The Baltic states

A recce for campsites found us finding the only one in Kaunas. How does one begin to describe it. A former 1970’s soviet parking lot, filled with empty mobile homes, a stretched humvee, and 3 lonely campers. It didn’t look like anyone had braved the above ground pool in a long time. Still it was clean and for one night so we headed east towards Vilnius and stayed in Trakai. The next morning we explored the castle ruins of Trakai reached by foot bridge and briefly explore Vilnius. What we hadn’t realised was the reason the streets to a big city were so quiet was its was national public holiday and nothing was open. We wandered around but didn’t quite believe we got the normal ‘feel’ for the place.

A return to Kaunas, tent up, showered and dinner cooked still plenty of time to be there early to collect Nicole and give her a big hug at the arrivals gate. After an unexpected phone call from Nicole, announcing she had arrived on our clocks an hour early we drove swiftfully to the nearest airport. On route we discovered that for the first time since France there had been a change of clocks, neither of us had picked it up. So she wasn’t early at all we were officially an hour late and as it turned out at the wrong airport. A quick look through the lonely planets and we realised our mistake, big apologies on the phone to Nicole and 45min later after waiting for us, our 2 person van trip became 3.

Latvian and Lithuanian adventures.

Our first border crossing from Lithuanian to Latvia all together and we get 1km after the non existent border control to be pulled over by the traffic police. Wanting to check all our documents and the vans documents the police officer was great, making his “funny jokes” that what a lucky man Lee was having 2 girlfriends, its times like those you just smile and nod, a “what ever you say officer” moment. All cleared we continued on our way.

A 3 ½ hour drive saw us pull into Riga, Latvia’s capital city and wander the cobbled streets after setting up at the campsite. We found the markets which are now housed
In old WWII zeppelin hangers. Some strange blackened meats and the normal fruit and veg and bits and bobs were in offer. However, we still cannot work out what to do with a large pigs head. We headed to the 26th floor skybar for a quick cocktail on the way home before heading back to campsite. It had been a while since Nicole had last camped but this site had good showers and other facilities. Worst was likely still to come. Lee finally decided to jump into a women’s salon to get a haircut for the first time since leaving England, a little rose oil spray later and he looked and smelt all fresh. The night was fantastic in terms of food, we all enjoyed our first BBQ, Auntie Deb’s BBQ chicken skewers (Latvian Style) and sausages.

We headed to Sigulda the following day and had a candlelight self guided tour of Cesis castle and had a go at some old school archery. The castle seems to be untouched by litigation claims as you are still allowed to climb the completely blacked out tower staircase and down a long ladder to the dungeon.

We headed back south on Sunday before taking a right and heading round to the Baltic coast. A slight let down due to the coast road being behind a 30m section of pines most of the way. Still we stopped and had a walk over to see the Baltic coast, Lee and Lisa’s first time seeing the ocean since France. All a bit tired we found a really nice campsite on the Baltic side on a marina, had a few hours to chill out, watch the sunset over the Baltic and have chocolate bananas on the fire yum yum.

The following day it was down to the ????Corunium???? spit and the sand dune national park. We took the ferry over from Klaipedia and the headed towards the southern most point of the Latvian part of the spit to a town called Nida. An ice cream stop and some amber shopping saw us heading back along the spit as the southern half is in Russian territory and without visa’s entry is not permitting to the motherland. After a long day in the sun we headed to a campsite nearby which although was rated as a 0 star resort ended up being the nicest campsite we have stayed in so far on the entire trip. We tried to get a decent nights sleep before the full days driving ahead of us back down to Warsaw the following day.

A long and relatively uneventful trip down to Warsaw apart from the worst driving antics yet and a few fuel and snack stops to use up the last of the Lithuanian cash. Today sees us back in Warsaw after a nice evening meal out courtesy of Nicole and a much longer trip back to the van after missing the tram stop, then trying to get a night bus back and eventually having to get a taxi at half past midnight. Another lesson learnt. Always write down the address of your campsite, at least a few nearby tram stops and do not expect a bus stop and a tram stop with exactly the same name to be closer than 4km when in Warsaw!

