Viamigo

(medium difficulty bike tour - 28km)

Total Riding Hours: 4h

Departure Time: 09:00 AM

Estimated Time of Return: 18:00 PM

What to Bring: mountain bike, hiking boots covering ankle are recommended - risk of viper encounter, day pack, 1,5 litre of water, rain gear, sun hat and camera.

What is Included: Transport, one fully-equipped and experienced guide.

It takes about half an hour to get from Słupsk (railway station and bus station) to Smołdziński Las - very little village hidden among forests and dunes of Słowiński National Park - the unique area of wild flora, beautiful lakes, and moving dunes (huge sand masses shifted every year by wind few centimetres from west to east). Day by day dunes engulf trees, old buildings, lakes and rivers creating mysterious and mystic landscape shaped by wind, sand and water. Smołdziński Las is the best starting point for tours in the area. In summer that isolated village of few cottages becomes lovely touristic centre vibrant with life. Photographers, travellers, and artists come here to look for unusual sensations in wilderness. Delicious smoked el or trout is a specialty of local fishermen and farmers but you won't buy it in restaurant - you have to be guest or friend of locals - they prepare it especially for you. First, we climb up one of the highest hills in the area - The Czołpiński Dune with picturesque and relic lighthouse on its top (built in 1875). The marvellous view from the lighthouse's balcony (it's open for tourists) will be reward for the climbing effort. What we can see from the top is a kind of live map: white dunes poking out from forest like mountain tops, glittering lakes, distant villages, Baltic Sea and boundless forests. We ride easily and quickly down hill along coast to visit remnants of abandoned military unit set up during communistic period of cold war. On the top of a dune there are stands of missiles targeted on Bornholm (Danish island on the Baltic Sea which was supposed to be gigantic American air force base). You can get inside bunker and see control centre, radar installations etc. After riding concrete road snaking between dunes and low pine forests we arrive to our destination. It's almost sure we see a deer, eagle or some other rare bird species on the way. Sunken forest is fragment of beach where old Precambrian forest was flooded by the sea. Roots systems and stumps was preserved in salt water and stick out like rocks. They make the place eerie and spooky especially in the evening. Great and wide beach is perfect place for bathing and sunbathing.