Slowinski Shifting Dunes

West of Leba the coast turns into something that does not look Polish at all: a field of loose sand high enough to bury the pine forest behind it. The dunes formed where the Baltic pushed sand across the bar that closes off Lake Lebsko, and the wind still shifts the largest ridge a few metres inland every year, killing trees as it goes. Cars stop at the Rabka gate, so the last stretch is done on foot, by bike or in one of the electric carts. The approach is flat and sandy, roughly eight kilometres there and back, and ends on a crest with open sea on one side and the lake on the other.

What you actually see

• The Lacka dune - the highest of the moving ridges, bare sand with the treeline being swallowed at its foot.
• Lake Lebsko - the shallow lagoon behind the sandbar, seen from the crest and edged with wide reed beds.
• The dead pines - bleached trunks left standing where the sand has already rolled over them.
• The beach - a broad, mostly empty strip of Baltic sand you can drop onto from the dune and follow back east.

When to go

June to August is the warmest window but Leba is full of Polish holidaymakers then. Late May and September give the same walk with a fraction of the people and easier parking. Morning or the last two hours of daylight are best, when the sand stops glaring and the ridges throw shadows. Wind matters more than temperature here.

Honest expectations

There is no shade on the approach and none at all on the dunes, and walking in dry sand is slow, tiring work. In July the cart queue and the Leba car parks are both painful, and parking prices are set for peak season. The sea stays cold, often around eighteen degrees, and a strong wind drives sand hard enough to sting.

Nearby

Leba's beach and harbour lie a short ride east, and the old fishing village museum at Kluki sits on the far side of the lake.