pine woods inside slowiński national park.
visiting the slowiński national park in various places ( czołpino and kluki ) were definitely personal highlights! this national park is special because it has wide extensive pine woods ( covering 80 percent of the park ), several big coastal lakes and to top it all off, you get to experience a big area of wandering dunes, some of which reach heights of about 42 meters! i really didn't know what to expect of the landscapes here when we parked our car in czołpino and made our way to our first stop - the lighthouse of czołpino - but i was completely steamrolled when i finally realized what a gem this national park is! as soon as we reached the beach i couldn't believe my eyes anymore, i constantly had to stop and take it all in in disbelief and awe and amazement. i think i can clearly admit that i wholeheartedly fell in love with this place ❤
i couldn't stop taking photos on this trip and i feel like they really capture the ravishing beauty of this extraordinary landscape well. so, without further ado, let's jump right in!
the woods around the tiny settlement of czołpino were all about pine trees. as mentioned before, the national park is covered with them, basically making it the tree number one. i associate pine woods mostly with the baltic sea regions, as i've written before, their fragrance being most memorable to me. i was a little surprised though about the huge amount of bilberries on the ground! i mean, yeah, heath plants are pretty common in coastal landscapes, but i really didn't expect that the grounds in the pine woods would be covered with them in such a sweeping manner! i really loved how much more lush the woods suddenly seemed - in other places the grounds can look rather sparse in comparison.
a part of the woods that wasn't covered in bilberry bushes.
cresting the pretty steep dune on which the czołpino lighthouse stands. it's 55 meters tall! the dune was afforested to keep it from eroding somewhen in the 1870ies, which was also the time in which the lighthouse was eventually build.
looking back down the dune. when you reach the top of the dune you will have climbed about 250 of these steps, which was quite an endeavour, because they were all filled with very loose sand and it was kind of a pain in the ass to walk in it. for some parts of the way we preferred to walk on each side of the stairs because the ground was much more steady and strong! definitely not recommendable when you want to reach the top with kids in tow or when you are handicapped. and even when you are physically able, you will still be out of breath by the time you are there.
little did we know then that this would be topped soon, as we reached the fields of the wandering dunes.
the lighthouse was built in 1874 and first was lit with a huge oil-lamp that had 5 concentric wicks. you can imagine that they needed quite a good amount of oil to give off a proper light that would help the ships on the sea find their way back to the shores back in the day. they used about 3600 kg of mineral oil annually! these days there's electric light inside the beautiful glass top of the lighthouse, installed somewhen in the 1920ies.
until 1994 you couldn't even get to the lighthouse because it sat in a militarized zone ( there's still one around the corner, but the lighthouse is accessable to the public now ). i personally was very thankful that we could visit this gem of a beacon, i loved the romantic architecture! sometimes i wonder how lovely it would be to live inside one! it's one of my secret fantasies ❤ i imagine it to be very cozy and wonderful, always being able to see the sea from high above and the lands surrounding it
the rowokół in the back is a pretty solitary hill in this region. it's not a dune, but actually a terminal moraine - a leftover earth deposit of a former glacier perhaps. the rowokół is about 115 meters high. many legends are told about this hill, from evil princesses that denied her people food in times of hunger and got liquidated with her whole castle that stood on the hill in one sweep, to the hill being a place of worship for old slavic gods.
we climbed up the lighthouse and got to experience pretty amazing views! here's some part of the wandering dunes! a desert in the middle of green pine woods. and in the back, the blue vastness of the baltic sea 💙
the view inland. most distinct here is the rowokół hill in the back.
and pine woods as far as the eye could see 🌲
spotted the radar station of the military base!
the drum lense of the lighthouse is made of 43 prismatic crystals and it was really eye-catching 🎇
well-guarded - the top of the lighthouse.
back down on the ground we made our way through the pine woods to find the beach of czołpino.
every once in a while you would find patches of bilberries on the ground.
when the path got more sandy we knew we weren't that far away from the beach anymore.
those woods, y'all 😍 never getting enough of this typical baltic sea landscape! but you know what else will never get old?
these views 😍 we finally reached the beach and what a welcome it was! these eroding dunes had such an interesting wind corrasion! almost looked like rocks in the way they were grinded down. i totally loved the structure! this was our entry point down to the beach, which we walked for quite a while until we made it to our next goal.
down by the beach. the sand was soooooo fine here, barely a rock or a pebble lying around! and it was such a beautiful creamy shade of beige!
had to get rid of my shoes and put my feet into the water, waiting for waves to roll over them. one of the best feelings in the world ❤
strong winds were constantly gnawing at the coastline making trees loose ground and topple down on the beach.
i miss this place so much. the wind was heavily blowing around our ears, the sea was roaring like a sea lion and everything felt so incredibly alive and genuine and sincere. i could've spent hours just standing or sitting there, looking at the sea, taking in all its force and power. my love for the sea is immense, is so huge that i can barely contain it. 💙
smooth grounds, barely a soul around. the most soothing landscape that i can think of.
leftover tree stumps from times when the coastline was much closer to the sea.
incredible photo motive, isn't it? i think about possibly framing this one day...
