Parlé gravel adventure race
A few weeks after we traveled, I told Mikołaj that I now feel like ultras, because we had rode over 200-300 kilometers earlier, but they always ended closer to dusk than dawn, and this time it was quite different, this time we knew signing up for this party, that we were waiting for us all day and all night and we will not be able to end it with the whole night.
But in turn.
I will not describe you the route kilometer after a kilometer because you can check it by downloading GPX from the organizer, this event is about something else, the most important thing in it is the last part of its name, "adventure", and we had adventures on the route.
The assumption was one, get on Saturday morning and go until we see the Baltic Sea, without sleeping along the way, only with breaks for meals and I will tell you that this route is perfect for this, 404 km on which you will not be bored, and which will treat you with beautiful views that you will rub your eyes with delight.
You will find everything here, the ideals of the Szutry Notecka Forest, which will later remind you of Borne Sulinov, even, wide, where you can only hear the sound of rushing wheels and firing pebbles. Asphalts, perfectly equal on West Pomeranian bicycle roads, but also the worse ones on a crumbling road from a training ground where I still do not know what it was built of, from concrete slabs or leaky asphalt, or maybe the combination of both of these things? There were also dangerous places, requiring concentration, especially defeating them in the dark like slippery wooden bridges in the Drawsko Karajoobrazowy Park near Połczyn Zdrój or crossing the thicket like in the Amazon where walking was a challenge, let alone riding a bicycle, and all this at the very end where you can see a warm bed with your eyes, and you can see a warm meal. It is also a crossing through a stream, or as in my case wading in it, because after my chain fell in the middle of the crossing I had to get off the bike and finish the dirt on foot.
There are more places that you remember, because most likely for the rest of your life there will be a view of the orange ferry with which you will defeat the Noteć River or an amazing section in Góraj, which winds around the surrounding forests growing on the hills.
We also had several unexpected meetings, and some of the chilling blood of the veins because how to describe the meeting with the wolf (!) In the middle of the night in the village which was sleeping long ago and only the henhouse was somehow strangely loud. Fortunately, after a moment of consternation, everyone went their own way, the wolf returned to the forest, and we continued to the trail. If you start driving in the dark, your heartbeat is accelerated by dogs from your passing farms, which, after barking, can also check what power you will generate for the next minute chasing you as strength in your legs.
And if you stop praising the route on which you are going for a moment, you may be able to meet, just like we are, fishing in Notecka or a badger in the forest behind Czaplinek.
Driving this route, we were lucky that in the Drawskie Lake District, where the area is hilly, dense forests and fire roads are gravelly intertwined with concrete slabs, the rain has already stopped raining and we came across a wonderful Golden Hour to get sinking with the darkest forest and narrow paths winding between the trees.
Were we managed to get before dawn? The sunrise greeted us on the beach in Ustroń Morskie, and we still have a few kilometers to the finish line in Kołobrzeg.
The magic of this trip was also added by the fact that we got T -shirts, but only those who decided to cover the long distance, we were special, we had the same "uniforms" as if we were going to explore the expedition undiscovered, and overcoming this route, in this T -shirt means that whenever I wear it reminds me of what I was on my route.
This is not an event organized by the Tuzy of the Polish World Gravele and for me it is her great advantage. This event has the atmosphere of a family trip, you will pass with everyone on the route, with participants and organizers who will wait for you somewhere along the way to give a bottle of cold water and who after a whole day will welcome you a warm meal at the finish and surround you with almost family care, realizing how much a great challenge you did. Everyone is here because you survived it together, and it brings it closer.
I write it almost a year after covering this route and almost a month before driving it again and let it be the best recommendation, because it is a complete route to which you want to come back, and this is not a common phenomenon.
Wojtek Grzesiek, organizer of local laws and active gravelowiec of the Gravelove Poznań community.
Pgar by inoni vol. 2
This year we are organizing the second edition, which will take place on May 24. The route has undergone a small modification to make it even safer and more interesting. With this edition, if you would like a T -shirt, you need to place an additional order, in the package there will be a unique scarf - Gravel's arafatka, of course signed with the inoni logo.
Link to registrationThis race is an adventure that will allow you to break more than one limit. You will cover a distance of 400 km, not asphalt but with beautiful routes.