A guest feature: Nicoles section…..

This is such an amazing experience. Never in a million years would I have thought I would be going to Latvia or Lithuania, let alone doing it in a van- road trip style. I decided before I left Australia that I would approach this experience of campgrounds and sleeping in a van with an open mind. At first I found it a struggle getting back to basics but am now thourghly enjoying being able to go to places that tourists don’t normally go. It’s quite an experience grocery shopping and not being able to read what’s on any of the packets, and we can’t ask anyone because it seems not too many people know much English here. We have had so many laughs and what the? moments and have been eaten alive by mosquitoes but Lisa and Lee have been great hosts and have welcomed me into their Euro trip with open arms. This is surely an experience I will never forget.
P.S The van is amazing.

Masurian Lakes – North Poland

Reunited on Sunday evening we headed on our drive north to the heart of the polish lakes district, Masurian Lakes. We spend a night between Gizycko and Mikolajki, finding the perfect location for the van, private, lakeside uninterrupted views only hiccup was getting bogged trying to get there. A few tense moments, lots of tires spinning, mud flying and a little digging later with a few pushes from Lisa we were set up. Lisa happy relaxing and reading in the van and Lee fishing.

We caught a very special 4:30am sunrise over the lake, before setting out on a day kayaking on Lake Kisajno. The quality of the kayak was shocking at best, but didn’t stop us spending a lovely day out on the water, between paddling hard against the current and waves, to bobbing happily in a cove fishing and enjoying the sunshine.

A few hours fishing in the marina the next day and it was time to head to Kaunas to get things ready and organised as Nicole (Lisa’s cousin) joins us from Australia.

Warsaw or England can’t be in two places at once…..

So here we are, one in England for Dobbies wedding the other wandering the streets of Warsaw. I really like the old town of Warsaw, small and compact but full of character, brightly coloured buildings and cobbled streets. Determined to make use of the beautiful sunshine I find myself strolling for hours until I become just too tired.

I’m still not 100% after the food poisoning, barely eating, barely keeping things down but am getting there. After the mission that was doing 2 loads of washing finding only one of two Laundromats in Warsaw after 2 buses and a tram I had the rest of the afternoon so wandered through the parks. Its sometimes really nice just stopping and taking things in, looking around, watching others and doing a little thinking and a lot of smiling. I stop and realise again how lucky I am getting to do such great things in my life with people I really care about.

I had a straightforward trip back to UK for the wedding. Really good to catch up with the old uni housemates as always and yet again, it took a wedding to bring us all together. That being said, half of us are now married so only 3 more weddings to go. Who’s next?...

The plan is to head up to the Misurian lakes north of Poland, for some fishing, kayaking and relaxing in the numerous lakes.

Slovakia and crossing West to East Tatras

Switchbacks and 3/4 way up the storm hit us first here

Boys will be boys, playing with the floating icebergs

Nasty mountain storms

Storm clouds down upon us

Gerlachovsky Stit (2654m) Slovaks highest

Cooking breakfast, cloud inversion below amazing

Lee high on an exposed rock

cloud inversion

Summit Smiles

Resort towns by the mountains probably sums up the entire Slovakian side of the Tatras. We headed straight for the tourist information and mountain guides centre where we met a fascinating old man “Yaza” who had worked for 40 years for the mountain rescue, and climbed regularly in the Tatras. All too happy to go through routes and information for climbing, we could have spent all day chatting to him and almost did due to his enthusiasm.

What we did realise was the ban on walking before the 15^th June appeared to be more for safety of tourists that didn’t know how to handle the snow conditions. We were advised due to our equipment and experience we would have no problems heading in.

A stop at the lake Strbske Pleso with our map and books in hand, we looked like tourists pulling out our picnic blanket and lunch to sit down and relax. We watched people doing bungee jumping from the ski jumps they use in winter and decided we’d like to do the West to East Tatra hike over the coming days, with the view of checking out the surrounding mountains for climbing possibilities.

