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Published: October 16th 2006
Went to Zakopane which is located at the base of the Tatry Mountains. You may recall that I went to the High Tatras in Slovakia. Well this time I am on the Polish side.
I wanted to do a nice 6-hour walk, so went to the Tourist Info who showed me a decent route from Kuznice to Gasienicowa Hala and then to Czarny Staw (pretty lake). I'm not exactly the world's fastest walker as I like to enjoy the scenery and take photos. Even so I got to the lake in 1.5 hours without raising a sweat. This wasn't good enough as I needed to burn off the many Czech beers and carbs I had ingested the previous week. So I decided to keep going and took the green route to Zadni Granat. I must explain that the routes are colour-coded and relatively easy to follow. Yellow, blue and green are easy to moderate; and red and black are challenging and difficult.
What started out as a pleasant stroll quickly turned into a rock climbing adventure. Somehow or other I had ended up on a red route. To make matters worse, a thick mist had come into the valley.
Various thoughts were running through my head at this time, such as -
(1) I am a stubborn idiot.
(2) I wish I had a good trail map. At least something more useful than the crappy diagram in my guidebook.
All I can say is that red route scared the BEJESUS out of me. I am not a fan of heights at all. And clambering on tiny ledges on my hands and knees whilst holding onto a random rock or shrub with sheer drops on both sides was not my idea of fun. Got off the route as soon as I could, and thank the Lord ended up back on the yellow and blue paths. Phew!!! Was totally buggered as I ended up walking for over 8 hours. They say the mountains are the only clever ones; too damn true.
Scenery-wise I thought the Polish side was more beautiful than the Slovakian side, but don't tell that to the Slovaks!
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