Walking and rambling around Podhale

Babia Gora We’ll drive you out through Spytkowice and Jablonka (on Wednesdays, you can combine this walk with a morning visit to Jablonka market), to the beginning of the marked trails at the edge of the forest above Lipnica Gorna, and armed with maps, you can either go west across the border into Slovakia, then climb north east up the steep side of Babia Gora to the summit, or you can take the track that ascends directly north through the forest up to the summit ridge. You continue along the marked track across the summit ridge heading east, and descend to the picnic area and car park above Zubrzyca Gorna where we will be waiting for you. Or, after your climb, you can walk down to the Ethnological Museum at Zubrzyca Gorna, and we will collect you from there. We charge 200zl for this full day trip which can also include Spytkowice Church, Garden Centre and Carpentry Shop.
	Picnic and walk across Raba Gora What a lovely walk, and it starts and finishes at the front gate of Raba 500. We have phrase books and dictionaries you can use to write a shopping list of supplies required for a picnic up the hill in a forest glade on Raba Gora, above our house. You can walk into the village and make your purchases, then take the Jan Pawel II marked path (and our map) and wander up the hill past the village cross, into the forest and along to the picnic area. A good walk, but not too far for children, although we can drive you up the hill as far as the forest edge if some of you are not keen on up hill walking. Lovely views, take the camera, but do stay out of areas of untended long grass and weeds: there may be snakes. You can carry on along the Jan Pawel II marked path as far as Rdzawka village across the Zakopianka, then walk back via the wooden church and art gallery on main road above Rokiciny Podhalanska, the path bringing you down through the village with a short walk along the 958 back home. Or ring us from any of the churches you pass, tell us which village you are in, and we’ll collect you!
Climb up above Kiry to the Frozen Caves You can either get the bus to Kiry from Raba Wyzna centre – about 10zl each - we supply you with maps so you’ll know where you are - or our driver can take you, 2-6 people, for 50zl. Our driver, or the bus, will drive south from Raba Wyzna over the ridge and across the plain where in summer you will see storks and their babies in the nests perched on roof tops and telephone posts. Ask Staszek to stop for photos anytime. Chocholow, a 400 year old wooden village, is on the way to Kiry: you’ll want to stop there for photos too. There is a general store in Chocholow if you have forgotten to bring water and snacks for your climb up to the caves. At Kiry, the trail up to the caves is well-marked and well trodden: you’ll see people aged 2 years to 90 years trekking up the hill. This is a full day out so take sandwiches and water. After your climb, you can either catch a tourist bus into Zakopane, and then get the train home from there, or you can pre-arrange with our driver to collect you at Kiry or Zakopane
	Horse and cart ride to Morskie Oko lake Our driver will take you past Nowy Targ, then round the back lanes of Szaflary village, up and over to Lesnica, where you can stop and visit a beautiful wooden church if you wish. Then on up into the Tatra Mountains through Lysa Polana Pass at the border with Slovakia, continuing on the Polish side of the border to the car park at the base of the National Park road up to Morskie Oko. Here, you pay a small entrance fee to the National Park (between 2 and 5zl depending on time of year), then either climb on board a horse drawn cart (summer) or sledge (winter) for a 2 hour journey (25zl each way, either single or return), you can walk up - about 3-4 hours, up the Tatra Mountains. It’s worth packing an inflatable cushion if you intend to take this trip. About a 30 minute walk below the lake, the cart will wait while you walk up and around the lake. It’s worth checking what time your cart descends of you have bought return tickets. There is a lake-side restaurant which serves wonderful apple cake. A glacier feeds the lake, so expect it to be noticeably colder than home – sometimes 10 to 15 degrees lower than at Raba Wyzna. Don’t wear sandals, and make sure children have something warm to put on and a pair of gloves for May/June snowball fights beside the glacier. The more energetic can climb above Morskie Oko on the slopes, or to the peak of Rysy, the highest of the Polish Tatra Mountains. We lend you maps, and will advise against this is the weather is not right. Coming down, you can either take the cart again for a 1 hour descent, or walk down at your own pace. Our driver can wait for you in the car park, and return you to Raba Wyzna via Nowy Targ town centre square (300zl day trip for 2-6 people, up to 8 hour day trip). Otherwise, he can drop you off, and when you come down in the afternoon, there are tourist buses waiting in the car park to take you into Zakopane town centre, via the National Forest road along the base of the Tatras. Flowers in abundance! The train back to Raba Wyzna leaves Zakopane at 17.33, or if you want to stay later and eat out at one of the many lovely restaurants in Zakopane, our driver can fetch up to 6 of you, either from the car park by the market, or outside the bus station (which ever suits you), for 50zl, or 80zl after 21.00. Or a taxi for up to 4 people from Zakopane to Raba Wyzna will cost about 200zl. http://www.gory-szlaki.pl/rysy.htm

