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Augustow is on the eastern side of the Lake District, about 60 miles north of Białystok. Close to the vast Augustów forest, the lakes and rivers are all connected - you could even paddle to Belarus in theory! Actually, a tour organisation called PTTK in Augustów do organise trips in Belarus, but I guess it is up to you to get the visas sorted. Large injections of EU cash have smarted up the riverfront, but off-season there is still a dejected air about the town. It's a decent enough centre though and there are places to eat, and hire kyaks on so on.

A kayak in a storm, and a boatload of bairns

Dorian Speakman
2006-08-26 13:03:14

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Augustów

Augustow is on the eastern side of the Lake District, about 60 miles north of Białystok. Close to the vast Augustów forest, the lakes and rivers are all connected - you could even paddle to Belarus in theory! Actually, a tour organisation called PTTK in Augustów do organise trips in Belarus, but I guess it is up to you to get the visas sorted. Large injections of EU cash have smarted up the riverfront, but off-season there is still a dejected air about the town. It's a decent enough centre though and there are places to eat, and hire kyaks on so on.

30 May Augustów

We got up at 5.30 am to get the early bus north to Augustów with Barbara, Kasia’s sister, who had project work with the local council. We arrived in Augustów before 9 a.m. so had a timely visit to the Tourist Information Centre to find out about kayak hire. Late May is still off season, so only a handful of hire places are open. We got a kayak and set off straight away, despite this being only my second time in a kayak.

it looked heavenly, before the coming storm!So our start down the river was a bit uncertain, and we stuttered off, fortunately with not too many observers along the riverside. After some heavy raindrops, we shortly entered Lake Necko and wandered off to the left with a bit of persuasion from the river current. After a while it seemed a nice idea to head in the other direction to suss out Lake Rospuda, as it was recommended by the hire shop. In season, getting around is much more difficult because of power boats. Our progress seemed pretty reasonable by now, though I was regretting not taking on some water. We parked up by a centre to find out it was shut. So we carried on up the Rospuda lake a found a little island to land on. We poked about and enjoyed the sun for a bit, before deciding to head-on, up to the Rospuda river. We went a mile or two upriver, with the clouds threatening some sort of meteorological ...