Trip in the Tatra mountains

28 October 2005

In the evening we took an all-night train to Zakopane. The train was quite full, but ok. Unfortunately, the window of our compartment did not close very well, so Ervin got a bit cold. This will have its effects later:)

29 October 2005

We arrive to Zakopane early morning and in front of the station we find a minibus, which is heading to Polana Palenica, exactly where we want to get. No idea anymore about the price of the ticket, but it must have been somewhere between 10-20 zl.

After we arrive to Polana Palenica we start our hiking towards the Dolinie Pięciu Stawów Polskich shelter (a bit long name for a shelter:)). The hiking is not difficult and it should take around 4/4 and a half hours. The shelter is beautifully located on the shore of a small lake called Przedni Staw Polski. The shelter has numerous facilities and you can also sleep here. If you visit this place, remember to try the Szarlotka (apple pie), which is delicious.

After a tea and a bit of looking-around we continue our way to the Murowaniec shelter. We are not in hurry; we enjoy the cold and sunny autumn and the beautiful afternoon. In the meantime, we climb the highest peak of the day, which is the Swinica (2.301 m). It is starting to get dark and we are still not at the shelter, so we made not very correct calculations… We decide against putting up our tent (which, by the way is illegal on the territory of the national park) and continue our way in the darkness, which is a bit problematic because we have only one headlight. It is totally dark, by the time that we reach Murowaniec and seeing the shelter does not make us very happy because it is full of people, who almost drew up all the way. A couple of minutes later it turns out that in the shelter there are no free beds and they offer us a place in the corridor, for around 20 zl. We can pay this amount, but the way that they propose these places (in most shelters sleeping on the floor is free or just some symbolical amount of money) makes us decide to rather sleep in tent. 40 minutes from the shelter, there is a camping for alpinists and we decide to sleep there. We even find a truck, which drives us down. Bumpy ride it was!

In the freezing coldness we put up our tent and we are just happy that we have sleeping bags for extreme temperature (down to minus 12-15 degrees). At night, we are warm and sleep like babies.

30 October 2005

The morning is a bit of a shock: getting out from the warm sleeping bag to the minus temperature, which is outside, is not exactly our favourite.

After we pack out tent, we walk up to the Murowaniec shelter, where we drink tea and continue our hike. From the shelter we head to the Kasprowy Wierch (1.987 m) and along the Polish-Slovakian border, we walk towards Kondracka Kopa. Before reaching Kondracka we descend and reach the Kondratowej Hali shelter, where we will sleep for the night. We look around and rest a bit, and have supper. The shelter is extremely nice, good atmosphere and a typical “mountain guy” owner. There is a common shower and there are two bathrooms and of course hot water, but only around 18.00-19.00.

31 October 2005

We have a good night sleep and in the morning as we look out the window, we see a huge deer grazing grass in front of the house. Later we have breakfast and this is the moment when Ervin feels quite bad and with fever, so we need to decide if we are going to hike today or simply just descend and catch a train to Warsaw. Eventually we decide to go on for one more day and reach the Ornak shelter by late afternoon.

As we start to ascent strong winds hits us, in the beginning, it is very uncomfortable, but later we get used to it. The wind does not stop all day, but maybe this is what made the day special. We climb Kondracka Kopa (2.005 m), Krzesanica (2.122 m) and Ciemniak (2.095 m) and then we start our descent to the Ornak shelter, where we arrive early afternoon. The shelter is huge, but quite empty and Ervin’s theory is that it belongs to Swedish owner:).

The shelter is very nice, with two common showers, bathrooms, and hot water in the evening, but lack the warm atmosphere we experienced last night in the Kondratowa Hala shelter.

1 November 2005

After a goodnight sleep, tea and breakfast we start our way to Zakopane. On the way down, we look into some of the caves, but we cannot go deeper because of our backpack and due to the fact that we have only one headlight.

As we reach the main road, we take a bus, which takes us to Zakopane. In Zakopane, Ervin starts feeling very bad and with high fever, so we rush to a pharmacy and buy enough medicine to last until Warsaw. We get back to the capital around 23.30 and it is needless to say that Ervin will spend the next couple of days in bed recovering from a very stubborn flu.