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Warsaw, September 25, 2003.
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Black Hancza
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I knew this river for years. Whenever I was at Suwalki region (north east of Poland) I had a good map with myself, and tried to find all of the places, where I was able to drive my car as close to river as possible. Then, I used to spend hours admiring its diversified and wonderful banks.
If you have never been there, you are unable to imagine, how various may be the river and its surroundings. All what I saw, starts very inconspicuous, when the small river starts to flow from moraine hills at the north from beautiful lake named Hancza. Very narrow and full of stones, creates very wild and unfriendly scenery. After 47 kilometers it falls into Wigry lake, and on the other side it starts to flow, as much wider and deeper river. From this point canoe lovers used to start their flow. They are able to have physical exercises as well as the very sensitive contact with the nature.
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After several years of admiring the river, just looking at her from her banks, I decided to get closer and to get know this river till the end of her, when it falls into the Augustovski Channel. Rapidly changing weather did not allow me to take too many pictures, but those which were taken, present the object of my admiration very well. Entire excursion took just three days. The end of my trip was just few yards after two-chamber water-gate at Paniewo – the only such object in Poland. Well, it was not enough to take advantage of close contact with the river and surrounding nature. Such excursion should be planed that way, so you have to flow not more than 10 kilometers per day – and the end should be planned rather at Augustov than at Panievo. For those for whom it is not enough to flow on such distance, I would recommend – for the next vacation – to continue this trip along the rivers Biebrza and Narew. OK, but this time let’s have a look at Black Hancza.
The first several kilometers of Black Hancza allow us to admire its changing width and depth. Its low shaped banks with plenty of canes, with the fields hidden behind, which are replaced by forests, systematically. Then the river changes its look – the banks are higher and canes are replaced with trees, which come closer and closer – and finally – when the river risen its level of water – they are sunk in the water.
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Patient tourists flow further, passing sunken stones. After some time he (or she, or both) is in the middle of Augustovski Wood. In that area, forest with leaves is replaced with forest with needles, and the river-bank becomes very high and abrupt. This is why there are so many fallen and sunken woods in this area. Flowing further is much harder, but even more satisfactory. This part of the river is nothing else than just a hard to follow set of rapid turns, sometimes up to 180 degrees.
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Experienced photographer knows, that while flowing on the fast moving river – frequently changing its direction – his camera should be always ready for next shoot. There is no time to carefully adjust proper exposition conditions. All what you can do, it is fast choice of your goal – and shot – before your canoe would flow to another place. Well, try to imagine, how many times I was too slow, and having not enough time to “preserve” charming beauty, had to shout to the “captain” of mine: “Entire power reverse!” You should know, that it is not so easy to stop the canoe, and force it to flow in reverse direction, trying to find the lost image. All this becomes even harder, while you try to use just one camera in order to simultaneously take pictures of country sides, birds, and even underwater world, whose beauty and richness fascinates you as well as the fantastic views observed under the water.
Trying to take photos of surrounding land, as well as the passing flowers and plants, I had frequently to force to stop my canoe and even to force it to flow in reverse direction – just to take next picture. This is not so easy in the world of rapidly changing nature, where plants and flowers are changing so fast.
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It is hard to say, what appeared to me as the most beautiful, but there is no doubt, that colorful flowers attracted me always. Perhaps, because the second half of August is not the best time to admire their beauty. Further more, I was lazy on the first day, and did not take too many pictures of flowers which were common near Wigry lake. Then the world changed its image and I only could dream about meeting these species again. Well, I still think, that as soon as summer comes back, I should be there again – this time with well prepared photography plan.
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If the journey is planed mainly for the purpose of taking picture of the nature, it is worth to consider taking small anchor. It would be very useful, when we are forced to replace our lenses or awaiting for the sun, which temporary is hidden behind the clouds.
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OK. After all what I already wrote, I have to be honest. The picture on the left was taken on some of the lakes in Augustov region – not on Black Hancza. And beautiful white-pink lilies, which were very popular on the first few kilometers of Black Hancza, disappeared very fast, and I had no occasion to take a picture of them. That is the said part of this story, because its charm was unforgotten.
If anybody was in Botanic Garden and looking at pools with water plants would think that he/she understands, what I am writing abut, he/she is totally wrong. Believe me, even such places are worth to visit, it cannot demonstrate you the power of underwater life. Just a few hundreds of square yards are not enough to show the nature – artificial, made of concrete tanks, never would do that.
