So I thought it was this year or never to get a replacement GSP from Europe as I was unhappy with what was on offer here and we will shortly leave the EU and I'm uncertain how this will effect animal movement.
I also thought if I timed it right I could do two or three things at the same time, collect the dog, do some fishing and hunting all at the same time.
Long story short found the right litter in Slovenia and arranged to collect, arranged to meet up with friends in Germany for a couple of days, then pick up puppy before traveling to Poland for hunting and 1 booked the relevant ferries etc.
Set of from home at 2am and drove the 750miles to Dover where we arrived after 12hours, the wife and I stayed with close friends in a little village a few miles from Dover for a couple of days. We left at 4.30am for the ferry terminal and were on our way to Dunkirk at 6am, no issues at the terminal or ferry crossing.
We arrived in Dunkirk on time and set of for a friends residence close to Ansbach in Bavaria, this time instead of the usual 6hour drive it took us 10 hours due to road works etc and all this in high 20s degree temps, not good as the air conditioning packed in! I hoped this was not an omen of things to come.
The same evening we got the call from the breeder about the pup and there was confusion over relevant paperwork, my heart sank, I don't mind admitting I felt sick, the omens were not looking good at all, that was until an hour later, I got the phone call to say everything was still OK and we could collect the pup a week later.
The following day saw me up early out with my two adult dogs checking out the local fields and woods for Roe etc, before it got to hot, by 9.30 it was 26 degrees.
I not only saw a few roe but also a small group of pigs, some storks and various other birds not normally seen in the UK.
Later on in the day after a brief sightseeing tour I made some phone calls and I arranged to travel to Poland a week early to visit good hunting friends and get some hunting done.
We spent another full day in Bavaria and the following morning we set off on the 6hour journey to our destination in Poland, the 6 hour usual time turned out a joke! 9 1/2 hour later we arrived in southwest Poland, again roadworks had done us, again high 20s and our first point in Poland was to book a garage for the aircon, I didn't fancy another big drive in the heat without it..
When a friend suggested the location of a mainly European taxidermy collection to rival anything I had seen, it seemed to good to miss and as it was only some 10 miles away, off we went first thing in the morning as the caretaker agreed to show us round before official opening.
We arrived at a castle and its annexes, it was a museum of Forestry, it housed the private collection of taxidermy of the head forestry lecturer and one time curator of the museum, a collection put together between his 40th and 82nd birthdays! an awful lot of hunting in those 42years.
Although there were no real pearlers of Roe, there were great examples of Red and Fallow, bison etc as well as a few good quality African mounts, and the collection was massive.
The museum was also very interesting on the forestry side,
something I have always been interested in and it was interesting to see just how advanced their forestry management was compared with ours in the UK.
We were also treated to a great meal, so I left for home in a better mood.
As left our shady parking area and were hit by the heat, 33degrees, we later found we were sitting in one of the hottest areas on the planet at that time and it looked like it wasn't going to end any time soon.
We later found out that the record temps for Poland had been broken for both April and May, 25deg coldest day and 38 the hottest whilst we were there.
These temps were not conducive to good angling as the carp were in full swing spawning, so that left sight seeing, eating, oh and hunting.
So over the course of the next couple of weeks we did just that and collected the puppy when expected.
I went out that eve but didn't see a lot and got seriously bit by some nasty critter, so I beat a hasty retreat.
Following day saw us head for a shooting competition, not unlike the UK clay shooting, but here you enter- 30 skeet followed by 10 minute break, 50 O Trap, 10 mins break, 100 sporting, 10 min break, 20 hare, 3/4hour break followed by 50 running boar, deer with rifle and 20 stationary targets.
I didn't compete, but it was great to watch, meet up with friend and make new acquaintances and the food laid on free was second to none. The only thing that semi spoiled things was the fact that my arm was now swollen and painful from the bite I got the previous eve, something I had to put up with for over 2 weeks..
My new companion, who followed everywhere whilst traveling to the hunting.
The following day was the first day of the roe buck season and it saw stalkers out everywhere, including myself, four of the five of our members who went out
that morning, got their buck.
On one night I was lucky to see a Sow with 13 youngsters and she was trying here hardest to keep a young male from getting near them, or steeling their food.
When the whole party got 150 yards from me, she didn't need to worry about him again, he was taken back to the larder.
I also thought if I timed it right I could do two or three things at the same time, collect the dog, do some fishing and hunting all at the same time.
Long story short found the right litter in Slovenia and arranged to collect, arranged to meet up with friends in Germany for a couple of days, then pick up puppy before traveling to Poland for hunting and 1 booked the relevant ferries etc.
