Poleski National Park

Poleski protects the last Polish fragment of the Polesie wetlands, a vast marsh system that once ran east into Belarus and Ukraine and was largely drained in the twentieth century. What survives here is odd for the latitude: raised bogs, transition mires and shallow lakes with floating peat mats, carrying a flora and fauna that belongs several hundred kilometres further north and has hung on since the last glaciation - dwarf birch, cloudberry, northern sedges. The park is best seen from its boardwalks, which are the only sensible way over ground that is a metre of quaking moss on water, and the two main ones cross open bog with pools in it. Birds are the draw for many: aquatic warbler, cranes, black grouse in the reserve areas, and terns on the lakes. It is a UNESCO biosphere reserve, extended across the Ukrainian and Belarusian borders.

What you actually see

• Northern bog far south - dwarf birch and cloudberry left from the glaciation.
• Floating peat mats - a metre of quaking moss over water.
• Boardwalk trails - at Dabrowa and Durne Bagno, over open bog and pools.
• Birds - aquatic warbler, cranes and terns on the shallow lakes.

When to go

April to September; spring for birds. A day.

Honest expectations

Stay on the boardwalks - the peat mats will not carry weight. Mosquitoes are severe from May. The park is flat and subtle rather than dramatic. Some reserve areas are closed in the breeding season.

Nearby

Wlodawa is east; Lublin is west.