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Warsaw, September 09, 2003.
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Small lakes - Suchary
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Puszcza Augustowska – the oldest and the biggest forest in the Poland. There are a lot of lakes in this region. The biggest and the most beautiful “Wigry lake” is the leader of depth in Poland. However each of thousands of lakes has it’s own charm, I loved the smallest lakes. Most of them are hidden very deeply in the forest. If you have enough courage to search for them, you would be very satisfied while admiring the beauty and power of the nature. The water in the lakes is almost black due to high moss grasses all around and the trees which supply humus acid.
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As I already said, lakes are placed in the region of moss – so it is recommended not to come too close, if you really wish to come back home safely. The bank of the lake as it is seen on the above picture does not constitute a solid land and safe place. Roots and dried out plants from recent years formulate good soil for fresh and green plants. But all of this flows over the deep water. The winds sometimes may even formulate small green and alive islands. If some tourist would be careless he would accidentally fall into the water, which he does not expect to exist under such a beautiful bank of the lake. He may be very surprised, how difficult it is in such case, to get out from that kind of the trap – usually it is not possible and the lake gets one more skeleton under water.
The king of this territory is the Beaver. He uses small tries and branches to build his home, as seen on the left photo. Since he eats the wood he also destroys the forest, searching for delicious tries. I have found one of the beavers home. Taking care of the safety of mine as well as his, I gave up to check, if he still lives in this house. The proof of his existence in this area is on the right picture – very fresh cuts on the tree. There were plenty of such tries all around. Once his lovely tries do not exist anymore in this territory, he starts to destroy another kind of tries.
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The area around the lakes is full of various plants. Bushes, small plants, moss and down – hundreds of various and very beautiful plants which you never saw before. Some of them may even look like fresh green and alive carpet. If you like to take pictures of the nature, do not forget to take some extra rolls of films – as you see, I haven’t enough of them at the day, when I visited the kingdom of the beaver.
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Besides of the plants which may make your eyes happy, there are some other, which produce delicious fruits. There were a lot of small bushes of black berries (the left picture – but as you see there were no fruits in August, it was too late). It was still easy to find red cow-berries. I was very surprised, while I saw among fruits one “late” flower on some plant. Look at the middle picture, and try to find it. Closer to the lake, there were plenty of cranberries procumbent between grasses. While taking the most right picture I was scared to death, because I had no solid ground under my feet – it was very dangerous but temptation to shot such picture have won.
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Why do we call these lakes „Suchary”? This name is probably derived from the word “suchy” which in Polish means “dry”. This is because that kind of lakes may disappear, if there are no rains too long, simply they may dry out partially or even totally. Such name was used by people who lived here. Finally the scientists started to use this name, also.
It is worth to find such places, which sometimes are not too far from tourists foot-paths. Staying in the safe distance, you may admire the most reach parts of old forest – but always you have to remember about safety. I already have told you, why the bank of the lake is very dangerous, but the danger may come from the land, also. The moss is very dry in the summer, especially if we do not have enough rains. Small spark from your cigarette may cause a big fire. The moss is deep. If it starts to burn, it is difficult to suppress the fire. Even you would not see any flames on the surface, there is a heat under the surface still, and the flames would come out after some time. I was in the forest when some of the old tree was burning. There was a lot of water all around, but I had no idea how to get it. I had no tools, and the area was dangerous, as I already described. After some time I have solved this problem and tried to fight with the fire. I was very surprised, when I saw a hot steam coming from the underground, while the water felt down on certain places. I understood that heat still exist under the surface.
Greetings from “Suchary lakes” in the region of Suwalki – north-east of Poland – my lovely Lithuanian border.
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