Until 2021, wild camping was prohibited in Poland. With the pandemic, the country decided to a great solution: 1-2 nights are possible.
An idea that should set a precedent: Poland has opened up hundreds of forest areas for wild camping. Of course, there are rules: You can only stay overnight in the same place for a maximum of two consecutive days – under a tarp, in a hammock or in a tent.
A project called “Nights in the woods”. You can find the areas on this official map.
We did it several times and it felt easy, because we did not have to hide.
A forest ranger who, while we were setting up our tent, past us in his car even came back to give us his phone number in case of emergency and on another night a hunter came up to us and just asked how long we were staying.
Of course, it didn’t always work out because the areas often deviated too far from our route, but we thought this was a great idea.
After every 5 days on the bicycle it does well to take a break. For the muscles and the equipment. So we decided to look in the larger cities for Warmshower hosts and found in both, Wroclaw and Krakow, some great places. We are so incredibly uncomplicated accommodated and felt warmly welcome. The Warm Showers Community is a worldwide hospitality exchange for touring cyclists. So we talked, changed stories and had some great meals together.
For us was cooked, we were given views of their cities, we could shower and wash our laundry.
Today is day 14 and we leave tomorrow. To the border in Slovakia, then through Hungary and into Romania.
We try to maintain a certain order, but it is not easy. We always carry just enough water for drinking and cooking. For washing, we use wet wipes, which we make a little damp. For brushing our teeth it is always enough, but for example our fingernails look pretty messy. So getting a shower after 5 days feels like heaven. If we knew, we would go back home after a certain time, it would not bother us so much, but there is no home anymore. The kind of dirt will change while the trip goes on. Later we feel all the salt on the skin and the dust in every pore. So we have to find our way back into this kind of life again and… we will.