Morskie Oko Hike in Zakopane - The MOST Stunning Place in Poland!!

I haven't had a surge of emotion like that in a very long time from something you know just from a set of mountains and a lake. And there is a sneak peek at the most embarrassing clip on the channel so far. You'll see the full moment of weakness later on in the video. I was in two minds whether to include it at all but if it convinces you to visit Morski Oko then it served It's a magnificent place and well worth the 21 kilometre round trip mostly on pretty dull terrain. Before we get to the hiking I wanted to start off with a quick word of warning that I only figured out late the night before. If you are arriving by car then you'll need to book a car space online the day before and make sure you arrive early enough to be sure that you can get a parking spot. Your day will be infinitely more complicated if you stuff this up because it does get very busy later in the day. After paying your entry fee we have an estimated time of two hours and 20 minutes to make it to Morski Oko but I think we can shave a bit off that by keeping up a steady pace. Now I've been told to get here early and the car park was probably a third full when I arrived and hit the trail at 7am. So far very few people around which is a good sign so hopefully I can get some time at the lake without the massive crowds that are sure to come in later on. Speaking of the crowds I found this mildly annoying and I can't help but think there'd be far fewer people there if everyone had to walk but on the plus side the horses looked very healthy and well fed but geez it would be hard work for a long and sustained period of time. So the forecast last night was for rain all today but there was a small window of two hours from 6am to 8am where the sun was going to come out so I've taken the gamble got here early and you can just see the sun peeking its head over the mountains there so I'm hoping that that lasts for at least a couple of hours before the the clouds roll in again so looks like we're gonna get lucky. Now the other thing that gets talked about negatively about this hike is as you can see I'm on a sealed road so it's not particularly challenging it's just a long uphill walk. Having said that I think once we get to the lake there are some trails around the back that we're going to check out later on which should be a bit more challenging but but after yesterday's effort doing 16ks around the mountain trails on the other side of town my knees are pretty happy to have a nice true flat surface today so no complaints from me. So overall the weather's looking good here early enough to have a bit of solitude on the trail now as long as I don't run into any bears should be a very exciting day. Aside from the mountain glimpses off in the distance there really isn't much to say about the journey except for two things. One there are toilets every so often which is handy. Two I mistakenly assumed that these trails went elsewhere but they're actually shortcuts where the road has a series of hairpin bends. I walked the long way a couple of times before figuring this out. The lack of variety in the surface of the road at least frees up your attention to take in the scenery. The trees are blocking this a little bit now but there's this big bowl looking set of mountains over there and just when we come through this clearing over here as the road takes a right there's going to be a whole new set of peaks. Turns out that bowl looking thing was actually where we were headed so forget the peaks to the right. As I got closer this became pretty damn obvious and the size of this bowl started to make things very exciting. Anticipation was growing as I got closer and it wasn't long before I walked up on this glorious view for the first time. It felt like I had walked into a grand cauldron of nature. Yes I'd seen plenty of photos of the place but nothing could prepare me for the real thing and I will admit to being a bit overwhelmed by it all. So it's very overwhelming walking into this place and I'll do my best to describe it. So last year I went to I think it's in Austria. Big glowing blue alpine lake and the year before in Switzerland forget the pronunciation something like that another glowing blue alpine lake but they seem to be more spread out or the area is just grander whereas this it's huge but it's like a big cauldron that you walk into and the mountains just feel much closer and much taller and while it's never going to look like that in a video or a photo as much as what it does in person just when you walk around the corner and especially it's so peaceful here in the morning where when there's not many people around that I haven't had a surge of emotion like that in a very long time from something you know just from a set of mountains in a lake so anyway I hope I'm glad I was able to get that out properly but I hope that gives you some idea of what this place is like that the video can't tell you. I do have a much more composed attempt at explaining this later in the video but just know it all came from a place of absolute happiness. There's a hiking trail that goes all the way around the lake with an extra climb to a second lake right up there and that's where we're headed. You'll notice that there are very few people around the water's edge. This will change very fast as the day goes on. So this rock here seems to be the money shot that's in all those Instagram pictures. It's an easy and peaceful walk around the lake with a number of beautiful spots where you can hang out on the water's edge and just enjoy the view. Now it's time to head up again and as we finally reach our turnaround point I think this was the most people I'd seen all day but there was still plenty of space and you were spoiled for choice for which view you'd like to take in forwards or behind you. I was now just over 10 kilometers and two and a quarter hours from the car so I was hungry. Now you're so close to the mountains here that you can't possibly fit it in the shot so I do have to spin a little bit just so you can get an idea of how on how nice this place is but also just how big those mountains are. So it's the end of the road for any hiking trails, mountain climbing only from here which is well beyond my capabilities. If you look just over my shoulder you can see that building right at the start, that hut with the restaurant and the lookout point that started this whole thing. So what an incredible place. I could have sat here all day but that weather forecast was in the back of my mind so it was time to start the long journey back to the car and continue around the lake to complete the full loop. When walking in a is much closer to the cliff faces above. This gives you great perspective in terms of the scale of these mountains and some of the views are very daunting but there's also plenty of nice lakeside places to stop for a rest as well. By the time I made it back to the mountain hut the waterfront had become much busier even though it was still relatively early in the day but it was nowhere near as bad as what I expected based on what I'd read online. It was easy to get away from the congestion and just enjoy the view in peace. So now that I've done the full loop and had plenty of time to compose myself and get used to the surroundings I guess what I meant to say earlier is that the moment where you first come around the corner and lay your eyes on this incredible panorama it's just one of those special moments. So I'm about to walk back around that corner and I don't want you to see it because it's the sort of thing you just have to experience for yourself. So make sure you get out here one day so you can. Now for the long long walk back to the car. Okay nailed it that time. So a couple of final points I'd like to make about the road element of things. One is it's not always such a bad thing because if you don't have to worry about your footing you can gaze at the the views along the way without having to worry. The second, hang on a second, another one of these. The second is that there's nothing rewarding about walking downhill on a road for 10 kilometers. So if they were renting out bikes at the top so I could roll my way down I would jump on that in a second. The only remaining question is can I beat the rain because it's coming. I think I'm only 20 to 30 minutes away from my car so I'm going to avoid the worst of it but I do hope for the sake of everybody up there that it passes quickly. Well you can't win them all. The rain has come. That light rain turned into absolutely torrential rain a few minutes later and I had to jog the last 20 minutes before the water soaked through everything I had and would kill my phone. This is my very soggy self explaining what happened. The full story will be in my next video where I go through my entire Zakopane experience so stay tuned for that one.