TET Poland – from Hajnowka to Zapora in 9 days June 2020

Starting the #TETPoland adventure

First time I have heard about #TET was months before this trip. 2 weeks ago it was still hard for me to imagine that it is happening and I will be riding #TET with Daniel. Now I look back and I am still overwhelmed I did it, proud, extremely happy, and missing the offroad.

This is our full track.

Full track view.

This is our #TET track.

The #TET part.

But let me start from Day 1.

 

Day 1 – Warsaw to Bondary

Parking at Bondary Beach

We decided to start at Bondary Beach. A place we visited just 2 weeks earlier and loved it. Camping located at the Siemianówka Lagoon in Podlasie, surrounded by forest and silence. Early afternoon on Friday we started transit towards this place.

The weather was changing during the whole afternoon and rain tried to catch us a few times but thanks to rain suits we did not get much wet and landed in Bandary seeing a beautiful sunset and thunders on the other side of the lagoon.

Teenagers were having parties on the beach, music was fading away when we were approaching our tent, camping was setting itself to sleep.

So many emotions, from joyfulness to being a little scared of the unknown were putting us to sleep. Although Daniel new most of the track we were about to follow he did not reveal too much to me, so there were many question marks in my head. Long day, excitement, and fatigue put us quickly to sleep.

Day 2 – Bondary to Supraśl

Birds singing woke me in the morning and accompanied morning running together with squirrels and roe-deer passing a road through the forest. Perfect day to start an adventure.

Somewhere on the trail

Daniel waited for me with fresh hand made espresso. We ate breakfast, packed camping gear, and followed #TETPoland. Day was hot although it was still quite early. Luckily for us, we were going through the wilderness, nature reserves, fast gravel roads, and just a little of open space.

The trail led us through church ruins in Jałówka, along the Belarus border to the old railway bridge. At this point, we had a longer stop than expected as we were caught by a border camera and had to be validated by border guards that came to the railway bridge. They validated our IDs and bikes’ plates, chatted with us, and let us go after 45 minutes. 45 minutes on an open space at noon, with the sun just over our heads.  That was challenging 😉

We needed a rest and fund it in Kruszyniany at traditional Tatar farm stay where we stopped for dinner. Delicious food, shadows, and chill under a tree helped us rest a little and enjoy this time having chats with other guests. After a coffee with cardamom and cinnamon, we were ready to ride. Silence, richness of greenery and birds signing were surrounding us the whole time to Supraśl.

During the day we booked a room at Petra Rooms in Supraśl and were warmly welcomed there as many motorbikers visit this place.

Nice evening walk through this small city, evening shower, and open-air supper felt like all we needed.

We slept like logs.

Day 3 – Supraśl to Augustów

Along Biebrza River
Lunchtime somewhere between whey fields

Waking up early in the morning I went for a short jogging to the river bank. The mist was still rising from the fields, Supraśl was starting to wake up. At the center of the little town, local entrepreneurs were setting up their stands with honey, crafted beer, plastic toys and traditional spit cakes made of butter, flour, egg whites and yolks cooked over an open fire.

Quick breakfast and we were ready to go. Knyszyńska Wilderness was waiting for us together with Biebrza River and new gravel roads there. Amazing surrounding. Nature was closing us in at every stage of this day. Getting closer to Augustów Canal humidity was rising. As it was raining there earlier during the day the road became slippery and muddy. And there came first heavy passage. 7 km of wet mud. I did my best trying to cross it but fall 4-5 times.

The moment we were stopping we were wet, tens of flies around us and thick air, hard to breathe. It took us almost 3 hours to beat this trail. Exhausted we reach Augustów, washed bikes, and sit at McDonald’s to eat, rest, and find a place to stay for a night.  We were lucky again. Booked a room not far from the city center at Augustów Summer Camp. After taking a long shower to wash away mud, sand and tiredness we went for some grocery shopping, ate a small supper, and relaxed at Augstów Canal.

Ended the day still smiling and wondering what morning brings us.

Day 4 – Augustów to Olecko

The next morning started as a nice warm day, we had no camping gear to pack so smoothly we were back on track. Road towards Olecko was nice, lots of gravel which I stared to love, crossing fields with cows and horses, tens of storks and grey herons.

Crossing the stream

Surprise came in the afternoon, slope, stream to cross, and mud again. This time I was not even trying to cross it. Daniel did this hard part twice. I was only helping him to push my bike through the stream and puddle as we got stuck a little. I wet my boots in the stream, covered myself with a mud from the back tire trying to find its way and we both emptied our power reserves during this struggle.

Wanted to visit a tri-border area in the north between Poland, Lithuania, and Russia but were too tired to do so. The weather was changing, more and more clouds were in the sky so we headed towards Olecko and landed there in rain. We checked in to Metamorfoza rooms and were hoping for a grill in the evening but the sky was covered with dark clouds, the rain was quite heavy and it was getting a little cold (or we were that tired). And again the world smiled to us. The owner of the property gave us a roof topped half-opened garage, brought us a grill and she made this evening for us.

We spent the evening hours eating sausages, drinking beer and trying to catch some rest. Rain put us to sleep.

Day 5 Olecko to Rydzewo

For the first time, we woke up and it was raining. My boots were still wet a little and I was feeling blue. There was nothing this day prompting me to jump on my bike. Had to fight this over. Espresso from Daniel helped a little, fading away rain did its job, weather forecasts were promising but for the evening.  No matter what, we packed and drove towards Giżycko. We had to find a nice coffee place to boost the mood. And we did. Fast track to Giżycko and awaited mood booster at Siesta Cafe unclouded the day.

