It was a beautiful clear sunny day but cold at 10 degrees when we woke up. It soon warmed up and it was 15 by the time we left the campsite in Posnan. Posnan is in the middle of Poland and we drove nearly all the way to the German border along a good motorway – it was a toll but worth it! There were huge forests all along the way.

We diverted north just before to the Ujście Warty National Park – or the Mouth of the War National Park – where Warty is War is the name of a river. 

We stopped at the visitors centre and got some information on where to go for the best bird watching. We went out to an observatory tower where we first had lunch and then went for a walk. 

We walked along the concrete road past a pond with lots of grey lag and tundra geese and ducks. At one point they all got excited and huddled together as two white tailed eagles circled overhead. They then disappeared as fast as they had arrived.

We heard cranes calling to each other as they flew overhead. There were about 10 in the group.

They are called the common crane – and they are pretty common here as we have seen them in many places including flying over the middle of Gdansk and feeding in many fields as we drive along. In the UK you have to get up at 4am in the morning to see them. Glenn does that – I don’t!

We saw lots of other interesting birds, northern lapwing, curlew, herons and egrets. We saw a wheatear on a fence just as we left. 

We drove to the only supermarket in town that was open on Sunday and bought lots of Polish 0.0% beer that we have really enjoyed. The alcohol limit for driving is extremely low at 0.02 so you can not have an alcoholic drink before driving. So obviously companies have put a lot of effort into developing good non alcoholic versions. They create it with alcohol first then remove the alcohol. 

We also filled up with diesel at 9.28 zloties per litre. While we were here diesel has been under 9 zloties and even at 7.28 at one point. It keeps going up now after Trump’s big debacle. However the price in Germany is equivalent to 10.72 zloties so it’s much cheaper here in Poland.

We then went to the Kriztryn nad Oder campsite Osiedle Warniki. It is a beautiful spot – a farm on a lake. There was no one else here – the campsite closes for the season on Wednesday. Once settled we had a beer at the table by the lake. 

Glenn then went off on a bike ride around the area while I got dinner ready. He was soon back and pointed out a huge skein of crane flying overhead. We could also hear the dear rutting. 

Dinner included the last of the apple crumble – appropriate for our last night in Poland. 

We heard the deer howling and rutting overnight – or was it Glenn snoring? We will never know 😉.