With the huts booked as we still weren’t allowed to camp we got out kit together at a campsite where we’d leave the van.

West to East along the Tatras

Day 1

Easy 2 hour hike up to Pobranske Pleso hut there before 10am and were surprised to see a band playing local music and loads of mountain rescue folk. It’s the 60^th Anniversary of their existence and they were having a celebration. We decided we’d like to go for a further hike up to the lake Velke Hincovo Pleso. Again surrounded by big snowy peaks and still easily accessible floating ice bergs (which Lee happily played with for a bit) it was really pretty. After some lunch we continued onto Vysne Koprovske Sedlo at 2180m it was a steep series of switch backs that lead us here. Across a few snow patches and we were headed to the peak of Koprovske Stit but turned back just before the summit due to the threatening roar of the thunder, lee’s watch showing the air pressure suddenly dropping and the think band of clouds moving in. Annoyingly once we reached the saddle again the sun actually came out and the storm never eventuated, just a lesson for us on mountain weather and to watch conditions more closely before heading high on peaks.

Day 2

This was supposed to be the hardest and longest of the days. What the weather forecast hadn’t let us know was that a big storm was about to erupt. Straight out of the valley we climbed up on to the saddle of a ridge being forced suddenly to stop, with only moments to put on our waterproof jackets before being pummelled by hail, wind and ducking in a very exposed area due to the close range of the lightning strikes.

As that settled we continued up, hoping the other side of the ridge would be calmer but alas it wasn’t. We barely reached some shrub cover before the next storm hit us, more hail, more lightening and we decided we needed to sit this one out, cooking porridge to keep us warm. Another break and we only got less than half a km before it started again, trying to get footage of the storm to show what it was like and how close the lightening bolts were, but didn’t quite capture it.

The storms then seemed to pass, we were once again searching for the big peaks as this was to be our recce trip for possible climbing in the future. We were lucky the sun came out when we approached Gerlachovsky Stit (2654m) and could see some possible routes up though it looked very daunting, a massive granite peak nestled in amongst many other high granite peaks. Most of the day it was just the 2 of us on the tracks until we came across a film or TV crew filming a fake rescue scene complete with their own smoke machine, quite a funny site to see.

The hut of Zamkovskeho Chata has been our favourite. It’s a real climbers hut, complete with old photographs, ice axes and skis from the early days. We spoilt ourselves with these delicious fruit dumplings cooked at the hut, Yum!

Day 3

We set off early as usual and hiked on through the low cloud for a couple of hours before eventually breaking up into the sun and above the cloud. Breakfast of porridge and fruit with a rare cloud inversion as company set us up for the rest of the day. We continued up to summit Velka Svistovka and then headed down to Zelene Pleso. The steep downhill took its toll on Lisa’s feet causing painful blisters and Lee’s knee so the pace dropped somewhat. From here we still had a 2 ½ hour walk out down a valley and through a forest hammered by the storms of 2004. Eventually, sore, tired and hobbling, we limped back into the campsite for well-deserved showers and dinner out at a pizzeria.

The pizzeria (recommended by Lonely Planet) turned out to be a most costly meal so far. Not in terms of money but in that we both got horrible food poisoning from 2 different pizzas. We are both still suffering as we write this now in a campsite in Warsaw. Lee is about to fly home for a friends wedding and is scared for the safety of the other passengers around him as he is still in a, lets say, volatile state.

On the way up to Warsaw we dropped a little deeper into Slovakia to visit Spis Castle. One of Europe’s biggest castle complexes is almost in ruins but very impressive none the less. It sits perched up on a lonely hill and dates back from 1209. Driving just a few km's away from the resort towns and we went past a shanty town, complete with kids playing in the dirt and dogs locked up in small cages, one time to make sure the van doors were locked and we played nice with the locals.

Lisa has a few days to explore the toilets of Warsaw and hopefully some of the sights too before Lee heads back on Sunday and we head off to the Polish Great Masurian Lakes for some watersports and fishing with Lee’s new toy, his first ever fishing rod.