Drive, or walk with, a team of Huskies up Chocholow valley A little expensive but very popular with guests: 250zl for 2 people for 1 hour gets you in charge of a small cart (summer) or sledge (winter) pulled by a team of Husky dogs. This is an energetic and very enjoyable hour. The owner, Pan Jan is a real Goral character! http://www.fundog.pl/ . If you go as a group, half the group will walk up the valley and back, the other half riding the huskies. We arrange the time and date for you, and our driver will drive you down to Bialy Potok at the base of Chocholow Valley, (50zl 2-6 people each way) In winter, there is a lovely, not expensive ski slope here with both beginner and intermediate slopes, which you can include in your day out, our driver fetching you at the end of the day. Or if you want to travel on to Zakopane without our driver, there are regular buses to Zakopane from a stop some 100m along the main road.
	Sidzina morning coffee We have arranged a unique day out with a visit to Pani Janka and her family, who live in Sidzina Mala, in the middle of nowhere. A private family, with 6 children all ready to play with yours, they have a small farm with pigs, cows, chickens, dogs and cats, and you can help feed the animals and milk the cows whilst you are there. They live off what they grow, and are always busy preserving and making food. Hard to describe, as every day spent here is different. You will drink tea or coffee with the family, eat home made cakes and Granny will have you churning home made butter with her. This is a day to experience real life in Podhale, to go where no other tourist group has been before. (Star Trek). In winter, Janka’s husband will tow you into the forest behind the tractor on a sledge for up to 6 people. This is a really unique experience. In summer, we walk into the forest and search for grzyby, very tasty forest mushrooms. If you like, we can stay in the forest and have an open fire BBQ in true Podhalan style. We bring the mushrooms home, slice them and lay them out in the sun to dry, so we can store them for cooking in the winter. After your walk/sleigh ride, you are invited back into the farmhouse for soup before we drive you back to Raba Wyzna. Your payment of 50zl per person is for the family you are visiting: we do not deduct anything for our car and driver’s time.
Chocholow to Zakopane centre walk You can either get the bus to Chocholow from Raba Wyzna centre – about 8zl each - we supply you with maps so you’ll know where you are - or our driver can take you, 2-6 people, for 50zl. Our driver, or the bus, will drive south from Raba Wyzna over the ridge and across the plain where in summer you will see storks and their babies in the nests perched on roof tops and telephone posts. Ask Staszek to stop for photos anytime. Chocholow, a 400 year old wooden village, is the start of your walk: can set off across the field track towards the eastern end Gubalowka Ridge. Before you trek off, there is a general store in Chocholow if you want to stock up on water and so on. The stone church is also worth a visit, and on the main street across from the church car park where our driver will leave you, is Chocholow Museum, a wooden house that has been maintained in the style in which it was first lived in, where central heating is a little wooden panel in the kitchen ceiling to let smoke out if the room gets too hot, and contraception is a bed for the husband in the barn. The track takes you south between fields in which, in summer, there will no doubt be local people raking hay. Your greeting is “Szczęść Boże!” to which they will reply “Daj Boże!” The track becomes a lane through the forest and up to a stunning view across Zakopane in the valley, to the Tatra Mountains. Walking east along the ridge will bring you to a lovely wooden restaurant at the top of the Szymoszkowa chair lift, on which you can take a ride down into the valley, where the horse drawn carts wait to take visitors into Zakopane centre for shopping and market. The train home to Raba Wyzna leaves Zakopane at 17.33 from the Main Station, or you can pre-arrange with our driver to collect you from the market pick-up point: 50zl between 2-6 people, home to Raba 500.

