2017-08-13 Masuren Camping, Dywity Poland to Znin, Poland

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Masuren Camping, Dywity Poland to Znin, Poland

It is light and we wake early at Masuren Camping, Dywity here in Poland. Our heads are still on Lithuanian/Latvian time zones so an hour in front. No matter we will have a good start to the day.

Mr C. gets up to make the coffee and gets the new milk (bought yesterday from the crazy supermarket) out of the fridge. He is disconcerted to find that it is semi-solid and plops a large glop into my cup! My first thought is that we have bought milk on the turn. He sniffs it and it seems fine. All the writing is in Polish and unreadable. Out comes Google translate… we discover we have bought Polish buttermilk and not milk. A little more investigation on Google reveals that this is milk whey (what is left behind when milk is churned to butter) with lactic bacteria added to solidify the whey into something the consistency of yogurt. It is the milk equivalent of soured cream with lemon added! Yuk… the coffee is disgusting.

Mr C. has the last of the old milk in his coffee and I work my way through the buttermilk coffee, marvelling at the experience of travel abroad!
We breakfast on fruit and go for showers. The water is plentiful and hot and is a good experience after the buttermilk coffee. I muse about all that fuss at the supermarket for milk and we haven’t even got milk… I smile to myself and think that it is all part of the experience of travelling.

No servicing of Hymer needed today so we chat to the owner on our way out and get back on the road at Dywity by 10.00 am, we have a lot of kilometres to cover. We take H.51 south from to Ostroda, a narrow and bendy road but not as bad as some of the roads yesterday. We stop at a supermarket and I jump out and go to look for Moloko. I find ‘Mleko’ and buy 2%, it is real milk! We turn west on H.15 towards Torun, the roads are pretty good (for Poland) and we make reasonable progress. At least the roads are wide enough for us to fit in one lane and curves rather than sharp bends in the road. Years of starvation under communist Russian control shows that nothing was spent on Polish roads. Now, with everyone having cars they are trying hard to roll out a good road widening and development programme but it will take years.

We understand why they have the road tolls but still think there could be a better system. We drive for a couple of hours and stop for lunch near Brodnica. We change drivers and continue on H.10 to Bydgosczc. Here we turn south on the E.243 and then E.261 to a place called Znin, arriving about 4.30pm. The hurricane strength winds came through Znin recently, a tremendous storm that have just ‘snapped’ mature deciduous sycamore and elm trees about half way up their trunks. These are not young trees, their trunks are about 30 cms across. There is devastation everywhere. As we drive through the town, we see part of it is cordoned off, the church has had most of the orange pan-tiles ripped from its roof, exposing old wooden rafters. The shattered tiles lie on the ground for feet around the church.

We find the campsite and Mr C. has a little difficulty registering as she speaks no English (or German) and he speaks no Polish. He establishes that they do not take foreign currency (Euros) or credit cards and we will have to pay in Polish zlotys, there is a bank machine in the town, 10 – 15 minutes-walk away. Generally people are more than willing to accept euros, so we find it odd that they want zlotys. The campsite looks more like a war zone with broken buildings, the clubhouse without a roof, chain saws and tree trunks cut into 30 cm sections strewn about everywhere. We set up on a piece of rough grass, we are second here on a field by the lake, that will take six to eight campers.

Everything is so run down and dilapidated, even the toilet and shower block… it is in the worst condition we have ever seen, it must be at least 30 years old! Once set up, we walk into the town, an interesting old Polish town with market square and old cathedral. We find a bank machine and take 50 Zl out without any difficulties. Even here we see roofs without tiles. There is a fire engine in the centre of the town with about six firemen on the roof spreading a tarpaulin over the exposed rafters of the town hall and its tower. We stand and watch.

We walk back by the lake and watch the sun set behind the broken trees.

Masuren Camping, Dywity Poland to Znin, Poland photos

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Motorhome return tour from Turku in Finland to the UK via the Baltic States Poland Germany and Eurotunnel

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