Tatras from the Slovak Side

Orla perc from a distance

Chamois

Down climb off the ridge

A look down of whats below
A look up at where we'd come from

Finally less steep time to pose ;-)

We had read about a spectacular ridge walk, the hardest route in the Tatras, so of course, we had to give it shot. We set off mid afternoon having left the van at a campsite and headed up to the cable car. A lesson learnt here. When it is very windy call to check if the cable car is still running before hiking up a 2km hill only find it is closed for the day. Not deterred, we had to hike up the 600m to the hut at Murovanic and easily made it up for check in time. The views we had of the ridge made us really excited for what was to come the following day.

An early start saw us up to the beginning of the ridge for an early breakfast, as the sun began to rise. Although still very windy we decided to carry on. With the trail to ourselves for the first few hours we were making steady progress, crossing the occasional snow patch and using the chains provided when needed. A special moment was seeing a marmot and chamois out to join us for breakfast.

As we progressed onto the Orla Perc ridge things did get more difficult and considerably more exposed in places. Snow that was holding on this late into the season meant chains were nowhere to be found where they should have been and scrambles down turned into dramatic hand only abseiling from an old via ferrata cable. That got the juices going but by this time a few other groups who had come up a later access path had caught us up. Several passed on warnings about the difficulty of the route to come and having seen the pace at which they were moving and only a few bail off points we decided to take an early exit.

The next section was out of sight and turned into a one way trail so we made a sensible choice. However, the exit path was not a stroll down a nice wide trail. It was a 250m downclimb down a snow gully, not even the path but due to snow we had to make our own safe way down. Sometime later and a few hundred steps kicked into the gulley we got off the ridge and soaked the feet in a glacial lake while eating lunch. Watching in the distance we spotted 5 more people coming off the next exit path. Maybe one to head back to in the future. (once I, Lisa gets a better control over my fear of exposure and steep snow terrain) Without completing Orla Perc it was still an 11 ½ hour day by the time we hiked back down to the van. We decided we’d head to Slovakia to suss out some information on the tatras from their side.

Krakow

The wood and salt co exist

Salt chandelier

Lody: Lisa's favourite street snack

The sun is still shinning, though we are having a forced break from the mountains the city of Krakow is certainly one of the nicer cities we have been to. All centred around the old town the architecture gives it a rich history and the castle on the hill an extra special attraction.

As with most big cities we found ourselves a campsite leaving everything locked and safe, a walk then tram ride found us at the main church in centre of the old town. With queues out the door of school kids, we went in for a look through the quick ‘prayer section’ and a look inside. We managed to find ourselves a free walking tour in English that had already begun and tagged along learning more than we would have on our own.

A good wander around sees the street vendors selling obwarzanki a bagel type treat, another chance for us to have our favourite ice cream Lody and notice that the dragon and the gemstone amber are the two most popular items for sale here.

We headed for lunch on Wawel hill the site of the castle but were slightly disappointed that none of it was free and that each section had to have different tickets and with no English tours left we couldn’t even go into some of them. We decided the armoury and royal mint is always a good one to see so headed in amazed by what they have uncovered from 14^th-18^th century times and still in really good condition.

Both with city weary legs and feet we ended the day by heading back to cook dinner. The mosquitoes here are particularly bad forcing us to retreat into the van despite the ongoing scorching heat.

A must see as recommended by Lee’s polish friends were the Salt Mines at Wieliczka. This is a working salt mine in which they have transformed the now unused and excavated chambers by filling them with rock salt carving and chapels and figures. We had to wander round as part of a tour to avoid people getting lost but got ourselves a private 45 minute guided tour at the end somehow just the 2 of us with an English speaking guide.

From here we headed back to Zakopane with plans to get back in to the mountains.

As we cooked dinner in a passing layby we watched a man set up and then go up in his motorised paraglider as his friends took photos of him, we were able to capture one of him as the sunset, a nice way to end a great day.