Knyszyn Forest

Puszcza Knyszynska covers around a thousand square kilometres north-east of Bialystok - spruce, pine and hornbeam on moraine, with a very high density of springs and small clear streams because the sandy ground holds and releases water, and with peat bogs in the hollows. It carries a free-ranging European bison herd, brought back from 1974, and is a much quieter place to look for them than Bialowieza; sightings still take luck and early mornings. Wolf and lynx are present. Suprasl on the edge is the base: a small town with an Orthodox monastery founded around 1500, rebuilt after wartime destruction, with a museum of icons in it, and a nineteenth-century textile-manufacturing past visible in its architecture. The forest is used for cycling and cross-country skiing and receives a fraction of Bialowieza's visitors.

The landscape

• A thousand square kilometres - spruce and hornbeam on moraine with very many springs.
• Free-ranging bison - a herd brought back from 1974.
• Suprasl monastery - an Orthodox foundation of about 1500 with an icon museum.
• Quiet - a fraction of the visitors that Bialowieza receives.

When to go

April to October; winter for skiing. Two days.

Good to know

Bison are free-ranging and sightings are luck, not a certainty. Ticks are a serious problem here from spring to autumn. Forest tracks are extensive and easy to lose. Accommodation is concentrated in Suprasl.

Nearby

Bialystok is south-west; Bialowieza is south-east.

Key facts