Wieliczka Salt Mine

Earlyish start to the morning, pick up for our morning tour to the Wieliczka Salt Mine was 08:25 and we had to find where our breakfast was being served first, which was a couple of streets away. But we were fine and with plenty of time to spare we took our seats on the tour bus and set off. Tom had been here before but I truly did not know what to expect.

After being organised into our tour group and advised that the descent may not be suitable for certain people suffering medical conditions or limited fitness in a mine that dates back to the 11th Century we began walking down the wooden spiral(ish) staircase. After making a slow descent we arrived at our 1st rest point at Level 1; 64 metres down, called “The Bono”. Around 10 minutes later the final stragglers of our group arrived. Following a short delay due to losing one of our number who had to return to the surface via the emergency lift, we continued a gradual descent walking down various passages mined in the rock.

During the descent of varying degrees and levels we learnt more about the history of the mine, invluding tasting the salt as we walked through the tunnels, how it changed every couple of hundred years and finally arriving at the bottom of the 9 levels and 327 metres below the surface.Read more