Gubalowka (1120m), Zakopane, Poland
Although we were hoping to get into the higher mountains for some hiking we only had two full days in Zakopane, and the first of these was virtually washed out by rain (see the Zakopane walking story).
So when the sun shone through the windows of our chalet early the next morning we decided to take the cable car up from Kuznice to Kasprowy Wierch. The guidebook we'd picked up from the tourist office said this was a "must" when staying in Zakopane.
Before everyone was up and ready to go, I had already had a short early morning run across the south side of town, passing some more modern houses and hotels on the way, to explore the hilltop at Antalowka just to the east. There was a track leading up from the road (Wierchowa) to the Hotel Panorama. Although the view of the mountains was pretty good, the town was largely hidden by trees and the "hilltop" was just a long wide plateau without much interest. There were ski tows at various points round the slopes of the hill, including the way I'd gone up, and it's probably ideal for beginners. It would probably also make a good stop on a bike ride coming up the more gentle slope from the north or east. There were more streets and houses on the eastern side of the hill, and I went down that way then turned back to follow the southern edge of the town, back to our chalet.
Failed attempt to get the cable car to Kasprowy Wierch
We piled into the car to drive to the cable car at about 10 am and found our way round to the Przewodnikow Tatrzanskich road which ran south to the station at Kuznice. It was a long road with a path along the west side, and we noticed there were quite a few people walking along it towards Kuznice. Oh good we thought, we'll get ahead of them in the queue!
But they knew something we didn't - the queue stretched well back from Kuznice, getting on for a kilometre! Lots of people waiting patiently on the path beside the road, at the edge of the forest. When we reached Kuznice there was just room for us to drive the car round the taxi rank and bus stop, with nowhere to park. So we had to drive all the way back down past the queue, wondering what to do. Maybe we could park and get a taxi back to the end of the queue. We tried parking but all the available spaces beside the roads on that side of Zakopane were filled, presumably by people already on their way up the mountain! Even if we got parked and joined the queue it would be ages before we reached the station. Not much fun with an 11-year-old and a 2-year-old to keep amused.
Getting rather harrassed looking for a space whilst trying to deal with busy traffic, we decided on Plan B: a walk up a hill on the other side of town. We found somewhere to pull in and checked the map, and worked out where we could go.
Climbing Gubalowka
We drove back to the other side of town, onto the road we had arrived on a couple of days earlier (Nowotarska). Turning left (south-west) along this we drove onto the raised road running past the town centre (Powstancow Slaskich) and then immediately off to the right where there was some space for parking at the junction with the road up to Gladkie (we were a stone's throw from the wooden church we had visited the day before, on Kozcieliska). Sounds complicated but if you can get hold of a map you'll soon work it out.
If we'd just decided to do the walk from our chalet, we could have left the car there and walked through to the start in about 15 minutes.
We could see some buildings up on the hillside above the town, and the map showed a yellow hiking trail up to a couple of places called Chockowskie and Gubalowka which we presumed were those buildings.
The trail started up the fairly gentle slope of the Gladkie road with the wooded bank of a fast-flowing stream down to our left and houses up to the right. We set off up it, with Ailsa securely carried in a backpack. After a short distance (about 300m) there was a turning off to the left, over a bridge, which I nearly missed. It led to some more houses but we had to turn right immediately across the bridge onto a good vehicle track leading up the left side of the stream.
The track passed a few farm buildings to the left, and I wasn't paying enough attention to the map as we continued along it instead of taking a turning to the left after the last of these buildings. We realised we were on a track leading up to a dead end in the forest, but we should be able to get back on the right track if we turned to the left, up the grassy slope towards the line of trees and a point marked as 929m on the map (this sounds a lot to those who recall that a Scottish munro is 3000 ft / 914.4m. But then you check the map and see that the starting point in Zakopane was 840m and it doesn't seem so high!
It was enjoyable climbing slowly across the pasture with the view opening out to our left, just like in the Sound of Music! We reached a tree which we reckoned was just about on the 929m mark, and sure enough there was a track just beyond it. Time to stop for a drink and enjoy the view. Zakopane spread out below us across the valley - quite an extensive but dispersed settlement beyond the main town centre with lots of greenery. The mountains rose up behind, bright green and sparkling grey in the sunshine.
