A Stroll in the Woods - Karłow to Kudowa-Zdrój

In anticipation of some serious hiking, there's not a lot left of our breakfast feast today. We hope to catch a bus to Karłow but end up taking a minibus-taxi at about 8:15 to Góra Stołowa or Table Mountain Park. The driver, in German, tells us the road has 100 curves on its 10km route. He also stops to show us some of the rock formations on the way, including one that looks like a tiger. Who knew that my high-school German (which I failed), would be so useful? The fare is surprisingly high at 50 zł but it's holiday; we don't care. And we're there nice and early. The souvenir stands and snack bars are all closed and there are only a few other hikers.

It doesn't take long to climb the 682 well-maintained stairs to the summit although we do let some people 1/3 our age go by. As you can see, the rock formations are well-eroded glacier droppings. At times, it's very similar to the Bruce trail north of Wiarton, Ontario. But the views of the Sudetes mountains are spectacular from the top. Also at the top are snack bars, a restaurant, a zip line, and a large group of young students on an outing. We let the latter pass and again, have the park pretty much to ourselves. It's hard to measure but I think the trip up, around the summit, and back down is about 3-4 km.

Some of the 682 stairs to the top of Table Mountain

Rocks with Tourist

Rocks without Tourist

More Rocks

guess

View from the summit under overcast skies

Caution: Road Narrows

mmm -  more rocks

tilt

After you leave the concession area, they collect the park fee. It's 6 zł (3 zł for me). The path after that is not as well-maintained and we have to dodge a lot of swampy bits before reaching the steps down.

Coming down from Table Mountain

Restaurant railing in Karłow

It's barely 10:30 when we get back to the village of  Karłow so we decide to walk to Blędne Skaly or Errant Rocks Park. The trails are exceptionally well marked and practically impossible to get lost. I wish the Bruce trail had as many blazes. It's about 6km and we stop partway for a picnic of bread and sardines.

Walking from Góra Stołowa to Blędne Skaly with a view of Czech Republic

We pay the same fee as the other park and spend 45 minutes walking and squeezing through a labyrinth of tumbled glacier droppings.

An Errant Rock in Blędne Skaly

Chicken Leg Rock

Through the Labyrinth of Blędne Skaly

People like adding sticks to help hold up the rocks

There's a bit of confusion about how to get back to Kudowa-Zdrój.When I show our detailed map to the ticket collector and point to where I think we are, he points to a different ticket office. So we head off in the wrong direction for 600 metres before deciding he was wrong; we were where I thought we were. Once on the right trail, it's downhill all the way, again on well-marked trails. Almost all the walk is in the park and only the last couple of kilometres did we see farm houses before getting back to Kudowa-Zdrój. It looks like we walked about 16km (10 miles for you Americans) in about 8 hours with some significant elevation gains a few times. We're back in the hotel for a couple of well-earned beers by 17:00.

We asked for dinner at our villa again as we're enamoured with grandfather's cooking. The soup is the best yet. Gaby says it's cucumber soup but it's rich and creamy, full of veggies and potatoes. I must have had three bowls of it. There's a lovely side salad and the main course is roast pork with apricots, prunes, and raisins served with plain dumplings (Knödel). With my bottle of Carignan, it's a perfect end to a wonderful and tiring day.

It's not quite the end of the day. When we go to book a hotel in Krakow, our choices are booked out. Grumble. Clarisse has the brilliant idea of staying in the small town of Wieliczka where the famous salt mine is located. We'll make a day trip into Krakow to see the dragon and anything else of interest. Getting to Wieliczka from here will be arduous so we decide to spend a few days in Opole first to break up the journey. It takes two hours to research hotels, buses, and trains but eventually, we're happy. We'll leave this delightful place Thursday after six relaxing quiet days.