Mood-boosting in Giżycko

Afterward we went to book a camping spot at Camping Echo in Rydzewo, where nice and friendly owner Basia welcomed us.  We have been provided with a perfect, close to lake spot for the tent, spacious shed that accommodated our two bikes. Checked in and went to visit Wolf’s Lair. although it was still raining to our advantage there were not many tourists there and we had a nice tour guide for a 2 h trip around the lair.

Wolf’s Lair

Came back to the camping place and welcomed a group of bikers setting their tents near to our. We had a relaxing evening all together chatting, exchanging information as we were going in the opposite direction.

We decided to stay at the site 2 nights, to give ourselves a little more rest, do the laundry and plan the next days.

Day 6 – around Mazury

It was supposed to be a rest day 😉 ended up with 130 km driven 🙂 but paved roads only this time. The day was reserved for sightseeing, light riding, and regeneration. Started in Owczarnia, visiting Mazurian Museum where an old lady walked us around and shared fascinating stories about exhibits and life on Mazury in XIX and up to the middle XX century.

From Owczarnia we headed towards unfinished Lower Lock in Leśniewo Górne to see where U-Boots were supposed to be passed through.

Close to the Lock, there is Mamerki Fortress with bunkers and 38 m view tower.  A nice panoramic view from the top of the tower is worth seeing.

Passing bunkers
Tower view

When we came back to Rydzewo we were welcomed by another group of motorbikers – a Pole, Italian and Ukrainian. Nice multicultural evening we had together, helped them with KTM’s leaky fork cleaning and we will meet again.

Late evening we went to sleep, well-rested this time, dry and laundered  🙂

Day 7 – Mazury to Malbork

When well-rested we were eager to travel again 😉 Our friends started early in the morning, we waved them goodbye and started the day according to our rhythm. Espresso in the morning and tasty breakfast.

Our first stop was to see Reszel Castel. Not too big but nicely renovated. From Reszel we traveled mostly through sandy roads to reach Malbork at the end of the day. And there at the Camping by the Pond, we met our KTM friends again.

Reszel Castel sightseeing
Our Camp by the Pond spot. Malbork Castle in the background.
Sunset in Malbork

A nice and friendly evening we spent again in the international company. Our plans for the next day were to stay on #TETPoland so we took a good rest before the final day.

Day 8 – Malbork to Zapora

Sunny morning, tasty breakfast, and our last day on #TETPoland started on Day 8. It was supposed to be an easy day according to our friend, so I felt pretty enthusiastic. We were heading towards Czersk. The whole day the trail was guiding us across nature reserves through Kaszuby. Early afternoon we found a perfect spot for a dinner #Oberża with delicious food in a big garden. We noticed to be pretty tired but jumped on the trail again. The fatigue came back two hours later when I simply could not make any more on sand. Although the surrounding was stunning, forest, nobody else on the trail, the silence around and pure nature my body refused to take on more. I stopped, needing to rest and first tears came down my cheeks. This was the moment we knew it is time to plan going home.

Still enthusiastic to cross sand 😉
A few hours later it was too much

We reached the nearest road and headed towards the planned camping spot at Brda River Dam. 10 kilometers before we noticed a strong storm closing. Jumped into rain suits we reached the spot. For the next 2 hours, we were unable to set up the tent due to heavy rain. The shed we sat under was leaking, our motorcycle covers happened to be not water-resistant.  Again I had wet boots, we run out of gas in the last canister. Home was strongly calling for us 😉

When we finally managed to put ourselves to sleep, supported earlier by other campers with gas, home was in our dreams and a road back.

Day 9 – Zapora – home

Morning welcomed us with a very cloudy sky and slight rain. The first thing to figure out was how to secure my foot having wet boots although tried to try them in the evening.

Sidi on fire 😉

Plastic bags have been very helpful. Having no more gas we promptly packed our camping gear and headed towards the first gas station to refuel bikes and have breakfast and coffee.

Our transit home begun. The first stop was in Toruń were we had a nice Italian dinner with my daughter. The last part of the trip was to take the last 200 km back home. It was a hard trip back. My shoulders were aching, so I had to stop every 60 km to take at least a short rest. Some 50-60 km from home Daniel was beaten by a gadfly, another mandatory stop as I needed to take care of his arm.

Mandator gadfly stop

When we happily reached our garage we took the gear upstairs, left dirty bikes for the next day to clean them, and enjoyed being home sweet home.

The trip was stunning, beautiful surroundings, nature at hand, perfectly working bikes, new friends, new skills, new limits crossed. I even could not dream it will be so wonderful. Now a few days later we are awaiting the next trip, this tension that builds a few days before the start date, new adventure to encounter, new places, and friends waiting for us.

And when the day will come, we will sit on our bikes, packed and ready to say “let’s go”.

Will keep you posted again soon.

If you feel like watching our photos just click here: TET Poland 19-27.06.2020

Trip in numbers:

  • 9 days on the road from Friday afternoon to Saturday evening week later
  • 1760 km driven
  • 1005 km on #TETPoland
  • 7 nights in different places – 5 camping stays, 3 room stays
  • 1 double night stay
  • two 110 ml gas canisters for cooking (too little)
  • 7 visits on gas station

Stay tuned for videos coming in on our Facebook page JustOurWays

Or just play the playlist:TET Poland 19-27.06.2020

 

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