Safe Return Doubtful

It didn’t take me long to realise that beautiful and unspoilt as they maybe, humid wetland forests are not my scene. The humidity and marshes encourage insects and birds, and notable amongst their number are mosquitoes. I had been alert in Scandinavia and rarely had a problem, with the mesh for the sidedoor, a thermacell discourager, various swatters, and a selection of spray, and roll on repellents. They snuck up on me unawares, and by the time I realised they were there, they had already enjoyed a fair quantity of the blood or both Roja and I. 

I had already changed my plan to reduce my time in the Baltic States, and I made a decision to be more radical, and move through even quicker. 

The idea of making it to the Sudeten mountains became immediately appealing, after all, the last proper mountain I had been on was at Pallastunturi almost 50 days ago; like the craving of a addict denied almost. One of the advantages of travelling by campervan is that you can make such decisions. 

I made the decision while reading on Wednesday morning in the gardens of Lūznava Manor House in Raznas National Park in eastern Latvia. I paused the book, took Roja out for an hour, and set off, initially with the idea that I would drive five or six hour days for three days, with the aim on the first day to get to Dzūkijos National Park in the south eastern corner of Lithuania, with the idea of getting a walk in their the following morning before leaving. 

It was another warm day, with the temperature around 25C; it hadn’t dropped below 20C the previous night. The driving was going well, thanks to some good podcasts, so  I made the decision to keep going, thinking I would get to just south of Warsaw. The Polish motorways are considerably emptier than the British ones, and the going was good. I gave Roja has dinner at the place I’d planned to stop south of Warsaw, and decided to get round the city, and stop to the north of it. 

I got to the town of Rawa Mazowiecka, and its lake, just after 7:30 pm, having driven just short of 850 kilometres. I don’t like days like this very much, but if you can get them done it’s a trade off, for a day in the mountains. I used Park4Night for the Rawa town stop, something I don’t do very much these days. It’s an app used by drivers of motorhomes and campervans who log what they think is a good place to stop for the night. Typical of this sort of app, that then brings many vans to what previously had been a quiet place, and it is no longer. Though the lake had no other vans staying, it was hardly a suitable place for a night stopover. On a fine warm evening car park attracted many locals socialising and walking, and using the food and drinks stalls. I stayed anyway. The locals had gone by 10:30 pm. 

We got any early start this morning again, with the aim of getting to the mountains. It was about a five hour drive, the last ninety minutes being on slow, narrow and potholed mountain roads. 

My other mission that I needed to accomplish during the journey was to get some laundry done. There are a few laundromats in the cities, but in the end I decided upon a Polish campsite just outside Świeradów-Zdrój. The weather had changed as soon as I started to gain any height, and I glad of it, even though at the tiered campsite the wind was strong and the showers heavy. I was the only person there, and having registered with the owner, I got my clothes in a washing machine that looked like it was from the 1950s, and probably was. I gave it an hour, checked on the progress, and other than soaking the clothes, nothing else had happened. The owner just shrugged her shoulders, albeit using ‘Google Translate’. It was time for another radical decision. I put the wet clothes in a bin liner, and having spent two hours at the place, drove on. 

Fifteen minutes later, and across the Czech border I found an equestrian centre that offered various sorts of accommodation, in the village of Ludvikov pod Smrkem. There was no one staying, so I called the owner. The owners are Dutch, so fortunately spoke good English, and made me very welcome. I explained the problem with my laundry, just hoping I could hang it somewhere to dry, then get it washed next week, but luckily, they had a modern machine and drier, and offered use of it. By 6 pm I had the first load of soaking gear in, and was settled in the van with a strong 4G signal (unlike the previous place) for the rugby later.