Day two and equally good weather. The Ula River became wider and later joined up with a larger river, making the canoeing much easier, but less exciting.

These dragonflies were buzzing around for most of the journey. Click on the image to enlarge it.

This little butterfly refused to hold its wings open but still looks great. On the enlarged image you can clearly see its proboscis.

Marcinkonys Station. Marcinkonys is the main village in the national park area. The railway liine used to extend from Warsaw to St Petersburg but now trains only run between Marcinkonys and Vilnius. Could this be the chance for Lithuania to put in a long distance cycle path? Or get the trains running again? Or will they choose to build super 6-lane highways - with over-generous EU grants?

Right next to Marcinkonys station, an architectural gem - the public toilets. It even has a chimney. How thoughtful.

After canoeing, I visited another part of the national park, a vast area of wetlands, home of a variety of animals including elk and boar. Unfortunately I saw neither elk nor boar but did become very closely acquainted with the park's population of flies, midges, mosquitoes and horseflies.