Field Trip Adventure

On Wednesday, May 18, two of us went on a field trip with our Cisie students. We arose at 5 AM and found our ride to the school here at 5:35. We were all on the bus by 6 AM!!! Our destination was the Bialowieza National Park in far north eastern Poland. Bialowieza is pronounced something Be ah way zha. There are some letters in the Polish alphabet that we don't have in English and so certainly this pronunciation will look funny to you. When I was here 7 years ago, there was no way I could say this word!

After about 90 minutes of driving we stopped for a toilet break. In the United States stopping at a gas station would be about the last choice, but in Poland as in other Central European countries, gas stations are required to provide clean and usually free toilet facilities. This one cam equipped with a helicopter which immediately took the children's interest.

I was amused to see the 6th grade boys gathered around a table on the porch of the building. They looked like they were practicing for a later stage of life when they will gather at the town cafe to solve all the problems of the world.

We arrived at the park about 9:30 and were met by guide.

Our first destination was the Polish Kings Oak Trail. This is a collection of oak trees between 200 - 400 years old, planted to commemorate the Polish Kings and the Lithuanian Grand Dukes. This is the last surviving medieval forest in Europe. It survived hundreds of years when it could have been turned into farm land or towns because whoever was in charge of Poland prized this area as a hunting ground.

Seeing these old trees for which there are written records as long ago as 400 years is an incredible experience. The trees, quite obviously, are older than the United States. The size is amazing too.

I also enjoyed seeing a quiet brook.

We are quite far north here and the spring flowers are just bursting from the forest floor.

After this walk, we went into the animal reserve area. This area in particularly protects bison, almost the only remaining bison in Europe. There are also special horses here that are protected.
I learned these are wilk.

I believe the fence is there to protect the wilk from the humans rather than the other way around.

Here is one of the bison, the Polish word is zubr -- I have all the keys on my keyboard for that word.

I also enjoyed seeing the wild boars, and particularly the new litter.

After obiad we walked to a nature museum in the park. The first steps were across a lovely little lake.

Then past the oldest surviving wooden house in this part of Poland.

And at last to the museum.

The museum has two levels. The first floor displays dioramas of animals in the forest. The second floor has dioramas that are enlargements of a what one might see in the forest. For example, one shows a tree hollow. A typical tree hollow might be 3-5 feet in diameter, but the display is about 12 feet in diameter. One can see how such hollows become homes to bees and bats and other animal life in the forest.

On the way back south we stopped at Grabarka.This is considered to be a very, very holy shrine by Orthodox Christians.

This video done by a TV station from a nearby city shows much about Grabarka.

We returned to Reymontowka about 8:30 PM really tired, but satisfied that we had such a great day with our Cisie students.