A link to the first video below was sent to my wife by a female friend of her. We all climbed the mountain Wielka Sowa (Great Owl) together (the mountain with a tower at the top). It's the highest mountain of the mountain range Góry Sowie (Owl Mountains). The mountains are not high nor exceptional, but the sheer beauty of nature can be clearly seen in such places too. Please, turn ON the sounds!
The video above inspired me to show you my favourite natural places that I was lucky to visit myself (only a couple of Youtube videos below are mine).
1. Morskie Oko (Sea Eye) and Czarny Staw (Black Pond)
These two lakes are next to each other on the map, but the second one is higher by almost 200 meters than the first one! Moreover Black Pond (1583 meters above the sea level) is right at the foot of the highest mountain in Poland – Rysy (Features) that is 2499 meters high (Sea Eye is at 1395 meters above the sea leavel). Incredible place. You can see both lakes at the same time at 1:15 and then at 1:55 on the movie below.
The lakes are within the mountain range Tatry (Tatra Mountains) where there are many other beautiful places (the video below shows only a part of them). At the start of the video there are only clouds visible and good visibility starts at 1:23.
2. Czerwone Wierchy (Red Peaks)
This is also a place within Tatra Mountains. It's a set of 4 peaks close to each other that are all higher than 2000 meters above the sea level. Climbing Red Peaks has been my biggest mountain achievement ever. And I did it twice! The first time together with my 2 cousins and the second time together with my wife. To give you some idea how hard it was here are the crucial numbers:
Starting point: 927 meters above the sea level
(the settlement called Kiry)
Highest peak: 2122 meters above the sea level
(the mountain Krzesanica)
Elevation difference: 1195 meters
(it's like 398 floors, each 3 meters high)
Total climb: 1364 meters
(it's like 454 floors, each 3 meters high)
The total climb is the sum of elevation differences where we had to climb (go up). The reason is that when we were going from one peak to the next peak we had to go down to the lowest point between the two peaks first and then we had to climb (go up) again. And we had to do it three times because there were four peaks. The video below shows a couple who went exactly the same route (and they too were disappointed that they couldn't make it to the mountain Kasprowy Wierch).
Here's a picture I took from the 4th Red Peak (Kopa Kondracka) in the direction of the Kasprowy Wierch (I marked the peak of the Kasprowy Wierch with the yellow colour on the copy of the picture):
My wife knew it was a little too far for us to get there, but she was very disappointed anyway. The very next year we went to Zakopane again and we climbed Kasprowy Wierch from the other side, which made her very happy. Here's my wife looking from the Kasprowy Wierch at the Red Peaks (only 2 of them are visible on the picture):
3. Kasprowy Wierch (Kasprowy Peak)
Climbing this mountain was a big challenge too and I did it also twice! The first time completely alone and the second time together with my wife. The elevation difference is around 1050 meters (when starting from Zakopane – a fantastic tourist town with over 27,000 inhabitants). The elevation difference is like 350 floors, each 3 meters high. However you can get to the top without any trouble using a cable car. Well, the trouble is to get to the cable car – the queue of people waiting to get the tickets is usually insanely long. On the other hand if you get to the top on your own then you will have no trouble going down using the cable car – most people use it only to go up the mountain and they go down on feet. Please notice that on the video below you can't clearly see the cable car, but you can clearly see a ski lift (which is a whole different thing).
By the way, I feel the need to point something out about people bragging about some high mountains they climbed, for example Świnica (2301 meters above the sea level). If they did it starting from Zakopane then it's awesome, but if they did it starting from Kasprowy Wierch then it's NOT impressive AT ALL. The elevation difference between Kasprowy Wierch and Świnica is ONLY 314 meters! It's laughable when compared to the elevation difference that we (me and my wife) climbed from Kiry to the Red Peaks (1195 meters). Yes, the climb to Świnica is much more difficult/dangerous (some parts are like rock climbing and there are chains to help the climbers), but I have never been impressed by people doing dangerous things. Such a climb is slower by definition because you have to be very careful not to kill yourself.
4. Błędne Skały (Errant Rocks)
It's a place within the mountain range Góry Stołowe (Table Mountains) where there is a kind of labyrinth of chasms and rocks that you can go through yourself. You can't get lost there because the path is clearly determined, so no worry about that. Also you can go there with little children, mostly because you can drive a car very close to the start of the labyrinth. Here's a picture of me and my little son:
Some of the chasms are very narrow and in some places you have to crouch to get through, which makes it even more interesting and fun. It’s especially funny to go there with little children – they have no trouble there at all, but they can see their parents struggle. When I asked my son if it was tight there he answered “No.”, which made us laugh:
Here's a place where our little boy could go fully upright, while the rest of us had to crouch:
You can see the whole route here:
5. Szczeliniec Wielki (the name is hard to translate – a loose transaltion would be Great Chasms)
This is also a place within Table Mountains, quite similar to Errant Rocks. This place looks great from the outside because it clearly shows why the mountain range is similar to a table:
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