There are many lakes in Poland called Białe. The one in question is located close to the Belarusian border - south of Włodawa and north of the Sobibór Landscape Park.
The lake is small. the path surrounding them along the banks is - according to the bicycle counter - 4.5 kilometers. One hour of slow paddling is enough to cover it in a kayak. And yet anyone looking for peace and quiet here would be wrong. It is a water sports center, famous in the whole area, and also known to tourists from distant places. Tourists from Greater Poland and Podkarpacie, and even foreigners come here.
On the promenade like in Sopot
The village of Okuninka is surrounded by the lake on all sides. In its center, on the northern shore, there is traffic like in Sopot in the high season. Most of the accommodation and entertainment base is concentrated here - guesthouses, agritourism farms, camps, campsites, bars, fish fryers and stalls with everything that a holidaymaker by the lake may need. There are even discos and an amusement park. Numerous beaches are guarded by lifeguards, there are several water sports equipment rentals: you can go kayaking, rowing boats, pedal boats, small sailboats or on a board. Every now and then a motorboat drags someone from the shore, and this is on a tire, and this is on the so-called bananas, and that's water skiing. It doesn't get quiet until late in the evening.
For peace in the forest
It's best to go there by bike. From Włodawa to Wola Uhurska, a tourist bicycle route has been mapped out, crossing the forests of Sobibór from the north to the south. The 40 km long route is well marked, properly mapped and quite comfortable. It leads along forest and dirt roads, only from time to time there is only sand and a little mud. Following it, you will visit the most interesting corners of the landscape park with its unique swamps separated by sand dunes. It is one of the few scraps of Polish Polesie that resisted melioration in the times of the People's Republic of Poland. That is why it has kept its natural character. Similar landscapes can be found only in the Poleski National Park, about 25 km to the west.
Under the wooden roof
Sobibór forests are hikers-friendly. Sheds for tourists have been set up by roadways, bicycle and pedestrian routes. This is where to put the car by going onmushroom picking, where to shelter from the rain, and from poverty you can even spend the night in them (in the air, in your own sleeping bag!).
While following the bicycle route, you will find two wooden observation towers: one on the Common Lake in the Żółwiowe Błota reserve with a nice view of the water surface and the surrounding swampy shores (note, the access is not marked, from the crossing of the routes you should go west ), the second one on a hill near Wola Uhurska with a vast panorama of the Bug valley. There is a nature trail leading from the bicycle trail to a nice viewpoint on the Potycze Lake. It is worth using these amenities, because the shores of the lakes in the Sobibór park are wild, overgrown and therefore inaccessible.
Memory stop
Sobiborski Landscape Park takes its name from the village of Sobibór. The name sounds ominous. Near the train station, in the forest, the Nazis organized an extermination camp for Jews. From March 1942 to October 1943, a quarter of a million people were murdered here. The Germans liquidated the camp after the prisoners' revolt and blurred all traces of it. Now in its place, in the forest, there is a monument built in the 1960s and a mound made of ashes. It is worth pausing for a moment and remembering the dead. Those interested can visit a small museum exhibition.
Wild on the border Bug
It would be a pity to leave the area, refusing to run off the Bug border. This river flows lazily, spreading widely and avoiding numerous sandbanks, it accelerates in the suddenly narrowed current. The route is not difficult, but inexperienced people should not decide on it when the water level is elevated. In the area in question, the full route of the Poleska valley of the Bug is over 80 km long and leads from Siedliszcze (south-east of Wola Uhurska) to Różanka (north of Włodawa). However, this is an undertaking for three or four days. We can choose a shorter, one-day option, for example from Wołczyn to Włodawa. Route for approximately 4 hours. Kayaks can be rented on Lake Białe. It is also worth knowing that on this section of the Bug (during the trip you will pass the "Tripoint", i.e. the place where the borders of Poland, Ukraine and Belarus meet) you can only sail with the consent of the Border Guard.
Finally, something for the spirit
Włodawa is a small and a bit sleepy town. However, it has wonderful monuments: in the middle of the square there is a building called the Quadrangle - former stalls and shambles with an internal courtyard, and a short distance away, the Pauline church and monastery (18th century), an Orthodox church (19th century) and two synagogues (older and larger from the 18th century). , the smaller one from the 19th century). The seat of the Łęczyńsko-Włodawskie Lake District Museum is located hereFor ten years it has been organizing the oldest Festival of Three Cultures in Poland. It is hard to find a better place for such an event. This year's edition will be held on September 12-14.