Day 13 – Raft Trip on the Dunajec River; Visit the UNESCO recognized Wieliczka Salt Mines

Little did I appreciate what was in store for our tour group this day. Earlier in my BLOG, I said that this StayPoland tour was one of the best that I had taken. Today was an illustration of why taking this tour was a brillant decision.

We departed Zakopane at 8 AM and traveled through the mountainous countryside to the small town of Sromowce. It was a lovely short drive, about an hour. We have had the same bus driver, Tadeusz Hajda (Tadek), as our driver. What an enjoyable person; friendly, always a smile and most importantly a superb driver.

 

Dunajec River Raft Trip 

You will see from the map below the route of our raft trip.

After arriving, we boarded a unique river raft made-up of joined wooden dugouts, for a two hour journey down the Dunajec River.

Each “raft has two polers who guide the vessel through the beautiful Pieniny Gorge. As we began our water journey, the morning mist provided a shroud that began to lift as the sun began to warm the day.

The rapids were frequent but mild, equivalent to class 2 roughness, steep mountains rose to the north while hiking trails traced our route to the south along the Slovakian border. The scenery was spectacular.

The “polers” are pleasant and allowed one of our fellow rafters, Carolyn Piasecki, to assume their position of guiding our raft. Her tour of duty was short lived; the will was there but the arms grew weary!

At tour’s end, the terminus of this fabulous trip came into view; Szczawnica. We exited our vessel, said goodbye to our “polers” and had a lovely lunch at a riverside restaurant. What a morning!!

Wieliczka Salt Mine 

After about a two hour bus ride, we arrived at the Wieliczka Salt Mine located in the outskirts of Krakow. Designated as a UNESCO Heritage site, the mines are visited by 1.2 million tourists annually. When I visited the mines in the year 2000, there were approximately 8 tours offered per day; two in English. Today, tours commence on a continuous basis.

To get into the mine, one must descend on a small elevator down to a level of about 200 feet.

As you traverse the navigable tunnels, various salt figures convey the history of the mine while salt sculptures reinforce Poland’s dedication to Catholicism including a church carved out of the salt rock; impressive.

At the lowest visitable mine level, approximately 450 feet, there was a huge chamber with additional salt displays and a souvenir shop/cafeteria.

 

 












As we ascended in an elevator that held 9 tightly packed visitors, one felt the warmth as one approached the surface. Of all our tour guides, I found this guide was less than attentive, rushed us and showed little interest in conveying the mine’s history...rush, rush, rush.

It had been a long and enjoyable day with the raft trip becoming a favorite memory! Off to Krakow...a short drive....dinner.