Bike the Baltic

My summer holidays are soon coming to an end – just like most people’s. With that in mind I wanted to share a little bit about what I've been up to since camping in Cornwall. 

I'm currently in Warsaw, the capital of Poland but today’s post is dedicated to my trip to the coast of the Baltic Sea (to Sarbinowo)  but specifically about the cycling route I came across whilst there. 

We did no prior research at all, just hired some bikes and headed in the rough direction of the next village where we knew we’ll find a lighthouse. The village is called Gąski and it’s tiny! We also found a poster outside of the lighthouse showing all fifteen lighthouses along the coast. This is when I had the idea of cycling to the next one down which was about 27km from where we were staying. We didn't manage the challenge that day, we got to Ustronie Morskie (about 10km from Gąski) before we decided we've had enough. The cycling track from Sarbinowo to Ustronie Morskie was mostly a dirt road going through the forest. The best thing about it though was the fact that we were right next to the beach throughout the whole trip which pretty much allows you to explore the whole coast along the cycling track. 

Whilst cycling through the forest I noticed „Bike the Baltic” signs which together with small groups of people who were very obviously on a cycling/camping holiday gave me the clue that this cycling track must be a long one. I was right. The route is a not-yet-realised part of the EuroVelo 10 route which goes around the whole of the Baltic Sea through Denmark, Germany, Poland, Russia, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Finland and Sweden. When I say not-yet-realised I mean that the route is pretty much there but is not yet up to the EuroVelo standards but it's due to be completed in 2017/2018

Two days later we set ourselves the challenge of cycling to Kołobrzeg to see the next lighthouse. The track from Ustronie Morskie to Kołobrzeg is completely different to the first part that we cycled - it's fully paved with clear signposting, which following my research about Route 10 shows that this part is possibly ready to be interconnected with other completed parts. The whole route is over 8500km long so even our longest total of 27km to Kolobrzeg is just a tiny part of it but was enough to impress me. When the route is complete with all of its facilities (like bike and bed hotels) I would seriously be tempted to go for a cycling holiday there. I just love the fact that you are right next to the beach all the time (okay, maybe no more than a few hundred yards in the towns but that's still really close)! 

Lighthouse in Gąski

View from Gąski Lighthouse

Czerwona River

Czerwona River

One of the beaches along the cycling track.

Lighthouse in Kołobrzeg.