Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
That was enough for Ade. The rugged blond kraken that lay between us suddenly
sat bolt upright, his arms emerged from the cocoon of his sleeping bag and flayed
about threateningly in the moonlight.
'And if you two bastards don't shut up and go to sleep, I'll bloody thump you un-
til you're bloody dark and deep. I mean it. I've never heard so much crap. Let's get
some sleep so we can get off this bloody ridge tomorrow!'
Peter and I lay in our sleeping bags stifling laughter. I shut my eyes and let the
words scroll through my mind: 'Because I do not hope to turn again /Because I do
not hope/Because I do not hope to turn/Desiring this man's gift and that man's
scope/I no longer strive to strive towards such things.' Then sleep came, and with
it overnight snow.
At dawn, we were woken by a patrol of armed Czech mountain troops who had
been sent up in the night to investigate lights on the ridge. They spoke no English.
We smiled and offered them tea, explaining as best we could that we were the
guests of the Polish government and were heading back down to Poland. We
packed up and scurried off along the ridge before the sergeant had made up his
mind whether these dangerous foreigners who had camped illegally in the
Czechoslovak Socialist Republic should be escorted down to the police station on
the Czech side of the mountains. A long and dangerous day eventually saw us
safely off the ridge and back to warm bunks in Morskie Oko. The Poles said we
could have been in trouble if the Czechs had followed their laws and regaled us
with stories of Polish climbers' encounters with authorities. Solidarity and Lech
Walesa were still four years in the future.
1. Wanda had yet to become the queen of Polish mountaineering. That began in October 1978, when she became the third woman, first Pole and
the first European woman to reach the summit of Everest. In 1986, she became the first woman to climb K2 which she did without bottled oxygen
and survived a harrowing descent in a storm. K2 was her third eight-thousander. She vanished on Kangchenjunga in 1992, which would have been
her ninth. [back]
2. The Poles never forgave the Russians who they hoped would quickly liberate Warsaw once the uprising began. Instead, the Red Army sat wait-
ing on the other side of the Vistula until the brave Poles had seriously weakened the German army. When the uprising eventually collapsed, the
German reprisals were horrific and the old city of Warsaw completely flattened. The Russians came and imposed their own choices of leader
knowing the real leaders amongst the Poles were now nearly all dead. [back]
3. During five days of bad weather Jacek (known as Jack) asked me if I played poker. I was introduced to a game with two other guys I did not
know and the four of us spent a day and night in the classic smoke-filled room during which time I won a small fortune in zloty. We stopped at 5
a.m. and agreed to reconvene at 8 a.m. Though exhausted, I couldn't sleep knowing I had to somehow lose it all back, as I assumed I was taking
money from poor Polish climbers and I was a guest in their county. When we reconvened, I purposely lost almost all of my previous winnings.
Afterwards, when the two other guys left with their wads restored, Jack rounded on me and asked what the hell I was doing. 'I thought they were
your friends? I couldn't take their money.' 'You idiot - those swine are party bosses and they print the stuff. You could have bought a chalet in the
Tatra with what you won!' [back]
4. 'Morskie Oko' translates to 'Eye of the Sea'. According to legend, the lake was connected to the sea via an underground passage. In the legend, a
princess comes to find her lost lover, who went to sea never to return, by gazing into the lake. [back]
 
 
 
 
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