I love hiking. I was lucky to grow up in the south of Poland, close to Silesian Beskids Mountains, and hiking was one of our favourite choices for a weekend family daytrip. Now that I thoroughly enjoy living in London, one of the things I miss the most are mountain trails. When I flew back home to spend Easter holidays with my family, we managed to organise a hiking daytrip and went on Barania Gora – the second highest peak of Silesian Beskids mountain range.

We parked the car in Wisla Czarne, near the dam on Vistula River. From there, we walked to where the black hiking trail started (hiking trails in Poland are marked with a few chosen colours, typically painted on trees). The initial part of the walk was flat and ran on tarmac surface along White Vistula River, with minimal incline.

After a long while, the trail directed us into the woods, onto a rocky path with greater incline. These sorts of nature paths are my favourite when hiking – after all, a nature walk isn’t ideal when you’re walking on manmade tarmac!

After about 2 hours since leaving the car, we reached the PTTK Shelter Przysłop pod Baranią Górą. I completely forgot to take photos there, what a shame! Polish mountains are known for their Shelters – there are plenty of those scattered around all of Polish mountain ranges. Typically, they’re hostels combined with restaurants. For those planning a longer journey through the mountains, they provide sleeping space. For others, they are a place where you can get refreshments and food. A lot of those shelters have transformed in the recent years, to match the expectations of the 21st century travellers.

We had lunch at the shelter. All of the food the shelter offered looked amazing and it was tough to make my choice. I went for a grilled chicken breast with chips and a side salad – it was delicious! One thing to keep in mind is that prices in those PTTK mountain shelters are much higher than in the city. Which makes sense, I guess – getting supplies to a hostel or restaurant located in the middle of the mountains takes a bit more effort.

After a bit of a break and a filling lunch, we embarked on the rest of the hike. We followed the red trail towards Barania Gora peak.

We have a running joke in the family around finding patches of snow during our hikes. It started one day in the past when we went on a hike in hot weather and ended up walking through the show closer to the mountain peak. It was a busy day in the mountains and most people were stunned, shouting “Quick! Take a photo!”. Every time we encounter leftover snow in the mountains now, we take a photo. Here’s one we found.

Around an hour after we left Przysłop Shelter, we saw the goal of our journey – the peak of Barania Gora, the second highest peak of Silesian Beskids, at 1220 metres above sea level. There’s an old viewing platform on the mountain peak, from which you can enjoy a beautiful 360° panorama of the mountains.

Farther on the horizon, we could see snow-topped Nízke Tatry – a mountain range in Slovakia. They looked majestic with the sunshine reflected by the snow.

After enjoying the views and a short break, it was time to go back. Instead of backtracking along the same route, we decided to go down on the other side of the mountain. We followed the blue trail and walked down a steep, rocky path for about two hours. We eventually reached a small waterfall, called Kaskady Rodła. We continued down the blue trail, which turned onto a small tarmac road. Around an hour later, we reached the dam in Wisla Czarne, and – 5 minutes later – our car.

The hike was filled with amazing views and I loved the hiking experience that I miss so much while in London. The trip ended up being a bit longer than expected though – the signs on the blue trail from Barania Gora to Wisla Czarne claimed that it would take 2 hours, while in reality it took over three. Not gonna lie, my parents were pretty exhausted by the time we got back to the car 😰.

We walked a total of 21 kilometres, with 700m ascent. The trip – including the breaks to have lunch and rest by the viewing platform on top of Barania Gora – took just over 7 hours.

I fully realise how unlikely it is that my readers will ever have a chance to visit Beskids Mountains, but I still wanted to spread the word about the beauty of my beloved mountains. Who knows, maybe it’ll inspire someone to travel to a less famous destination one day!

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