Zajazd Pod Carynska

After a leisurely breakfast I met up with the 4 other Naturetrek clients and Jan and Mark our two guides at Krakow airport. We drove south towards the Slovakian border for a a couple of hours and after a short lunch stop turned east for another 2 hours towards the Ukrainian border. The blip is our guest house in Ustrzyki Górne in the south east part of the Bieszczady national park.
On arrival it became clear why our picnic lunch packs were so enormous, it was our dinner as well. We ate this more or less on the move as we spent six more hours in the van looking for mammals with the aid of military spec thermal imaging and spot lights. The night gave us several red foxes, two wild cats an assortment of deer and a superb beaver sighting. Just a few kilometres from the Ukrainian border we were routinely stopped by the Polish Border Guards, sometimes this can elicit useful mammal information but on this occasion the interaction was civil but perfunctory. We were back at the accommodation just after 11, pretty chilly, the van’s windows were wide open, and tired, especially those who had flown out of Stansted at 7 am.
Time for a few hours sleep, minus one on account of the hour change, and by 5.30 on Sunday morning we were off again, one client declining the early start and another missing the departure not realising the clocks in Poland also go forward.
Wolves were the target. We could hear a large pack but a trek alongside the river, through undergrowth and across several grass meadows yielded nothing. The scenery was magnificent and the wolf noises magical.
Writing this on Sunday after a late breakfast of eggs, cold ham and a lot of instant coffee we are resting up and hopefully going to get some sleep before we have an early supper and more night safari-ing.