	Sunday walk up Turbacz to mass at 12 In the summer, we can drop you off just outside Nowy Targ at the start of the trail up to the summit of Turbacz. If we leave home about 08.00am, that will give you a good 3 hours to climb the easy, but in places quite steep, trail. You’ll need good footwear but children can manage the climb too. At the top is a small chapel with a huge natural amphitheatre where some 2000 people gather for mass at midday on Sundays. People come up on foot, on quad bikes, on horse-back, and on the way down, look out for wooden shepherd’s huts where the owners will have bigos on the stove all day long and you can buy a drink and lunch from them.
Kulakowy Wierch to Pieniazkowice/Raba Wyzna We drop you of at the start of your walk up on the Zakopianka above Raba Wyzna. About 10 km, the trail takes you south and then west through field and forest to the main road between Bielanka and Pienazkowice. You can walk in either direction and our driver will collect you, or you can continue west, another 4km and join the trail from Bukowina Osiedle to Raba Wyzna, which takes you north and then west, 10km, up and down into the village.
	Morawczyna to Ludzmierz This is a lovely walk, following a marked trail south from the chaplet on the lane outside Morawczyna. We’ll lend you well marked maps before we drop you off (no charge for taking you to the start of this walk) so you won’t get lost. Running gently downhill between fields, you are facing the Tatra Mountains all the way down to the plain so you’ll have beautiful scenery all the way. Local people will probably be working in the fields, so remember to greet them: “Szczęść Boże!” to which they will reply “Daj Boże!” Passing through the village of Krauszow, you join the country lane which takes you on into Ludzmierz. Visit the Sanktuarium at Ludzmierz church and the beautiful church gardens with the statue of Jan Pawel II. We can collect you here, or, alternatively, you can walk on another 10 minutes down to the main road, turn left towards Nowy Targ, and about 10 minutes along the road, as you come into the forested area either side of the main road, you will see a signpost right, to Goralskie Strawa. This is a beautiful restaurant with traditional Goral indoor bars, and an outdoor terrace bar, but it is in the middle of an old industrial estate so the approach to it is very odd, but worth finding, especially for apple cake and coffee after a walk. Again, we can collect you here, or you can return to the main road, and walk 10 minutes towards Nowy Targ and catch a train back to Raba Wyzna and home. The trains leave Nowy Targ for Raba Wyzna at 14.54 and 17.56, and take about 25 minutes to get to Raba Wyzna, with 3 stops in between. A single adult ticket costs 5zl.

Climb Giewont in the Tatra Mountains We have a wide range of maps showing the various tracks and trails people follow to climb the Tatra Mountains. Giewont, the sleeping knight, has a cross on the summit so something to head for. You travel to Zakopane (10zl return by train, or 50zl each way, between 2 – 6 people with our driver) then take a bus, taxi or horse drawn cart up to Kuznice in the National Park, entrance fee between 2 and 5zl depending on the time of year. From here, it takes 3 to 4 hours, following tracks of varying steepness, to ascend to the cross on the summit. There’s some rock climbing involved so you’ll need good footwear, but you don’t need to be a mountain climber to follow the path. Set off early, take suitable clothing (it can easily be 15 degrees colder than Raba Wyzna on the summit of Giewont) and footwear, water and a snack. Fantastic views! Don’t forget your camera. If our driver is collecting you from Zakopane, make sure you arrange a pick-up time and place, and take a mobile phone with you in case you are delayed, or in difficulties.
	Bukowina Osiedle to Raba Wyzna We drop you off at Bukowina Osiedle, on the way to Harkabuz, and leave you to climb back up over the ridge, and down again into the south end of Raba Wyzna. About 10km. Map supplied. Look out for wild boar, and locals who will haul you into the field and get you to help raking the hay.
Zubrzyca Gorna to Spytkowice Not for the faint hearted, a walk from Zubrzyca Gorna Ethnological Museum to Spytkowice is 18km in length, and traverses hill, valley, dale and forest. Take a mobile phone with you just in case, but we have friends who live at Sidzina Mala just to the north of the trail, and at Borowka towards the end of the trail, so if you get stuck we can easily find you. If you would like a guide to walk with you, let us know as our friend Jacek would be happy to walk with you, and take you home for tea and cakes while you wait for our driver to collect you. Give him 100zl between you all and his wife will be very happy. The wild lupins along this walk in June are spectacular. Our driver: 100zl for drop off at Zubrzyca Gorna, no wait, and collect from the Prze Bory car park south of Spytkowice. Or from Jacek’s farm at Borowka. Map supplied.