| - I'd read the Lonely Planet guidebook for Poland and decided that one of the few places I wanted to visit was this valley as it has old castles and doesn't involve travelling 3 hours to get to. The bus to Krakow was OK, but after that I had real big problems finding a the bus to Ojcow .. people kept sending me to this place and then anothet etc. etc. ... after 3 hours I was on a bus to Skala. I hitched and it was after 4pm when I arrived at Skala Castle. It was OK but not great.
- I ended up walking 10Km with my big backpack, the bloody people who designed the footpaths in the National park don't walk much ..they sent the walkers up and down, whereas the road goes along the valley bottom. I followed the road for 4 Km then it sent me up to an old church with a view. You come back down and turn south into the Ojcow valley I walked 3Km down to the castle, but it was virtually dark when I arrived. - I had planned to stay at a guesthouse 1Km up the road ... I had reasoned it would be a good atmosphere to stay in the countryside and meet some Polish people, but when I arrived at the guesthouse it was full of a big Polish birthday party and there were no beds available.
- I walked upto the campground. It was not a good experience it was deserted there was was no one to take my money so the next day I left some money under the windscreen wiper.
- as I walked down from the campground the bus leaving passed me. I had to walk a 3Km path to intersect the highway out of Skala. I was back at the hostel in Krakow by lunchtime.
|