The Dunajec gorge

            The Dunajec is a river in the southern Poland, a right-bank tributary of the Vistula. It starts when two rivers – Czarny Dunajec and Biały Dunajec join together near the city of Nowy Targ. The river is 247 km long (with the Czarny Dunajec river), the catchment area has 6804 km2 (4852 km2 in Poland). After the joining of many smaller streams Dunajec flows widely through the Nowy Targ Valley.

            Flowing through the Pieniny the Dunajec creates a beautiful gorge, from Sromowce Niżne to Szczawnica, being at the same time a boarder river between Poland and Slovakia. The Dunajec continues to flow through the West Beskidy (the gorge between Lubań range and Radziejowa range), Sądecka Valley (here the Dunajec joins the Poprad its biggest tributary) and Pogórze Beskidzkie. It goes through the hills of Pogórze Sądeckie (dams on Rożnowskie Lake and Czchowskie Lake) flows to the Sandomierska Valley and then goes on the embanked channel through the wide valley on Nadwiślańska Lowland. It flows into the Vistula near the city of Opatowiec. The Dunajec has a great importance for the development of tourism in the Małopolska region as the raft on the Dunajec is an attraction on European scale.