There are countless places on the map of Poland worth exploring from the seat of a kayak, a bicycle saddle, or on foot. But if you woke me up in the middle of the night and asked for the absolute must-sees, two would instantly come to mind: Gdańsk and the Dunajec River Gorge.
Naturally, we chose the Pieniny Mountains for this brief, intensely packed four-day getaway. The plan was as beautifully simple as always: throw the kayak into the car, rent bikes locally, and hike wherever the trails pulled us. Our only real rule was the sequence of operations: “legs” - “arms” - “legs”.
Three days of autumn in Pieniny, shot entirely in portrait mode.
Following the script, we kicked off with “leg day”: a full-day hike into the mountains. While thermometers back in Gdańsk were shivering around +4°C, we were sweating in brilliant sunshine that perfectly saturated the autumn palette spreading across the peaks.
Day two belonged to our “arms”. The Dunajec Gorge delivered its usual rush of adrenaline and scenery, but the real highlight started before we even hit the water. Inflating and rigging our kayak early in the morning brought back a rush of memories from our earliest trips. Ever since we made the switch to single hardshell kayaks, this old reliable inflatable hadn’t seen much action. It felt great to be back in it together.
The final “leg day” was reserved for the VeloDunajec route. Rolling through the most picturesque segments of this cycling path was the absolute cherry on top of our Pieniny cake.
Since the whole trip was short, repeatedly rescheduled, and completely unplanned, we decided to shake things up with how we documented it. We turned everything on its head and shot the entire microadventure vertically.