We awoke this morning to wind and rain. The group left our rooms and met at the van at 5 a.m. to go look for bison before breakfast. It was an hour’s drive through towns and managed forest on a pot-holed road. The first place we stopped, it was a 100-yard walk in the rain through trees to the edge of a large field. Nothing in sight. Then Andrej drove a little further along the road and we stopped again. We got out of the van and immediately saw a large herd of bison perhaps a quarter mile away in the field, in the wind and rain. We climbed stairs to a covered viewing platform and had a great view of a slowly moving herd of about 80 animals, small calves among them. They were stopping to graze as they walked. Using binoculars and the spotting scope, we got great views of them. Then, we drove back to our first stopping point and walked quietly through the trees. The herd was moving past an opening in the trees and we had great ground level views of the bison.
We started to drive back on the dirt road through the forest that we had come on, but a tree had been blown down over the road, so we had to turn around and go back a longer way. But we were back by 8:00 for a breakfast of bread, meats, cheese, and small, warm fried breads that were a little like fritters or beignets. They were good.
At 11:00, we went for a relatively short walk on doesn’t roads near the town, looking for birds. But it was still windy and rainy and there weren’t any birds out. We returned to the pension for a lunch of cabbage rolls and mashed potatoes that was delicious and filling.
We left again at 2:30 for another bird walk, this one a ways into the forest close to the border with Belarus. At one point, the border was only 1 km away, but we couldn’t see it. No birds either. So we drove to another part of the forest where the original town settlement was started hundreds of years ago. There are some oak trees there to attract birds. But no luck spotting birds there either, since it was still windy. As we drove out of that place, we saw that a tree had just fallen over the exit road and we couldn’t go around it. So Andrej turned around to take a different route home through the forest. That road was also blocked by a fallen tree. It was beginning to feel like we couldn’t get out. But Andrej turned onto yet another dirt road that was clear, thankfully. It was the long route home but that was ok.
We arrived just in time for our 6:30 dinner, which was a delicious tomato soup, carrot slaw, fried chicken roll, and mashed potatoes. Plus ice cream for dessert.
Lori's Travels 