Set of from home at 2am and drove the 750miles to Dover where we arrived after 12hours, the wife and I stayed with close friends in a little village a few miles from Dover for a couple of days. We left at 4.30am for the ferry terminal and were on our way to Dunkirk at 6am, no issues at the terminal or ferry crossing.
We arrived in Dunkirk on time and set of for a friends residence close to Ansbach in Bavaria, this time instead of the usual 6hour drive it took us 10 hours due to road works etc and all this in high 20s degree temps, not good as the air conditioning packed in! I hoped this was not an omen of things to come.
The same evening we got the call from the breeder about the pup and there was confusion over relevant paperwork, my heart sank, I don't mind admitting I felt sick, the omens were not looking good at all, that was until an hour later, I got the phone call to say everything was still OK and we could collect the pup a week later.
The following day saw me up early out with my two adult dogs checking out the local fields and woods for Roe etc, before it got to hot, by 9.30 it was 26 degrees.
I not only saw a few roe but also a small group of pigs, some storks and various other birds not normally seen in the UK.
Later on in the day after a brief sightseeing tour I made some phone calls and I arranged to travel to Poland a week early to visit good hunting friends and get some hunting done.
We spent another full day in Bavaria and the following morning we set off on the 6hour journey to our destination in Poland, the 6 hour usual time turned out a joke! 9 1/2 hour later we arrived in southwest Poland, again roadworks had done us, again high 20s and our first point in Poland was to book a garage for the aircon, I didn't fancy another big drive in the heat without it..When a friend suggested the location of a mainly European taxidermy collection to rival anything I had seen, it seemed to good to miss and as it was only some 10 miles away, off we went first thing in the morning as the caretaker agreed to show us round before official opening.
We arrived at a castle and its annexes, it was a museum of Forestry, it housed the private collection of taxidermy of the head forestry lecturer and one time curator of the museum, a collection put together between his 40th and 82nd birthdays! an awful lot of hunting in those 42years.
Although there were no real pearlers of Roe, there were great examples of Red and Fallow, bison etc as well as a few good quality African mounts, and the collection was massive.
The museum was also very interesting on the forestry side,
something I have always been interested in and it was interesting to see just how advanced their forestry management was compared with ours in the UK.
We were also treated to a great meal, so I left for home in a better mood.
As left our shady parking area and were hit by the heat, 33degrees, we later found we were sitting in one of the hottest areas on the planet at that time and it looked like it wasn't going to end any time soon.
We later found out that the record temps for Poland had been broken for both April and May, 25deg coldest day and 38 the hottest whilst we were there.
These temps were not conducive to good angling as the carp were in full swing spawning, so that left sight seeing, eating, oh and hunting.
So over the course of the next couple of weeks we did just that and collected the puppy when expected.
I went out that eve but didn't see a lot and got seriously bit by some nasty critter, so I beat a hasty retreat.
Following day saw us head for a shooting competition, not unlike the UK clay shooting, but here you enter- 30 skeet followed by 10 minute break, 50 O Trap, 10 mins break, 100 sporting, 10 min break, 20 hare, 3/4hour break followed by 50 running boar, deer with rifle and 20 stationary targets.
I didn't compete, but it was great to watch, meet up with friend and make new acquaintances and the food laid on free was second to none. The only thing that semi spoiled things was the fact that my arm was now swollen and painful from the bite I got the previous eve, something I had to put up with for over 2 weeks..
The following day we headed over to see some sights and to meet up with another friend Kuba a good friend, he showed us round his latest house build, he is a member of three hunting circles in Poland and has his own house on each, plus others in Bavaria, he pulled out all stops and showed us things we would possible never have found, both general and hunting wise Pluss yet again fed us at his restaurant for free, I started to realise why I like it there so much!.
Whilst out and about I saw the following birds and their nests, Black Storks, Bitterns, Marsh Harrier, Golden oriole, Great egret, Common crane and well as a lot of other birds, like red backed shrike and redstarts etc, lovely to see birds in the numbers one used to expect here and it was a bonus for me as I'm
normally never in Poland during the breeding season.
I also saw some rather impressive beetles!.
Whilst out and about I saw the following birds and their nests, Black Storks, Bitterns, Marsh Harrier, Golden oriole, Great egret, Common crane and well as a lot of other birds, like red backed shrike and redstarts etc, lovely to see birds in the numbers one used to expect here and it was a bonus for me as I'm
normally never in Poland during the breeding season.
I also saw some rather impressive beetles!.
two of the beetles!
Although we had quite a busy day, it didn't stop us from going out for the boar that eve and although I saw, Foxes, Hares, Roe and Red deer, I saw no pigs
only the damage they had done.
I spent the next few days following a similar pattern, of hunting, sight seeing driving collecting puppies etc, sometimes getting a shot in the eve, other times not.
Here are some of the highlights.
