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“HOSPITALITY HIKING”
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15 DAYS OF TREKKING ~ INTO THE WILD ~
AND YOU CAN JOIN !
23 August to 7 September 2012
Everyone can join for the entire tour or partially. Participation is expected for at least three days!!
If you join after the start of the tour, we will make appointments about where and when you can come to our band of hikers!
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Hospitality Hiking 2012 WILL happen in the province Kujawy-Pomerania in the North of Poland. The trekking will start in Tuchola (railway station) and lead to the small town Kartuzy (railway station), about 40 km from the Baltic Sea. The tour takes us through the typical landscape with sandy soil, forests, villages, fields and lakes!!!!
GOOGLE MAP OF THE TRAIL from Tuchola to Kartuzy:
http://tinyurl.com/btmjspw
24 to 26 August : getting together in Tuchola, where the friendly Radek Mormoriak will host us in the garden. Bring your tents! With bonfire place! During this weekend we can go to several ceremonies and parties of the 17th European Militia Gathering / XVII Europejskiego Spotkania Historycznych Strzelców, happening in Tuchola! Info about the gathering:
http://www.tuchola2012.pl/uk/
With participating groups from many European countries including PL, D, SK, CZ, NL, B, A and F.
Tuchola is the lovely small town after which the magnificient, ancient and huge Tuchola forests (Bory Tucholskie) in this region have been named! You've always wanted to hike through these woods! Right north of the area, we will make our way through Kashubia, with lots of crystal-clear lakes and mild hills, covered by beautiful forests. The Kashubia people have maintained fidelity to their customs and have managed to retain their own language and literature.
Tuchola!
27 August to 7 September: hiking tour!
On average we will walk 13-15 kilometres per day. Every day we will pass at least one village where we can expect a (small) shop to feed ourselves. The landscape is almost flat in this year's hiking area. Most of the nights we will spend 'in the wild', somewhat hidden from civilization, in open places in forests, and at the shores of rivers or lakes.
On 1 and 2 September we stay in Koscierzyna with local people. During these two days we will not hike, or maybe we will, but we don't have to! ;)
On 5 September we will reach Kartuzy where we will be the guests of very friendly local people who are offering their garden to camp!
On 6 and 7 September we can discover the city of Gdansk (the capital of Kashubia, and an old trade city on the Baltic Coast), enjoy the seaside and relax under the refreshing salty air of sea. We will arrange a host!
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What to bring and share?
Happiness
Good mood
Wilderness survival techniques
Tent
Cooking gear: pans and cookers (not everyone needs to bring, gas/petrol cookers are especially useful if making bonfire isn't possible)
Hippyness
Rules
Respect base camp silence if other participants are going to sleep
Respect nature and environment
Eating fruits from gardens and nature is obligatory
Bring pots 'n pans (only if you can), share cooking skills
Low budget - no compromise - creative and ambitious search for free / affordable accomodation (if at times sleeping in tents is no option)
We come one
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On the tour, how do we follow the trails?
We carry a board with map-sheets under a rain protected cover. Basically we will follow the route as it was set out in the Google Map with the Hospitality Hiking trail. Sometimes we will follow marked trails, other times there will be none of that, and the sun will help. It will be a trail with a varried landscape. Each day we will walk mostly in natural areas, and almost all days we will pass at least one village, to pick fruits, fill our bottles and get/buy nutrition.
How hard is the trail?
The distance of 16 km average (and varying from 10 to 20 km) is fine for most motivated, fit people. The landscape is quite flat, which makes the going quite easy!
Can I join for a part of the trail?
Yes, you can. If you join after the start of the tour, we will make appointments on forehand about where and when you can come to our band of hikers!
Joining and leaving is easiest in Tuchola (24-26 August), Koscierzyna (1-2 September) and in Kartuzy / Gdansk (6-7 September).
Contact
At any moment, you can contact Frank on +31621488856 by SMS. Phones can be switched off at times!! During event SMS/phone contact is much much better than via CS or Facebook.
For joining and leaving, it can be good to know that some places on the way are quite well connected by bus or train.
Getting there...
Of course the easiest is when you join us in Tuchola, in the opening weekend. From Warsaw or Poznan there are good connections to Bydgoszcz. Frank, Katarzyna and hopefully more surfers will go to Bydgoszcz together from Warsaw. You can you us in Warsaw for the bus on Thursday 23 august at 18:15 to Bydgoszcz. We go with a very cheap bus, with tickets from 5 Zloty. You can book your own seat for this bus on www.polskibus.com/en! Credit card is needed for this, and you have to print it yourself. You can get tickets for 5 Zloty which is extremely cheap until they are sold out, so better to book as soon as you can. Polskibus is going this way every day about ten times, so you also have other options. In Bydgoszcz we will stay for the night and the next day we travel all together to Tuchola with a cheap local train on shared group ticket. From Poznan there are buses and trains as well.
On 30 august, the fifth day of hiking, we should pass the village Waglikowice, which has good bus connections to Gdansk and Warsaw. On Sunday 1 september you can also leave the tour very easily in Koscierzyna with good bus connections to Gdansk and Warsaw.
But of course we hope you will do the tour with us until we reach Kartuzy, after ten days. After one or two days spent in an easy way in or around Kartuzy, we shall go to Gdansk to spend the last one or two days in this old city on the Baltic Sea...
From Gdansk to Warsaw you can also book cheap tickets on www.polskibus.com. Katarzyna and me invite you to join us for this bus on Saturday 8 September at 18.30 from Gdansk! We have two extra tickets for this bus which costs 10 Zloty: very very cheap.
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Photo's of last years Hospitality Hiking in the southeast of Poland, from Kolbuszowa to Janow Lubelskie (on Kotlina Sandomierska!).
By Milosz
https://picasaweb.google.com/100208590540348504037/HospitalityHiking2011?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCLDZys2jpe79YA&feat=directlink&gsessionid=8RvDg2SbC0xwBRpZzfBdYw
By Frank
https://picasaweb.google.com/fverhart/HospitalityHiking2011SummerHolidays2011
http://www.franknature.nl/zomervakantie2011
By Katarzyna
https://picasaweb.google.com/kaska.waw/HCHicking2011?authkey=Gv1sRgCN3mxb-1r8OP2gE
By Mateusz
http://picasaweb.google.com/mateuszrybicki87/Wegry?authkey=Gv1sRgCIuZ1YGW7u7huAE#
By Jozek
https://picasaweb.google.com/fverhart/HospitalityHiking2011ByJozekKubis?authkey=Gv1sRgCIqe-vO4lcT-9QE#