Hot, Hot Day in West Pomerania
As I mentioned before, last Friday began with a quickie 32 km ride on Vado to Tuczno and back for breakfast. I am an early bird. The breakfast (with fresh bread and buns baked by the hostess Ewa) was announced to 8:45 a.m., so I was short on time. I rode the Vado on purpose: a. To see if it could ride off-road (hardly) b. To experience the Brix' ordeal of the day before myself.
32 km in 1 h 20 mins. 13 km off-road in 40 minutes and 19 km on-road also in 40 minutes. Poor Brix... She wouldn't have managed the off-road ride (we rode on-road only on Thursday). Poor girl suffered so much on the "washboard" gravel segment; me, too; my arms are still hurting. And I forgot I was fit, while she was not, so I was riding fast like a madman and she had to follow me, good it was the speed Vado... Poor girl! She appreciated her e-bike on hills, though. And I can tell you: You really need 1600-1700 lumen headlight in the forest at night; both of us had such headlamps, luckily.
I have shown you the Tuczno Castle before. Interesting place. The castle was built in 14th c. by von Wedel-Tuczyński family, who were subjects of the Polish Crown and were even fighting the Teutonic Knights! Tuczno was a Polish town in the Germany frontier area until the Partitions of Poland. (I was not aware of that until my visit there).
This is the Saturday's breakfast. The Friday's one was far, far bigger and with even more options (we breakfasted with a couple of canoeists). Scrambled eggs not shown. And those freshly baked buns! Ah! I braked in the garden at 8:45, when the host Michał was just coming with the pan of scrambled eggs! 
Brix said "pass" and decided to spend the day on leisure. She was very right about that as the future showed. Michał and Ewa, who maintain friendly atmosphere with the guests at their farm (they are urban people from Poznań with a great passion for countryside life) produced maps and explained to me what route to take for my Giant Trance E+ ride in the wilderness.
It was a hot, hot day. I think it was 35 C (95 F) with strong, hot headwind. The first part of the trip led through dry dirt roads completely damaged by heavy forestry machines. (The forest industry is one of the most important in the area). The forest teemed with wildlife. Deer were running across my path! I was so glad to ride a full-suspension e-bike with terrain tyres! After relatively short ride, I had to take the first stop.
Past Nowa Korytnica, I found the "forest freeways", the pride of local foresters (as described by Michał). These are wide gravel roads and are smooth! Unluckily, the surface is fine gravel made of very hard rock. It killed my front Rekon tubeless tyre. I was sprayed with the sealant gushing through the puncture!
What to do now?! All information on tubeless bike tyres claims a small puncture should seal by itself. And you can ride at extremely low pressure. I jumped onto the Trance and rode very quickly back to the camping-site in Nowa Korytnica. There, I sat in the shadow and started thinking. Then I reached into my pannier to find a "MTB pump" there. A miracle! The sealant -- given some time -- really worked! I was able to inflate the tyre to 1.8 bar (26 psi) and could continue the ride. The day was saved. Now, I can understand why MTBers love the tubeless...
The Grandma said the day before: "You're going to see the Castle in Niemieńsko!" I didn't risk riding the "forest freeway" again, and chose asphalt road. The Niemieńsko castle is in fact a post-German hunting mansion, hosting an institution for mentally disabled youth for past 50 years. The kids are taught here how to live and survive in the society.
Having met two nice farmers taking shelter against sun in some village (it was a very pleasant chat; they told me a lot about the area and also gave directions), I rode many kilometres via forest dirt roads (avoiding gravel!) to finally hit the main highway #10 and reach the town of Kalisz Pomorski (Latin: Nova Calisia, German: Kallies).
I need to tell you something about the history. The area I have been on our trip not only belonged to Germany before 1945 but it also was in the Germany-Poland's frontier area. Germany was convinced the Polish would start a war some day. Since 1930, construction of so called Pomeranian Wall, or a system of modern fortifications started. With the rise of Nazi, the area was fortified even more. In the beginning of 1945, Polish Army (part of the Soviet Army) was given the task to break the Pomeranian Wall. It was a slaughter. The Poles eventually broke the Wall at the cost of numerous lives. After 1945, the region became heavily militarised, and the NATO military is still there, having replaced the Soviets who withdrew (as the Russian Army) from Poland only on September 18th, 1993. The area is
less militarised now, and the Allies actually pay for their stay but generally, demilitarisation meant some economic collapse for the region.
(The fact NATO pay for their stay has actually resulted in economic growth of Kalisz Pomorski, specifically, as the main training range is in the town's jurisdiction).
At the "Stanica" cafe in Kalisz Pomorski.
I was talking a lot about "wilderness" of the area. Yes, there are good and bad sides of that. Good thing is you recreate in real wildlife Nature area, far from civilisation. Bad side is you are far from civilisation
Find an ATM there. There is a
single operating ATM in Kalisz Pomorski (you'd find more in Mirosławiec). Don't expect anything fancy from the "Stanica" cafe: ice-cream from a fridge, no sugar-free drinks except of mineral water but at least coffee was good. Want to buy bread at a village store? Nope. You need to pre-order that! (But you can buy anything you need in any of the small towns, which are sparse and far away). The phone/internet coverage is poor. It is hard to find a restaurant there, even in towns.
For all these reason, a farm such as
Satnatorium (exact name) is a miracle there. Because your hosts will feed you, ensure you can use WiFi, rent you a bike, and will provide everything you need. You just enjoy your stay! And you can even play tennis in Nowa Studnica, or rent a canoe, too.
When I was enjoying coffee and ice-cream in Stanica, Brix texted me: "The dinner is ready in 1.5 h. Hurry up!" No need to hurry. It was just 12 km more ride left...
51.8 km in 2 h 27 min (ride time). I was terribly tired afterwards but Brix and the hosts produced cold wine from the fridge after the dinner... I could not resist it!
The place of our stay with the names of all 16 Polish regions (voivodships).
This is kind of ugly country but it shows the smoke line. 