As we set off again, onto the track leading into the trees, a couple of walkers were coming down towards us and we exchanged greetings. It was an easy route to follow now through the belt of trees, with the occasional waymarker on a tree trunk. The track climbed gently up the side of the hill and soon reached a clearing with a couple of houses built into the hillside and a few kids playing outside. A man looked silently towards us from a doorway. It didn't seem a very welcoming expression and the place felt rather poor as if the tourism-based prosperity in the town below had passed it by.
We moved on without stopping along the track, and took a right turn around a block of trees, coming out into another area of pasture. This was the top of a rise projecting out from the main hillside, at 990m, with a few more farm houses and haybarns scattered across the landscape. This was Chockowskie. The route turned left at a crossing of the tracks up at a barn, up towards one of the houses. It passed in front of this, and according to the map there should have been a turning then to the left before a line of three barns. However there didn't seem to be a good path here, and we found a better one between the 2nd and 3rd of the barns.
Now we were on a pleasant and easy track following the contours around the hillside of Gubalowka through a mixture of pastureland and belts of trees. Painted waymarkers on the trees reassured us we were going the right way.
We turned up a bit of an incline to the right through the trees and then suddenly emerged again to see a line of chairlifts above with people looking down at us! We had reached the slope leading up from Szymoszkowa. We crossed the steep grassy slope and the last section was a steep climb up a slightly muddy track to the left of the chairlift.
Lunch with a view at Gubalowka
We reached the chairlift station at the top at about 12.15 pm, less than an hour and a half after setting out. To the left was a large timber-built bar/restaurant, with a few other buildings over to the right. The most surprising thing was finding the road running along the top of the hill. There was a line of souvenir stalls beside it and a horse and trap there to take tourists back down by road if they wanted. It seemed a bit of a strange sight after the climb across a hillside with just a few farm buildings and no people. It was hard to see where the highest point was, but the wide ridge seems to reach around 1120m, so we'd climbed a bit less that 300m.
Although the sky was a bit hazier now it was still warm and pleasant so we found a table at the restaurant outside in the sunshine and enjoyed a relaxing meal and a beer (or juice). It was a chance to sample some of the local dumplings, pancakes and sausages. Just right after a bit of exercise!
The view extended along the line of the High Tatras, with the tops just touched by clouds now and then, seeming to threaten to come down but never doing so. We could just make out the cable car station at the top of Kasprowy Wierch and the faint line of the hiking trail leading down from it.
Return to Zakopane
After getting full enjoyment from the situation - the food, the weather, the view, the rest - we paid up and had another look at the souvenir stalls before setting off down again. This time we went carefully down the more official-looking concreted track below the chairlift, past some chickens and rather scrawny-looking turkeys, before joining the unsurfaced track again. It was fairly steep and required some care on the slippery ground and it was easier in places to go onto the grass. This was gentler on the knees as well.
The track ran alongside the line of the chairlift, through a gap in the forest, but then the trees ended on the left and another track led off in a more south-easterly direction towards the left side of a hotel we could see below. This was the Mercure Kasprowy. This track was less steep and it was a much more pleasant walk, finishing down the tarmaced access road past the hotel and its swimming pool.
It had taken about 35 minutes to get down to here, at the side of the main road leading back into Zakopane, the one which we had parked beside. We had another kilometre to walk along the pavement to get back to the car, so that we were out for about 4 hours altogether, or just under 3 hours excluding the lunch break.
So although we'd missed out on the cable car we'd enjoyed the best of the day with a walk which was just about right for a family with an 11-year-old and a toddler to carry. After a rest we walked back into town for more shopping and our final evening meal (see the other Zakopane story) before a night of heavy rain and a stormy drive to Poprad in Slovakia next morning.
Contributed by Andrew Llanwarne
< Back to Poland page for links to other stories
Gallery
View a gallery of further images for this story.Comments
Join Walking Stories for free to comment on this story. Have an account already? Log in to comment.
