krakow, we thought we would be there in about 3 hours – WRONG
!!!
Near a place
called Radom we got into built up areas again, and it was 90 kmh, 70 kmh, 50
kmh, 90 kmh, 50 kmh, up and down, with zebra crossings where pedestrians have
the right of way (and take it, looking neither left nor right while they cross
!), and trucks EVERYWHERE. We agreed
that we haven’t seen to many trucks since we were in Columbia – They are just
everywhere. Whether they are coming from
western Europe, or Russia, or just operating within Poland, I don’t know, but
there are so many of them. The truckies
are actually pretty good – The car drivers in Poland are MUCh more aggressive,
especially after Scandinavia where they all obey road signs and speed limits
and double white lines without question.
Here, we are almost back to the S American system – You can do anything
you want as long as the cops don’t see you.
Not a problem, just interesting……..
From Radom to Kielce
it was basically built up all the way.
Just a miserable road to drive, braking, accelerating, stopping, etc
etc. Then we got into roadworks, and it
seems that they are building a new road from Warsaw to Krakow, all at one time
!! There are bridges with no roads
leading up to them. There are roads
leading up to bridges, but no bridge yet over the road. And there are trucks everywhere. Once again, not much fun.
Then it started to improve a little, with a bit of
freeway, then more roadworks, then a little bit of freeway, and more
roadworks. And then we came over a hill
just south of Jedrzejow, and there was the most amazing quilt of colours of
ploughed fields, all in neat rows, as if each row belonged to a different farmer. It was truly one of the most amazing views of
our trip, because it was so unexpected.
And of course, being unexpected, the camera was down on the floor, and
by the time we had it cocked and primed, we were at the bottom of the hill and
the amazing kaleidoscope of colours and patterns for as far as the eye could
see were gone. It was tempting to turn
back – But we didn’t ! So we got a few
follow up photos that do not begin to show what we saw, but that’s life !
From here on, the
scenery was totally different from anything we had seen up north. We were almost speechless – The change was SO
radical and sudden. And it was
beautiful. Lots of rolling fields,
farmers working in them and burning off small piles of waste. Large haystacks all around. Really very
pleasant.
All day had been
hot. We work up to a clear blue sky
(again !), and when we were leaving Warsaw it was 32 deg C. We had
We had found a
campsite on our Maps.me mapping programme, and in Garmin, but one never knows
whether these still exist, or are open, or what they are like. Normally as one approaches a town you start
to see camping signs, and you can relax.
This time, nothing. So we were
starting to get a bit nervous as we negotiated Rush Hour in Krakow at about
6.30 pm. We were getting tired, as it
had been a long hot drive, so as we got closer and closer to the supposed camping
spot, we got more concerned. Suddenly,
as we round the last corner before the supposed turning, there was a sign
! Relief. Went up the little lane and there was a nice
little camp site. We are about 4 kms
outside Krakow centre, and there are buses and trams from right outside, so
tomorrow we shall go in and explore.
We set up camp in
the dusk (nights are getting shorter as we get further south), had our supper,
and after checking the weather forecast for tomorrow (fine !!), we turned
in.
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