During the day I was checking out a drilled field of corn and noticed the damage was mostly concentrated closest to a field of fully grown rye and not near the woods and between a few of us a plan was hatched. It was decided that as we were all meant to be meeting up the following morning at 10am and the hunting circle headquarters, some of us would instead meet up at 7am and split into two groups one would stand in the fields adjacent to the rye with guns whilst others would beat out the crop.
Being as I was guest of honour! I was positioned as a gun along with two others.
The plan worked superbly, for me anyway as all 11 of the pigs trotted out some 25 yards from me, I got two young males of 35 and 40kg, I know some of you will say only 2 out of 11, well I'm sorry to say I am not a trick stot like some on YouTube, and as I have only been shooting driven boar a few years, I have to know what I shooting and it also takes me a while to reload, but I was over the moon, two running shots for two pigs, both head shots.
Although we had quite a busy day, it didn't stop us from going out for the boar that eve and although I saw, Foxes, Hares, Roe and Red deer, I saw no pigs
only the damage they had done.
I spent the next few days following a similar pattern, of hunting, sight seeing driving collecting puppies etc, sometimes getting a shot in the eve, other times not.
Here are some of the highlights.
During the day I was checking out a drilled field of corn and noticed the damage was mostly concentrated closest to a field of fully grown rye and not near the woods and between a few of us a plan was hatched. It was decided that as we were all meant to be meeting up the following morning at 10am and the hunting circle headquarters, some of us would instead meet up at 7am and split into two groups one would stand in the fields adjacent to the rye with guns whilst others would beat out the crop.
Being as I was guest of honour! I was positioned as a gun along with two others.
The plan worked superbly, for me anyway as all 11 of the pigs trotted out some 25 yards from me, I got two young males of 35 and 40kg, I know some of you will say only 2 out of 11, well I'm sorry to say I am not a trick stot like some on YouTube, and as I have only been shooting driven boar a few years, I have to know what I shooting and it also takes me a while to reload, but I was over the moon, two running shots for two pigs, both head shots.
The two boar were taken back and cleaned, the liver was cooked with onions and when everybody else got there at the prearranged time of 10 am, we had liver and onion with fresh bread for breakfast, simply super.
The Following day I drove some 60 miles to another hunting circle, again made up mostly of friends and acquaintances from precious years.
We were all looking at clothing supplied for examination by the local hunting shooting shop, the idea being to choose clothing for all and the circle pay for it.Again pig liver and onions was supplied for breakfast as one of the lads had shot a pig the night before.
Photographs were being taken mostly as two of us have had serious spinal surgery in the past under the supervision of the great
Darek was the fist person in the world with a total spinal cord separation that walked again after some remarkable surgery.
The Following day I drove some 60 miles to another hunting circle, again made up mostly of friends and acquaintances from precious years.
We were all looking at clothing supplied for examination by the local hunting shooting shop, the idea being to choose clothing for all and the circle pay for it.Again pig liver and onions was supplied for breakfast as one of the lads had shot a pig the night before.
Photographs were being taken mostly as two of us have had serious spinal surgery in the past under the supervision of the great
Darek was the fist person in the world with a total spinal cord separation that walked again after some remarkable surgery.
Myself and Darek seated with other members standing after breakfast of Dzik liver.
My new companion, who followed everywhere whilst traveling to the hunting.
The following day was the first day of the roe buck season and it saw stalkers out everywhere, including myself, four of the five of our members who went out
that morning, got their buck.
On one night I was lucky to see a Sow with 13 youngsters and she was trying here hardest to keep a young male from getting near them, or steeling their food.
When the whole party got 150 yards from me, she didn't need to worry about him again, he was taken back to the larder.
It turned out my companion liked boar.
I had hoped to meet up with one other person, a member of this forum, who lived some 3 hours away from myself, but through unavoidable circumstances it never happened., however there's always next time.
It wont be long before I head back, the carp are still calling me! so later in the summer Ill have another go and it would be rude to Poland not to hunt some more of her beautiful animals.
We travelled home to the UK with big cool boxes full of fresh wild boar meat, and various Polish smoked products and one very lively well bred GSP puppy, even the adult dogs loved all the sun. all in all very happy persons..
I had hoped to meet up with one other person, a member of this forum, who lived some 3 hours away from myself, but through unavoidable circumstances it never happened., however there's always next time.
It wont be long before I head back, the carp are still calling me! so later in the summer Ill have another go and it would be rude to Poland not to hunt some more of her beautiful animals.
We travelled home to the UK with big cool boxes full of fresh wild boar meat, and various Polish smoked products and one very lively well bred GSP puppy, even the adult dogs loved all the sun. all in all very happy persons..
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Matter of having to, I wouldn't be able to go if it wasn't for the speeds.
