Bieszczardy, Poland

The Bieszczady Mountains is one of Poland's best kept secrets. It forms part of the East Carpathian Biosphere Reserve, established in 1991, with similar terrain across the border in Slovakia and Ukraine. It is an area of dense forests and high mountain meadows, Polonina.

In April 1947, the area was cleared of its indigenous population of Boks, Boykowie & Lemks, Lemkowie during a notorious operation code-named Operation Vistula, Akcja Wisla. The justification for this action was to deny the Ukrainian Resistance Army any kind of support. Whole farms and villages were "evacuated and resettled" in other parts of Poland.

It is only in the later part of the 1980's that descendents of these Boks, Lemks and Poles from other regions started to reclaim their farms and to settle in the area.

It is to our good fortune that Nature has not been idle. Forty years without human interference has allowed eagles, bears, wolves, lynx, deer, moose and even bison to reclaim the Bieszczardy Mountains. The reserve is carefully controlled but open to public via a network of well marked trails and mountain huts.

1449-02a.jpg	1449-03a.jpg	1449-04a.jpg A mountain shrine	1449-05a.jpg
1449-12A.JPG	1449-13A.JPG Polonina Carynska, 1253m.	1449-17A.JPG Frozen trail marker on Polonina Carynska, 1253m.
1458-02A.JPG	1458-03A.JPG	1458-10A.JPG	1458-14A.JPG Approach to Tarnica, 1335m from Wolosate.
1458-15A.JPG	1458-16A.JPG Sunset views from Tarnica, 1335m. Towards Slovakia.	1458-17A.JPG Sunset views from Tarnica, 1335m with Polonina Carynska and Wetlinska in the background.	1458-18A.JPG
1458-19A.JPG The summit cross on Tarnica, 1335m.	1458-20A.JPG	1458-21A.JPG	1458-28A.JPG Animal prints in the snow
1458-29A.JPG
1447-06.JPG Prints of a small pack of wolves.	1447-07.JPG Deer prints	1447-08.JPG Lynx prints	1447-09.JPG Summit views from Tarnica, 1335m towards Ukraine.
1447-10.JPG Bieszczardy trail marker below Tarnica, 1335m.	1447-12.JPG	1447-13.JPG On the ridge traverse towards Halicz, 1333m.	1447-18.JPG
1447-20.JPG	1447-21.JPG Summit cross on Halicz, 1333m.	1447-22.JPG	1447-23.JPG
1447-24.JPG	1447-25.JPG	1447-31.JPG	1447-34.JPG In the Ukraine, Polish border marker.
1447-37.JPG Tarnica, 1335m
1459-30.JPG Winter scenes of forests and Polonina, mountain meadows.	1459-31.JPG	1459-32.JPG	1459-33.JPG
1459-36.JPG

Miscellaneous Information

The pictures taken using a Practica BC1 with a Tamrom AD2 35-70mm lens are prefixed with a P code. K coded pictures were taken with a Konica Z-Up 110 Super compact zoom. They have been scanned at 800dpi and are less than 2 mbytes.

Note: Usual copyright & disclaimers apply. If you would like to use the information or any of the pictures contained in these pages, contact Chris Tan by first removing the Walnut.