Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
to India ten days early to clear the bureaucracy before the rest of the team arrived.
Alex would be on his annual expedition leave from the BMC of two months. My
contract with the county council had come to an end so climbing was all I had to
worry about.
I had persuaded Pete and Julie that taking me to Poland was the perfect way to
start their summer holiday behind the Iron Curtain. Pete's Alfa Romeo was stuffed
with as much of the expedition's free booty - food, gear and whisky - as we could
cram in. A small cubicle on the back seat surrounded with stuff sacks was just
space enough for one of us to sit during the set rotation of the journey: two hours
driving, two as passenger and two in the back. I did not share their concern that
getting through East German and Polish customs might be a real problem. The en-
tire expedition budget of $3,500 cash was in my wallet. During my times in the
back, I wondered what amounts we might have to shell out in bribes.
It took four days from Millom to Krakow. The lottery of border crossing checks
worked in our favour as we entered East Germany. Eight anxious hours queuing
behind beat-up wagons and Trabants came to an end when we were summarily
waved through on the check-every-other-car basis. All cars travelling the other way
were searched thoroughly, the logic being that no one was coming to East Ger-
many to set up shop. We followed the cobblestone motorways built during Hitler's
1930s rebuilding programme, the same roads the Wehrmacht took to invade Po-
land in 1939.
At the Polish border we spent a further five hours waiting pointlessly before an
animated guard explained that we had a 'special visa' and should not have waited
in line at all. The paperwork from Zakopane submitted with our passports to the
Polish embassy in London must have contained this special request. So we entered
Poland late in the evening with everything intact, no bribes paid and nothing con-
fiscated.
After an hour's driving, we took a hill road to the small fortified town of Zory,
hoping to find some food and a place to stay. Everything was dark in the narrow,
cobbled streets and there was little sign of life until we happened on a large hall,
which turned out to be hosting a wedding reception. When the joyful and inebri-
ated guests realised three Brits were at the door, we were welcomed in with much
slapping of backs and given a place at the top table. Food and plenty of vodka was
placed in front of us. Some of the older men reminded us of the special relation-
ship between Poland and Britain. Some had worked there, and one said he had
been a mechanic in the free Polish Air Force. It was a lovely welcome back.
Next day we drove south-east through rolling farmland until at noon, we entered
a hellish landscape of tall chimneys, belching smoke and the apparently endless
