Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
foot square block of hashish. Alex was assigned the task of making a water pipe in
the kitchen while other goodies were sorted and divided up.
There was a sudden loud knocking at the door and I was sent to let whoever it
was in. Expecting a familiar climber's face, I found myself confronted by two short
and stocky men with crew cuts dressed in grey suits. They looked like G-men from
a 1930s black and white gangster movie and exactly like the many government
agents that had been pointed out to me during our travels around Poland. The
thought of spending the rest of my days in a Polish prison flashed through my
mind as I attempted to close the door in their faces.
At that moment the climber whose flat it was peered round the corner and
shouted down the corridor:
'Dobrzy moi przyjaciele są tutaj, w my jesteśmy go-
towi dla.'
('Good, my friends are here, come in.') Alex continued his bong con-
struction to the benefit of everyone's enjoyment. This was another reason why
rather aberrant political behavior by climbers was tolerated. They went to remote
places where interesting items could be found.
1. The club was moribund by the early 1970s but its legendary members, Joe Brown, Don Whillans and a host of others, were still active and ven-
erated, for the most part, by the up and coming generation.
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2. Plas y Brenin is the National Mountain Centre funded largely by grants from government and at that time run within the framework of the
BMC.
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3. The reason the author ended up in Britain.
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4. Recent visits to Poland have shown how true this is. It has become a vibrant nation with many of the trappings of the West, but retaining a high
degree of classic good manners and culture.
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5. I have been fortunate to see Anna a few times in recent years. She has written a comprehensive book of her life with 'Anji' which is part bio-
graphy and part autobiography. Andrez was, she explained, 'far too charming, and far too aware of his charm to have been a totally faithful hus-
band.'
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6. The most exceptional of these was Janusz Onyszkiewicz, an excellent alpinist, mathematician and, later, politician. He lectured at Leeds
University when Alex and I were studying there. In the 1980s, Janusz became the spokesman for the Solidarity movement. After the introduction
of martial law in December 1981, he was arrested and interned. After the fall of communism in 1989, Onyszkiewicz became a member of the Pol-
ish parliament and subsequently served twice as minister of defence. In 2004, Onyszkiewicz was elected as a vice-president of the European
Parliament.
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