Today I managed to head out geocaching at least for a little while, specifically to Reka, where I had 2 caches I had already visited and 3 that would be completely new to me. I skipped one of those where I had already tried my luck, since I probably wouldn’t have figured out anything new anyway. It was this cache: https://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GC55ENC_stezka-pokladu-krale-zlatohlava . Then I took the next turn to the right and went a bit into the mountains.
First came a huge climb through the forest, then the same thing in reverse – the descent. You can see on this map that I didn’t hang around at the summit, which was about 150 m higher than the surrounding landscape, and went straight back down: 👻 This link died before ICQ did.. For most of the way down I slid on my backside, because I didn’t want to half kill myself on that almost rock-climbing wall.
In the end I did find the cache after all. It was hidden behind and under a stump and covered by some more young undergrowth: 👻 This URL stopped leading anywhere long ago – the GPS lost its signal for good.(in case anyone doesn’t know what TFTC! means, it’s Thanks for the Cache!).
I even logged this cache straight from my phone, including an attached photo: 👻 The old log on geocaching.com is gone for good.. The second cache was easy as pie, and the photos of it are here: 👻 RIP – this server didn’t even survive its own hosting.. After that experience I didn’t feel like going back into the mountains; I know that geocachers who place caches have quite a fondness for taking part in murders.
So I walked back to the nearest bus stop and read there for several dozen minutes. I almost fell asleep. Then I called my brother, who picks me up whenever I want to go home, and just then a young woman (25-30 years old) came up and asked me whether the side road running along the river would get her to the next village – Smilovice.
I answered yes, that there were “plenty of bridges” to cross the river, which I really thought there were, since I had walked there several times, but the Google map showed only 2. I also offered to give her a ride to Stritez, since it is quite a few km after all, but I was turned down. She was probably afraid of strangers driving a car, that we would take her somewhere into the woods, and you can guess the rest.. 🙁
The young woman smiled and walked away – meanwhile I took out my phone, and then I saw her coming back to Hotel Reka for something. She had left her stroller parked in front of the steps, so I waited there. She’ll surely be back soon, I told myself, and so she was. I showed her the map, that she could get to Smilovice by the side road too, but a bit toward the back, not into the center of the village.
As she came down those steps, I kept looking her steadily in the eyes, as I usually do with strangers, and I absolutely fell in love with those eyes of hers. They were the same as mine, brown but really big. Her face was pretty too, she was slender, and her hair was shorter and also brown. Then she left for good, and a moment later my brother arrived to pick me up.