Wilczki Waterfall Miedzygorze

The Wilczka drops into a gneiss gorge at Miedzygorze in a fall of about twenty-two metres, which makes it the highest in the Klodzko region, and there is a detail worth knowing: it used to be higher. A catastrophic flood in July 1997, which devastated much of southern Poland, tore out the rock lip and the fall lost several metres of its height in a few hours, so the figure quoted in older books is not the one you will see. Steps and platforms lead down into the gorge below the village and the walk takes half an hour. Miedzygorze itself is the other half of the visit - a village built as a resort from the nineteenth century with a concentration of wooden villas in the Tyrolean and Swiss manner, unusual in Poland, along with a hillside chapel and the trailheads for Snieznik above. It is small, quiet and gets very cold in winter.

What you actually see

• A twenty-two metre fall - the highest in the Klodzko region, into a gneiss gorge.
• A flood that shortened it - the 1997 flood tearing out the lip and losing metres of height.
• Steps into the gorge - platforms below the village, half an hour there and back.
• Wooden resort villas - a nineteenth-century alpine-style village, unusual in Poland.

When to go

April to October; spring for the volume. An hour.

Honest expectations

It is lower than older guidebooks say - the 1997 flood took several metres off it. Flow drops substantially in dry summers. Steps into the gorge are wet and slippery. A small fee applies.

Nearby

Snieznik is above the village; Klodzko is north.