Camp 2024

My camp diary

Day Five

Klara surprised me this morning and told me to pack my bags….I’m doing the solo hike! She said that one of the aspects of it is to teach kids to be ready for the unexpected, which it definitely was. It threw me off for a few minutes but I knew that was the point and soon after, I prepped my day pack, packed my lunch and got ready for the day!

I was blindfolded, had some photos taken and then we headed out! We drove for about 30 minutes (33km, I was told) and then I was dropped off on a road in the forest. Along the way, I had a nice chat with Klara and then she handed me two maps, told me to figure out how to get back to camp and left me on my own. She had asked me during the ride how good I was at telling direction from the sun (I didn’t have a compass) and fortunately, that was always something good for me. I think it would have been harder on an overcast day.

I was paying attention to the roads we were driving on and I knew we were close to one when she dropped me off. Only a few hundred meters actually. My first step was to head back there to see if I could find any tourist markers to help orient myself. Sure enough, there were both bike and hiking signs and so I pulled out my maps. I could tell from the way we drove that we’d gone south, and so I looked south on the maps to get an idea of where I was. The signs said that I was 4km from Krenov and 7km from Sklenne, so I started looking for them. I got stuck for a bit when I found Sklene (one N) on the map and not Sklenne, but I realised it had to be the same place based on distance and so I knew where I was.

I then found Trpik on the maps and looked at my starting and ending points. I’d been dropped on the red line trail and I could see that about 20km north, it passed within a few km of Trpik. My path was clear but I had 2 mild concerns. The first was water. I’d brought about 2 litres with me and my path would only take me through one village. I’d have to stop there and find some water. The second was the last few kilometres once I got off the red trail. Finding my way to camp from the red trail was going to be tricky.

I was pleased that I was going to be on a forest trail for most of the day, as Kika had told me yesterday that her shortest path to get back to camp had been mainly on roads through villages.

The first 9km were well-marked and completely empty of people. I loved it. I took a lot of photos but then ran out of things to take photos of. How many photos can you take of pine trees?

Anyway, it took me just under 2 hours to go the first 9km. About halfway there, I heard and saw a helicoptor, the only sign of civilisation! Right before I reached the village of Hrebec, I encountered two cyclists, but that was it. The forest had been beautifully empty. In Kamenná Horka, I stopped a man in the street to ask where I could find drinking water and he told me that I could find it at a restaurant in Hřebeč. I stopped in there where they had a dedicated tap to for this purpose and continued on my way. I stopped for lunch around 1:30, some bread and tuna.

I continued north and found that this section of the trail was much less well marked than the southern part. The farther north I went, the worse it got. Three separate times I came to intersections that weren’t marked and so I had to guess based on the maps which way to go. Sometimes I guessed correctly the first time, others, not so much. I would say that I probably lost an hour of time between those three places trying to figure out which path to take. Obviously, I found my way but I was starting to get a bit tired.

The final stretch back to camp was definitely the most difficult because this meant leaving the red trail and getting back to camp. In hindsight, I made this more difficult for myself by trying to find the shortest route, instead of going on some more clearly marked paths but I’ve learned. If I’d chosen paths that went around fields instead of through forests, I would have gotten back much sooner but I really did want to try to find my way through the forest paths. Oh well.

By the time I actually did get back it was around 5pm. I took a painfully cold shower…which was really barely more than rinsing off, chatted with some people and rested. We had dinner and then I chatted with Kika about our surprise hiking experiences.

During the day, while I was gone, the kids did some campfire cooking. I was sorry that I missed that as I was curious about their choices. I know they grilled corn on the cob and some other things too. During the day, Amalka, Rozarka and Štěpánka each did a challenge where they had to spend 6 hours alone in the forest. Shortly after lunch, they had packed backpacks, stuffed animals, books, activities and whatever they thought they needed to get through the time. Halfway through the time, they had to leave notes for Klara in designated locations so that she knew they were safe and okay.

The notes were interesting and showed the differences in each of the girls.

Amalka probably best met the task in the way it was meant - to spend time in nature, notice what happens there and reflect on it. Her note commented on how much she enjoyed it, she listened to the birds, drew some pictures of herself with her komodo dragon heading off into the forest and in general seemed really pleased with the task.

Štěpánka commented that she was a little bit sad and missed being with other people, which again, I’m sure for her was also good in that it made her realise more the benefit of having family and social groups to spend time with.

Rozarka, who was also the last one to return when they were called back had taken books with her and seemed content to spend 6 hours by herself reading. I have to admit that this reaction is the one that most resonates with me as it’s exactly what I would have done - interspersed with explorations into the woods around me to see what there was to see!

Three pairs of skauts started doing fire challenges today too - Marky and Sofie, Maruška and Bara B. and two of the boys. I think it was Adam and Jirka, but I’m not entirely sure! Working in pairs, their challenge was called “Eternal Fire” meaning, that each pair had to keep a fire going for 48 hours. They could do the task alone if they wanted for 24 hours or take turns for 48. Two of the three pairs were doing the task in teepees, which worked out well the next day when it rained but Maruška and Bara unfortunately didn’t have that luxury and so at one point, transferred their fire to a candle which was allowed.

While I was gone, the official hygiene lady showed up to check on camp and make sure that regulations were being followed. Apparently this check went well, with no problems and she told Klara that all the camps are having problems with wasps this year, not just ours.

For the evening retrospective, I went with the skautky and in addition to the retrospective, we also chatted about which odborky they wanted to work on. Verča had a lot of questions about american scouting and so I tried to answer them as best I could. Again - more motivation for improving my Czech!

That evening, we spent some time around a campfire, but I confess that I was so tired, I didn’t spend much time there before going to sleep.

The highlight of the evening (insert SO MUCH SARCASM here), was grabbing hold of the hiking socks that had been drying all evening in the dark and instead of getting a handful of wool, I got a handful of slug. Some disgusting slimy slug thought that my stinky socks would be a great place to hang out.

I went to sleep happy, exhausted but pleased at the days progress. I was little prepared for what the night would bring…