Bilberry knoll

No idea what elephants have got do with the hill

She offered to take my picture - I think she got a bit confused by my camera.

14-08-12

Although relatively unknown in comparison to mountain ranges such as the Alps, Dolomites, Pyrenees, the Carpathian mountains form an arc roughly 1,500 km long across central and eastern Europe making them the second-longest mountain range in Europe (after the Scandinavian mountains). The western Carpathians form the boundary between Poland and the republics of Czech and Slovakia.



I have now travelled further east along that border to a small village on the Czech side called Stribrnice. From there I followed a path that relentlessly winds its way up to yet another summit that lies on the Polish/Czech border called Snieznik (1138m/P657) and, hence, yet another 'snow mountain'.

Snieznik

 When I set out on this journey from England as I drove to Harwich from my home I bagged a handful of very minor hills on the way. One of these was a sub-Hump called Bilberry Knoll. The most memorable thing about the hill was there was not a bilberry/wimberry/blaeberry/whortleberry/vaccinium myrtillus to be seen. Snieznik may have been without snow, but it certainly knows how to produce bilberries (Cz: Boruvka; Pl: Borowka). There are hectares of them and there were several enterprising people picking the berries by the bucket load.

Boruvka Knoll

Czech sign on the summit

Polish cairn on the summit

Zigzag walk to Wielk Szyszak

12-08-12

Martinovka Boudy and the MRT - Wielk Szyszak in background

Started from Spindleruv Myln and took the road towards Preczel Karkonska. At a sharp bend left the road and joined the green marked path to Martinovka Boudy hut - as I arrived there so did the Mountain Rescue Team. There was a flurry of activity that ended with the 'injured party' walking down under his own steam, so not sure what was going on. From there took a blue marked path to meet the Polish/Czech border and then followed the border west. At the foot of the final slope of Wielk Szyszak there was a sign in both languages, I assume, saying no access. I said to the Polish couple looking at the sign 'I don't understand what it means' and carried on past it - inspiring them to follow me up to the top - 1509m/P331 - where there was a defaced memorial stone, probably from the Soviet era.

Sniezne Kotly TV mast

There were many other walkers up on the ridge, but almost all of them ignored the true summit and headed towards the next top, Sniezne Kotly, which sported a relatively attractive radio/television mast disguised as a farm building and where there was a good view down to Poland through a large corrie. From there I went to look for the source of the Labe/Elbe near a dreadful 1960s ski-hotel at Labsky Vodopod.

Europe's fourth largest river

Labsky Vodopad

 From Labsky Vodopod I traversed back to Martinovka Boudy and then returned to Spindleruv Mylyn

Spindleruv shopping centre - reminiscent of Oldham's Spindles Centre without a Greggs or Claire's Accessories

Went up to a Czechpoint

09/10-08-12

Left Wroclaw and drove through the Karkonosze or Krkonose mountains crossing the Czech Republic border at 1046 m (i.e. about 40 metres lower than Snowdon) at Przl Okraj. Drove downhill to Pec Pod Snezkou – a small ski resort. 

Obri Dul valley

Further up the Obri Dul

Walked up a very well engineered  blue marked path along the Obri Dul  valley and up to the main ridge of the Karkonsze (means giant hills) and then in a hailstorm walked along the ski trail that forms the Polish/Czech R border up to the top of Sniezka (1603m/P1202) the highest point in the Czech R.

Border trail on ridge

The mountain is very popular  and there were hundreds of people there or on their way up or down. Many of them would have used the chairlift half-way up – but not the second chair lift to the summit as it is out of action and being replaced. 

Sniezka

Polish cafe

Czech post Office

The summit has a chapel, two cafes (one Polish, one Czech) and, incongruously, a Czech post office. In my haste to get out of the rain I dashed into the Polish cafe, even though I only had Czech Crowns that I'd got before ascending, and when given change in Polish Zlotys it       meant wasted effort.

Plaque on the trigpoint

Sniezka means ‘snow –covered. So, after Snohetta in Norway, that makes this the second snow hill of the trip. Although it couldn’t have been more of a contrast.  It was more like a walk using the tourist path on that other snow hill, Snowdon.

I walked down the yellow marked path – the first section consisting of steps that were set at a distance apart that made it impossible to get into any kind of a rhythm. Resisted the temptation to use the chairlift down from Ruzova Hora and then had the green marked path to myself  through the pine trees to Pec. Typically, as is usually the case with Sod’s law, the weather cleared soon after I left the summit.

 

 

Slept nearby to Pec.

Spent a major part of the next day trying to sort out the gas bottle for the van*, so did not get round to tackling my next hill. However, did have a pleasant 20km cycle ride on the ski trails around the resort of Spindleruv Mlyn and then slept in the Autokemp campsite alongside an upper-reach of the river Labe/Elbe which further on flows through Dresden and Hamburg, amongst many other towns and cities – and is the fourth largest river in Europe.

Greatly amused the campsite owner as I used the English pronunciation of wi-fi (i.e. rhyming with fly) which she pronounced as wee-fee.

*There has been no explosion, as of yet, so my efforts worked.

Hotel Martin, Spindleruv Mlyn

Polish plains

08-08-12

Poland

It is plainly plain that there is very little for hill baggers on the plains of northern Poland. It wasn’t until I reached near Wroclaw in Lower Silesia that there was any evidence that the earth is not as flat as my feet. The other contrast with Scandinavia is there are far fewer trees – lots of big farms (collective farms of the Soviet era?) growing grain or corn.

