Pictures :: Poland :: Spring 2009

Majówka

The long May weekend (May 1st and 3rd are holidays in Poland), we drove to Częstochowa. The plan was to go back to Góra Zborów for a full day of climbing, plus a bivouac on site in order to start the day after an even fuller day of climbing.

Our timing wasn't too bad, but since this was the weekend and the weather was already just great for a few days, many people were to be expected on the site.

From this year's April 30th on, everybody has to pay an entrance fee of 4 PLN to enter the site (!), which is a natural reserve but nevertheless composed of lands that are private property.

Still, as expected, there were many people... The jaunt "into the wild" became rather a jaunt "into the wild... crowd". Every single route was already occupied by some people and we just had to wait for two hours or so for people to start leaving and routes becoming available.

When the sun began to go down, at last we were able to climb, but each one just once.

The sunset, though, was spectacular.

Soon after sunset, it became cold and we packed and left the already deserted place. It turned out that camping on site was prohibited, although we've been told that we could pitch our tent downhill near the road on the condition that we'll be already packed up at 9am. The decisive issue was the complete prohibition of fire, because of the drought. A bivouac without fire wouldn't do, so we decided to fall back upon going to Olsztyn, on the way back to Częstochowa.

At first, on the first flat clearing where we aimed to, there were already plenty of people (and as many as four campfires!). But high uphill, just under the rocks, there was nobody, so there we brought our stuff and made our own fire.