Szumy nad Tanwia

Where the Tanew crosses a band of harder rock at the edge of the Roztocze upland, the river drops through a series of about two dozen small steps in a few hundred metres - none more than a metre or so high, but coming one after another in a beech and fir gorge, and together they make enough noise to have given the place its name: szumy, the roars. The neighbouring Jelen stream has its own set. This is the only landscape of its kind in Poland; the country has very little relief of the sort that produces rapids, and Roztocze, a low limestone ridge running south-east towards Ukraine, is the exception. The whole stretch is a reserve reached on foot from Susiec along marked trails through the forest, with the path running beside the water for much of the way. Spring meltwater is when it actually roars; by August it can be a trickle over the steps.

What you actually see

• About two dozen steps - the river dropping in quick succession over a few hundred metres.
• A beech and fir gorge - the path running beside the water.
• The Jelen stream - its own set of rapids alongside.
• Roztocze limestone - the low ridge that makes this possible at all.

When to go

April to June, when there is water. Half a day.

Honest expectations

By late summer the flow can be very low and the roars quiet. The steps are small - this is not a waterfall in any dramatic sense. Weekends in season are busy. The trail is a few kilometres each way on foot.

Nearby

Roztocze National Park is north; Zamosc is beyond it.