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Several years ago, when I used to breed aquarium tropical fishes, I always used to dream to steal at least several plants from the wide river, and to place them in my aquarium tanks. I was very said observing the plants which started to die after several days of the life in too warm and stagnant water. They were covered with algae very soon. In the river everything was fresh and wonderful, colorful and always moving. Sometimes we are in jealousy because of the cay which does not exist in our region, but we do not remember about the beauty hidden beneath our Polish waters. This is very wonderful world, however not similar to tropical one.
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When your canoe moves fast, you are always in a hurry, trying to take a picture before you flow too far. It happens very often, that when the pictures are developed, you are very surprised with the results, especially when you try to take a picture of the plants hidden beneath the water. Why? I have forgotten, that even I can concentrate my eyes on particular object under the water, the lenses in my camera (with very small diaphragm) will allow to “register” everything, regardless of the distance to the object. That is, why on some pictures you can see not only underwater plants, but also the bank mirrored on the surface of the water. This is illustrated very well on the picture in the middle (above). The left and right picture demonstrates my efforts to take a picture of the fishes. There were a lot of them, but the biggest one never came close to the surface, they remained deep under water, close to the bottom, so there are no pictures of them.
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Above, there are two pictures of the plants which did not made final decision, whether to live under the water or rather above. Looking at the left picture you could notice some girandoles, which lives in this region in large colonies.
I think that taking pictures of birds and insects gave mi the biggest pleasure. Unfortunately, the huge colony of White Storks living in this region, used to build their nests very far from the river, so do not search for their pictures in this letter. Perhaps you expect the pictures of Crane (Grus Dirgo) and Grey Heron (Ardea Cinerea)? Unfortunately, there are not so many of them here, and even they live very close to water tanks and rivers, they are very skittish. I was really in jealousy, while listening to the stories of other nature lovers and photographers – they were very excited, while talking about their photographical successes. Anyway, it is impractical to expect, that just three days journey would be enough to capture entire nature with all existing here species. I did not meet even single Crane, and the Herons which I saw were always faster than me, and they flown away before I took my camera.
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The proud Swans are always good objects for the pictures. I had occasion to meet entire family of them. Begging for bred, they came very close to canoe. Even they came close – fizzling – they used to warn tourist, that they will fight for their children, if they feel any danger. It is important to be careful, because even small movement of your paddle would be treated as an attack. The stories about Swans which attacked people on the land and have had broken somebody’s leg, just biting with their wing, are not exaggerated. Unfortunate and not familiar with the risk observer may experience such problems sometimes. It may happen also, that Swan may frighten the tourist in the canoe, and if he/she makes too many sudden movements, the canoe may capsize and unfortunate operator of canoe unexpectedly falls into the water. In such circumstances the danger is even bigger, since the Swan may not allow frightened tourist get out from the water. Remember: Swans are very strong.
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The Ducks may be met on the Black Hancza very often – almost everywhere. They never cause any danger to anybody. If canoe comes too close, they will fly away immediately. Sometimes, as you can see on the above picture, they have enough courage to come very close, hopping to be prized with the piece of bread.
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Perhaps you are surprised looking at above pictures. Why did I put them among pictures with birds? Look at the bank carefully. There are plenty of small holes in the sandy bank. These are nests of Sand Martin (Riparia riparia). In the last few kilometers of Black Hancza there were many of them. Their speed is so high, I even did not try to take a picture of them.
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This picture is the effort of ”collaboration” of model with flying “actress”, lasting fifteen minutes. I am not sure what attracted this nice Dragon-fly to my “captain”. She returned many times, and when I was sure that I am ready to take the picture, she flown away, and after some time came back and set in totally different place. This was real “living” jewelry. Standing in the deep and fast moving water, I was trying to take a picture – finally succeeded!
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OK, nothing last for ever, even the longest river has its end, but the end of Black Hancza is not the end of my journey. Taking advantage of 200 years old Augustovski Channel with many water-gates, we will flow further, across the lakes located on very different levels. Thanks to channels and water-gates we can flow without the necessity to carry the canoe. On the picture, there is a first of encountered water-gates: Sosnowka (the name derived from Pine).
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The nature along the channel is different than along the river, but of the same richness. There are a lot of plants typical to flooded regions and marshland. The pales on the picture, has nothing to do with dieing trees. This is the way the bank is strengthened – exactly the same way as 200 hundred years ago.
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There is no fast water flow in the channel, allowing flotation. But even you cannot see this on the picture, the water does not “stand”, it flows very slowly. We are in basin of Niemen and water flows in its direction, on the contrary to us. That will last till the end of our trip, until we go thru the two-channel water-gate at Paniewo. Then we will enter the lake which belongs to basin of Biebrza and Narew rivers. From this point, the flow will not act against us. Anyway, strong winds may still make severe troubles, and force us to work hard.
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See you at the wonderful waters at Suvalki region – and at many others – in Poland of course!
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