On the road to Zakopane 17-08-12

A rare beast - it seems almost impossible to buy fresh milk

Stork's nest

Guess which house has a new born baby?

Devil's point

16-08-12

Babia Gora or Diablak (Devil's point) is yet another border mountain which can be approached from either country. The summit is exactly on the border. And it is higher and more prominent than Pilsko - i.e. 1725m/P1075. Another great, almost accidental, find. I decided to tackle it from the Polish side from Zawoja Markowa, after reading about the so-called Academic path - the Perc Akademikow. This path was devised by a university professor who wanted to show his students the range of flora that can be found at different heights on the mountains - and it also sounded interesting because it involves scrambling and the use of chains/steel steps. The cover photo on the map I bought in Zawoja shows a group of young people clambering up a chained section.

Chained traverse along a narrowish ledge

So, off I set on the green marked path through an extensive pine forest to the Markowe Szczawiny refuge. Found the start of the Perc Akad. and felt disappointed as it just seemed to traverse the hill for a while - and the flora was not particularly remarkable. Then it started to rise uphill fairly steeply but with no difficulties. Admittedly there were some nice flowers at times, however the scrambling was a bit tame. The photo on my map was taken of the most difficult section on the whole route - about as hard as a climbing frame in a children's adventure playground. And the views were great. Are they the Tatry mountains in the mists?

Once on the top there was a path that followed the border for many kilometres in both directions. I decided to go west as far as a minor summit Mala Babia Gora (1517m/P100+ i.e. a Hump)

Slovakian memorial

Diablak/Babia Gora from the west

Mala Babia Gora summit

 Then it was back down to the refuge and an alternative longer (and slightly regretted) black marked path through the forest to the start point where I stayed for the night, ignoring the no camping sign.

Step into Slovakia

Anti lib-dem sign in Korbielow?

 15-08-12 Feast of the Assumption

So once again I set off eastwards following the Carpathians/Polish border. Today was the Feast of Assumption. As a godless heathen and infidel I have no idea what this means, however for the Poles it is a national holiday and all the churches were packed and all the roadside shrines decorated. I got stuck in a massive traffic queue in one very small village.







Today's hill I came upon by complete chance, without realising it was one of Poland's few Majors (i.e. a hill with prominence of more than 610m). I bought a map from a road side booth in Korbielow - in the Beskid Zywiecki national park and set off on the blue track to Przel Przyslopy and then the green track, passing the crowded Hala Miziowa hut through a mix of borowka and dwarf pines to the summit of Pilsko (1557m/P752). Strictly speaking the true summit is not in Poland as it is a couple of hundred metres over the border in Slovakia. So this was my first time in another country.

First sign of Slovakia

Pilsko

Pilsko sign

Pilsko summiteer

On the way down I stopped off for a drink in the Hala Miziowa and thought I would use the path down that follows the ski-lifts, even though this would involve a bit of road walking in the end. However, somehow I managed to lose the path part way down and ended up following a track not marked on the map which took me almost all the way back to Korbielow. The path was lined with Great Yellow Gentian and Willow-leaved Gentian. My only worry was being stopped by a Polish GOML (=Get Off My Land) - however the very few people I saw just said the customary 'Dzien Dobry' * greeting as I passed them.

Great Yellow Gentian - Gentiana Lutea

 * In both Czech and Slovakian the greeting is 'Dobry den'. To save confusion lots of people just say Dobry whilst on these border mountains. And you end up saying it dozens of times everyday.

Willow leaved Gentian - Gentiana asclepiadea

From the summit of Pilsko I could see another hill in cloud. Turns out that hill was even more prominent and has a great name - Babia Gora.

Babia Gora from Pilsko

Des res in need of some minor repair

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.