Railway Dog

At the centre of Elk lakeside you can hire all kinds of boats. For 55zl (about 11€) I hired a kayak for 4 hours of pootling a fair few km round the natural lake. Baspie jumped right in and we had one of the best days together. He even got quite soppy, snuggling up in my face when paddling against a headwind 😂

Our quiet progress, including a lunch stop wedged in the reed beds, meant we observed much wildlife, particularly birds, including crested grebe, heron and reed warblers. Reed warblers have become my favourite singers, that range from frog-like croaking to high pitched trilling at great volume, yet almost invisible being buff coloured and small in the reeds.

Most startling was seeing a large brown mammal wallowing around chest deep among the reeds. The size of a pony, yet not one. I thought “that’s an elk, but do they exist round here?”

Back at the floating boat pontoon, Google Translate helped me ask the delightful owner if she knew of elk in the area. Funnily enough Polish for elk isn’t elk, but los. She said it was rare to see them but they are found in the Mazury Lakes region, even near somewhere as populated as Elk.

We followed up our glorious day with a yummy camp dinner and sunset walk. The mosquitos weren’t too bad in mid May as long as you didn’t linger or stayed in the sun.