The far south-east corner of Poland is a place where the map runs out of road. The Terebowiec flows through the Bieszczady, the lowest and loneliest range of the Polish Carpathians, a land of wide grassy ridges called poloniny, deep beech forests and a few scattered villages, and the border with Ukraine is never far. The nearest settlements are Lutowiska, a village of a few hundred people, and across the frontier the town of Turka, so this is not a place with services. The nearest town where you can count on fuel and shops is Ustrzyki Dolne, a good half hour back along the valley road.
The Bieszczady were not always empty. Before the Second World War this was home to Boyko and Lemko communities, who herded sheep and cattle and built wooden churches. After the war the villages were emptied, first by the changing borders and then by the forced resettlement of Operation Vistula in 1947, and the forests and meadows took over. What remains are fruit trees standing in the woods where gardens once were, old graveyards and the footprints of cellars, and a sense of absence that sticks with you.
That emptiness is also why the nature here is so rich. The beech forests of the Bieszczady, with their old trees and fallen logs, form part of the Primeval Beech Forests of the Carpathians, a World Heritage site that stretches across several countries. Brown bears, wolves and lynx live here in numbers that are rare in Europe, and the herds of European bison, reintroduced in the 1960s, are a famous attraction. In autumn the stags roar on the high meadows, and the beeches turn gold and copper.
The riding is excellent in a quiet way. The Bieszczady loop road runs for about a hundred and fifty kilometres through the hills, with gentle climbs, smooth surfaces and long views across the poloniny, and traffic is light except on summer weekends. It passes Wolosate, the highest village in Poland, and the road toward the border at Ustrzyki Gorne, where the pavement ends and the mountains begin. Fog can fill the valleys in the mornings, and in winter snow closes some of the minor roads. Spring and autumn are the best seasons. Carry cash and some food, as shops are few, and keep your speed down at dusk, when deer step out on to the tarmac.