So, we have spent last week in
Bieszczady, the most SE part of Poland. We had just a few hours of Sun, but other than that we had a nice winter - a lot of snow, almost no wind, and a frost - down to around -10ºC (14ºF), but not that cold for most of the time.
We were not expecting fresh snow here, but that's what we found. In some places it was half thigh high (or even half [censored]body part on the back, just above the thigh[/censored] high), but mostly just to the knee. I was breaking the trail, Marzena was following:
Have you ever wondered where does the charcoal come from? This guy makes it:
Together with lots of smoke:
As for someone living in the woods (literally: he spends weeks watching these retorts; not that he is so far from the closest village, less than an hour walk) he was surprisingly knowledgeable, we had a short, but very nice talk.
Sun was not cooperating, so even if we were surrounded by picturesque views, they all look dull on pictures:
There were just a sunny spells now and then:
Bieszczady are not high (most peaks are below 4000 ft). Some of the higher peaks are bald - which is rather unusual in other Polish mountains (apart from rocky peaks in Tatra mountains, but they are much higher). These bald parts are called "połoniny" - my dictionary translates it as mountains pastures, but I am not sure they were ever used as pastures. This flat white snow that doesn't want to have any texture is a połonina:
And finally, a picture for Andre - this is a mountain shelter called "Chatka Puchatka" - Polish for "The House at Pooh Corner", located on Połonina Wetlińska, it was about 200 meters behind my back when I took the picture above:
(
http://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schronisko_PTTK_"Chatka_Puchatka"_na_Połoninie_Wetlińskiej - in Polish)
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