Carpathian Wildlife Festival, Aug 2018
Tour Leaders: Tomasz Jezierczuk (Tom), Piotr Dębowski (Peter), Łukasz Mazurek (Luke)
Participants: Paul, Ros, Iain, Joseph, Ian, Ana, Sindhoo, Matt (UK), Sam, Emile (BE), Mel, Sylwia (AU)
Text by Łukasz Mazurek
Photos by Wild Poland team
We have spread the Wildlife Watching Festival tradition and run an Autumn Wildlife Festival at the end of August this year. This time, it took place in the far corner of Poland, the Eastern Carpathians. Here is a short photo report.
We have hosted 12 participants from UK, Australia and Belgium. A total of 5 local guides/staff and 3 drivers have worked dawn to dusk for 7 days taking small groups around the wildest sites of the south-eastern corner of Poland.
We were based at a comfortable hotel in a small village of Muczne, near the border with Ukraine, deep in the forest. Surrounded by wild bison, bears, wolves and ural owls that one could hear at night, there was nowhere better to spend this week!
We have offerred a few trips a day, starting at dawn and finishing with night patrols. Everyone have tirelessly signed up and we have seen some fantastic wildlife. Take a look at some of the sightings of the first two days – wild Bison plus fresh tracks/signs of wolves and bears seen every day:
Everyone enjoyed learning about the natural forest and seeing the best preserved, oldest patches of it during our walks. For us it is always more about the whole habitat and overall experience but in case you were interested in numbers, in the course of 7 days we have recorded 78 bird species, 17 mammals, 8 amphibian and reptile species.
We have finished the festival with our traditional Polish farewell campfire (including the even more traditional sausage and Polish beer).
Please enjoy a a few more photographs below. We hope they will bring back fond memories in those who have been here with us this week. A truly amazing and unforgettable time and we are already looking forward to the 2019! Take a look at the Autumn Festival webpage for updates on next year dates