i couldn't decide which one i liked best.
very round and very smooth pebbles littered some parts of the beach.
sand rye grass being moved by the winds.
we left the beach eventually and had to walk through a little bush forest to get to the wandering dunes.
young pine trees and eared willows were growing in these parts, which are called gray dunes. these types of dunes are more advanced when it comes to the growth of plants - you can find a rich vegetation zone here, finding nutrients in soil that's called regosol.
the first 'tiny' obstacle, climbing up a smaller dune. let me tell you, it was not a walk in the park! we seriously had to use the ropes on each side of the path sometimes to hoist ourselves up. soft, movable sand is indeed not very cooperative with human locomotion 😂 i imagine we looked a bit like writhing maggots trying to get on top of the dunes.
first obstacle conquered.
overgrown white dunes - younger siblings of the grey dunes and much more in risk of erosion.
the magnitude of the wandering dunes was incredible, and the part we had seen was only just a tiny part of the whole area! the dunes almost reach to a city called łeba, which is about 21 kilometers away from the czołpino dunes!
this landscape was absolutely magnifcient and it took my breath away literally every moment we were there - not counting the shortnesses of breath due to the dune climbing 😂
it was completely alien to me, even though i had visited similar landscapes in 2015 when my parents and i made a trip to the north sea island of borkum. i guess i just didn't associate the sceneries of the baltic sea to the much more raw and rough sceneries of the atlantic and the existence just completely knocked the wind out of me.
and though there were people around, it still felt like you were completely alone. it was a really centering experience to have been able to see this and feel a deep humbleness.
the sky definitely put on a show, too!
climbing the next big dune - this one was a tough one, we had to stop several times and catch our breath. i think the biggest ones of the czołpinski dunes reach heights to 40 meters.
enjoying the view after the successful ascent. ❤
what was also incredible was the change of atmosphere when the sun hid behind clouds or emerged back from them. it looked almost autumnal when the sun was gone, but when she shone brightly you felt like you were in the sahara desert!
such a moody landscape, i felt right at home!
under bright sunlight, with dark clouds.
some people suddenly made an appearance! the dog really had quite a time galumphing through the sand, he looked rather happy. i like this picture because it also looks like the sky is parting in the middle.
this could also be the scene of a western movie, don't you agree? wild horses running, bisons grazeing, the smoke of a fire lit by the citizens of a tipi village in the back. picture perfect!
this formation looked like a tiny mesa mountain to me!
sand rye grass drawing circular patterns into the sand, probably generated by strong winds pressing the grass horizontally onto the ground.
a last picture before we left the wandering dunes again and stepped back into the pine woods! we were quite exhausted from all the climbing so it was a true comfort to sit for a while and eat a snack at a picknick table in the woods before moving on.
the woods were so dense at times that you couldn't believe you had just been in a desert basically! there were even marshy areas with tiny bogs around, which you could only traverse via these overhead crossings.
the lushness of these woods was such a stark contrast to the bare dune fields!
pine forest magic 💚
found a little pretty dude! a longhorn beetle.
our time in the slowiński national park was coming to an end. while i completely loved this place, we were all pretty much oversaturated by the time we reached the car. it had been a lot to take in and to process! do you know that feeling when you soaked in all of nature and you don't really know anymore how to contain even more of that? that's what i sometimes feel like when i visit really beautiful places, i drench myself in it until i can't take any more and feel like drowning. that's when i know i need some rest and probably also need to make myself aware of cherishing the experience instead of letting the abundance overwhelm me.
finally, we drove to rowy, close to dębina, where we had a small walk through the harbour, some fish for dinner and concluded the day with a stroll along the beach promenade. it was a very low-key, but also very effective way to even out the utter gloriousness we encountered in the national park.
the boats inside rowy harbour were super colourful! loved this sharky one 🐟
the harbour was really tiny and very charming. there were a lot of fishing boats but you could also charter a cruise-liner for day trips out to the sea. the one in the back is such a cruise-liner, a ship camouflaged as a pirate ship!
the evening sun cast such a pretty light onto the port!
the 200 meters long port entrance. boats can secure themselves on each side of the piers.
rusty sunset-coloured bollard 😍
the promenade of rowy, pretty contemporarily built in 2016. it was a rather stormy evening, so we didnt't walk the entire promenade. it's so funny to me how a picture could look so very windstill, but the reality was the complete opposite! to be perfectly honest, during the time we spent at the polish part of the baltic sea, i have never before in my life experienced it as stormy as here! it often felt like we were at the north sea, rather than at the 'smooth and calm' baltic sea i am used to.
it was still wildly beautiful, y'all. i just love the sea. no matter which kind of weather. it needs repeating.
and thus ended one of the most beautiful days we had during our time at the slovincian coastline of the baltic sea. it was a real pleasure, and a day to remember forever. in fact, i miss this place right now. i miss the sea. i want to return to it so badly. i wouldn't even care which sea it should be. it's just simply my most favourite landscape in the whole world. oceans, seas, bodies of water.
next up, another personal highlight, the city of gdańsk.
until next time, stay curious ❤
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