Saturday 14th August mileage 5451 Olsztyn Poland

Arose early 6:30 dressed and down for breakfast ast 7:00 (that cost an extra 20Slty).Worst breakfast so far, no choice of cereal just ring type "cherios" but tasteless, no yoghurt, no fruit.  Juice and coffee they seemed reluctant to give me a second cup !!  Had ham cheeses gherkins tomatoes and bread.  On my way by 8:30 set tomtom for Gdansk.  Polish roads are not as developed as other roads so far. Route to Gdansk was a fairly major route but it is like a country back lane at home.  Need to keep very aware of fast polish drivers wanting to overtake.  They expect you to know they are there and to move out of the way to make space for them.  Hot weather but pleasant with jacket open and doing 40-50mph.  Countyside has changed, not dominated now by arable land, but dairy farms and deciduous trees.  very like England.
Stopped outside a town called Mragowo 200km from Gdansk and talked to three Lithuanian girls on a car touring holiday to Poland, Germany, Belgium,Holland, Denmark, Sweden and then boat back to Lithuania. Took photo and gave them blog address. One girl was from Vilnius, the other two were from Kaunas where I had been yesterday.

Noticed a change in the warning signs for deer. Still not seen any though, then a sign for moose and I thought maybe, just maybe I will get lucky.

Then  saw another sign for another large animal and this time I did get lucky !!!

Went into Olsztyn to look for internet and got routed all over by well meaning people and eventually after about an hour I arrived at a library where the woman said I can get access but the library is just closing (3pm on Saturday) and does not open at all on Sunday, "Would I like to come back on Monday?"  No luck anywhere else!!  Sat  and had a cheese bread sausage bake and decided to look for a campsite I had seen signs for earlier.  Asked some people again and they didn't know but suggested I try along a particular road out of town because it passed next to a lake and it is possible there may be camping.  Found nice site next to lake as expected and booked in, and then had a swim in the lake, and then slept for 30-40-mins on the mooring deck area. 

Woke up as a polish group of people arrived by yaught/dingy. They unloaded women, dog, beer, life jackets etc. then three men proceeded to pack up the sail and get the boat ready to be taken out of the water.  They pulled the boat about 30mtres away and about 30 mtres out from the waters edge.  They then got their trailer and pulled it from the bank into trhe water all the way to the boat.  Thery floated the boat onto the trailer and then proceeded to pull and push with great effort the trailer towards the shore.

Finally they got there and one of them went to get the car.  Car arrived and out came a long ratchet/strap and I thought they would winch the trailer up onto the shore.  No they attached the strap to the car and decided to pull the boat out.  As the trailer reached the edge of the water it is quite steep and the trailer pitched up, the boat went backwards and floated away on its own. They all looked at each other in disbelief as though it was someone elses fault.  It was like a scene from Laurel and Hardy.!!

Decided to walk into town for exercise and after I had walked about 3-4 km I saw a sign for the Alpha centre in town ( where I had been earlier) but another 3.5km.  That would mean 7km there and 7km back so I decide to turn arounsd and just make do with 7km in total.  The campsite is also a hotel and there is a wedding party tonight.

Ordered pirate pie to eat and wrote my dairy by candlelight outside as it is too hot inside to eat.

A quiet day compared to all the emotions of yesterday.  Meal came and it is like a shepherds pie but with chunkier vegetables.  It came with tomato ketchup already over the top.  It was nice but I would have preferred it without vegetables.

TOR