Wroclaw Town Hall

Wroclaw seemed like a big working city with a lovely tourist oriented centre and rather grimmer surroundings  with rather poor road surfaces at times consisting of uneven setts* and a lot of tramlines. Although I did like the way the traffic lights gave a count down to indicate when they would change colour.

*Many people mistakenly refer to setts as cobbles or cobblestones – setts are flat, whereas cobbles are rounded.

  

Spent a few hours wandering around the tourist centre and found Wroclaw’s nearest equivalent to Stanfords or the Cordee mapshop – the Swiat Podroznika on ul. Wita Stwosza.

Bouldering

Slept in a quiet side street off the Rynek square, with no hassle.

Down the Swedish coast and across the Baltic

Gamla Stan island/holm

National Museum art gallery

Stockholm - or is it Stockport?

Street scene in Gamla Stan

03/06-08-12

And then there was Stockholm with A – and a few days of me being a tourist and a chance for us to see Bjork (and Buffy Sainte-Marie, anyone remember her?) at the Skeppsholmen festival. 

Bjork was great – cannot say I recognised everything that she played. Pity we missed Patti Smith and  Antony and the Johnsons on another day of the festival. 

A  joyous Gay Pride carnival also added to the Stockholm atmosphere.

Giraffe crane

Gay pride

07-08-12

The previous evening there was a quick dash to Karlskrona*  to catch the Stena Vision ferry on a ten hour journey across the Baltic to Gdynia in Poland. Bet there were no other Britons on board.

Spent the night in a Tesco’s car park – somewhere unpronounceable in Poland.

*In keeping with my apparent but not deliberate obsession with World Heritage Sites I attempted to visit the Karlskrona Naval Yards which are similarly endowed with the same status and nearly caused an international incident by entering the gates and being stopped by two guards. They asked me to wait and I thought they were asking their superiors for permission for me to have a look around. Turns out they were asking permission to let me go!

Going up high on the coast at Höga Kusten, Kvarken Archipelago

View from Skuleberget

Steps on Skuleberget - perfect solution for Mow Cop?

 

01/02-08-12

View from Skuleberget

Isostatic uplift following the ice age means the High Coast/Höga Kusten in Sweden is still rising 10,000 years after the last ice age glaciers pushed the land down. The evidence includes raised beaches on tops of the local hills. Another example of geology in the making. And, yet another UNESCO World Heritage site as part of the Kvarken Archipelago.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_High_Coast

 

Skuleberget (School mountain) summit

So, for me, a perfect place to take a break from the long drive through Lapland and explore. Especially as the sun was shining - at times.

I started with the rather popular Skuleberget from the Naturum visitor centre. I confess I did not use the Via Ferrata route - on the other hand I didn't use the ski-lift from the other side of the hill either. As it was late afternoon I had the summit to myself .

Slattsdalberget

Slattdalsskrevatt

 

Next day I went to have a look at the ravine Slattsdalsskrett in the Skuleskogen national park and then up onto the hill summit. Much of the route to the ravine was on slippy wooden boards - I think I would have preferred stumbling over the mix of tree roots and boulders underneath.

First time I have seen a picnic table on a 'Marilyn' summit – Hogklinten

The SOTA (Summits on the Air) website lists a number of 'Marilyns' in the area - although suspiciously their prominence figures are all rounded to the nearest 10 and there seems to be quite a lot of P150s. I decided to go for one of the highest if not the most prominent, Hogklinten (281m/P150) - mainly because there seemed to be a track all the way to the top.

Bouldery beach high up on Hogklinten

Lapland days

 31-07-12

It was time to cut my losses and look forward to some gains. The weather did not look like it was going to improve. Ideas of going to Nordkapp (the furthest north you can go on the European mainland), bagging Halti (Finland’s highest point) and/or Kebnekaise (Sweden’s highest point and another Ultra) just did not seem attractive in the rain. I realised that if I went south this would probably result in a heatwave in the northern part of  Scandinavia the moment I left, but that’s life. And anyway those three options give me a perfect reason for returning one day. 

Plus there were things to look forward down in the south where there is not 24 hour daylight.

I left the campsite at Skibotn and fairly soon was crossing the border into Suomi/Finland’s Lapland on the so-called Northern Lights route in the Tornedalen. 

Only 53 km from Halti

Found, almost by chance the starting point for Halti at Kilpisjarvi – as the sign shows it is 53km. I would have tackled it using a shorter route from Norway, though.

Saw my first moose/elk – it was grazing right at the roadside. By the time I saw my fourth I was less excited.

It wasn’t long before I crossed the river Torne at Karesuando into Sverige/Sweden’s Lapland. Not that there was much difference, Lapland seems to mainly consist of trees, lakes and the occasional moose or reindeer. And in the countryside the houses are still largely  that red colour. I have now discovered that the colour is called Falu red and the paint contains a by-product from the Falun copper mine at Dalarna in Sweden. Apparently, it is a cheap and effective wood preserver used since the 16^th century. Houses painted yellow or white indicate people who were wealthier.

Trees and water - Finland

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falu_red

Typically, as I approached the turn off for Kiruna – and the start point for Kebnekaise – the weather cleared and tempted me to divert. I resisted the temptation – bagging Kebnekaise  takes at least two and half days. As I pondered the options my iPod shuffle played ‘It’s gonna rain’ and  ‘Have you seen the rain?’. And, when I stopped for the night by the river Lule in the Muddus national park – in the Laponia World heritage site there was a violent thunderstorm. And a lot of reindeer and unfortunately mosquitoes.

No distance shown from Karesuando to Slaithwaite, though