Several dozen kilometers of wild, unregulated river flowing through a valley overgrown with willow and poplar riparian forests and pine forests with clearings of sand dunes hiding the richness of the world of plants and animals. Sometimes a wolf will run through the trees, sometimes a wooden hut or the belfry of an Orthodox church or a village church will be seen. Here is the Podlaski Przełom Bugu – the landscape park in the Masovian and Lublin provinces. An ideal place for hiking and biking tours.
How to visit the park – nature paths
Learning the secrets of the park is affiliated by didactic and nature paths.
One of the most interesting – the Troja path – starts near the lake of the same name, near the Zabuże reserve. It leads through the oxbow lake surrounded by meadows and overgrown with ancient oaks, where there are several dozen species of wetland birds. There are six stops on the route describing the riverside communities occurring in the reserve. On the other hand, the nature and forest paths of the Sarnaki forest district runs through the Mierziwce forestry, including the Zabużereserve and along the Bug River escarpment. There are 16 stops on the path with information on the functioning of forest management. The route has the form of two loops – the shorter one is 2.5 km long (about 1.5 hour), and the longer one is 4.7 km (about 2.5 hours). The last of the recommended paths starts in the village of Rusków, in the vicinity of the manor house (now it is the seat of the school). In the Kisielew forestry area, through which the route runs, there are 11 stops with boards describing topics such as hunting, nature protection and forest management.
One of the points on the path is the funnel that was created as a result of the explosion of the V2 rocket. The path is best for cycling – the estimated time of the one – way trip is about 1.5 – 2 hours.
Other attractions
Sarnaki Forest Inspectorate, in the vicinity of its seat at 6/4 May3 street, runs as an educational room, where you can see a hundred exhibits, including mammals, birds and reptiles from all over the country. In addition, you can see a collection of bas – reliefs and herbarium pages with rare plants.
Also in Sarnaki, along the Chlebczanka river, there are exhibits describing, among other, tree diseased, tree hollows and the activity of beavers, and educational boards explain the impact of water retention on the area and the life of aquatic organisms. In the vicinity you can find shelters with benches and a place to light a fire.
A unique attraction of the park is the boulder outcrop in the village of Mierzwice, where you can see a hundred huge erratic boulders. When visiting this part of the Masovian Voivodeship, it is worth visiting small villages on the Bug river to see wooden huts, churches and Orthodox churches, as well as manors (Rusków, Klimczyce and Zabuże).
In summer, you can take advantage of ferry crossing between the villages of Drohiczyn and Bużyska as well as Zabuże and Mielnik, and if the state of Bug allows it – also on the Gnojno – Niemirów route.
For adrenaline seekers, agritourism centers organize canoeing trips on the Bug. One of them is Xtreme in Mierzwice, where you can also ride quad bikes, organize paintball duels, or an archery or air rifle shoot.
General information
The area of the park is nearly 31thousand hectares, and an additional 17 thousand hectares of its buffer zone (half is located in the Masovian communes of Sarnaki and Platerów). The area of the park is shaped by the meandering Bug, which creates a vast floodplain terrace with rushes, meadows and alders. The landscape is diversified with wide sandy beaches and moraing hills. The gorge of the Bug is covered mainly with pine forests with hundreds of rare plant species. Wolves, otters, beavers and also pond turtles live there: on the other hand, swallows and kingfishers nest in the slopes by the Bug river,and here and there you can also see herons and black and white storks.
In cooperation with the Kurpie Tourist Organization and the Association for Promotion and Development of Zegrze Reservoir.
