Today, March 31, 2016, I set out to take a look at a brand-new LTE transmitter of Vodafone in Horni Lomna, running on the 800 MHz frequency. It is precisely this frequency that makes it a bit special: it is one of the few in the FM district, where the LTE VF transmitters on 800 MHz are concentrated only around Frydek-Mistek. A few 1800 ones in Frydek-Mistek, several 2100 ones that broadcast 3G at the same time, and the rest are 900 MHz.
The second reason was that I would sit down somewhere out there, nothing would disturb me, and if I wanted to go home, I couldn’t, because it would cost me $ and above all a lot of time, so this way I would force myself to stay there and do what needed to be done – that is, look for a job. At 7:35 I leave, walk a few bends and turn back because I realize I don’t have my power banks. At 7:42 I’m on my way again, and now I realize I was actually pretty quick; if I wanted to, I could easily catch the RegioNova too, for which I’ve learned that :40 is the most critical time, and after :35 I usually give up and either take the other line or wait at the station when I’m heading to Tesin. At the Ropice stop I sit down on the bench in the shelter and look at my phone.
I no longer remember what for, but I didn’t really feel like leaving; even though the sun wasn’t shining on me there, I was enjoying the warmest day of the year so far. It hadn’t dawned on me that morning, only later, when I was reading the visitors’ book on Murinkuv Vrch, where there is also a chapel. On the train there was a trainee being trained just then. I’d be curious to know whether a conductor who wants to quit has to train a replacement. Probably not, though; it takes a while before someone turns up who gets through all those sieves of hiring procedures and paperwork requirements, and only then can they try it out for real, at first still alongside another conductor.
Anyway, this is already the second trainee I’ve seen in the last 2 months or so. I most often travel from Ropice to Tesin (and back) or from the Ropice stop to the Jablunkov area (and back) – and it’s right here in the Jablunkov area, on the Bohumin – Mosty route, that the job seems rather thankless. The first trainee was a different guy, and honestly, I wouldn’t be glad if he ended up doing it. He had no rapport with the passengers; I could clearly picture him somewhere he could be active, spontaneous and dynamic rather than in that kind of routine. For him it was just punching tickets, without any spark, not even a smile for the passengers.
I expected that it wouldn’t be enough: I had 39 CZK on my card and it would surely cost over 40 – I only remembered that round figure, since I’d last taken this route on Christmas Eve 2015. The final fare was 41, so I paid in cash, and he didn’t show up again before I reached Mosty. Only before Bocanovice did some lady stand up and walk to the door.
She turned around to ask me whether Jablunkov had already passed or was still coming. Once she started talking, I could smell the booze on her, but otherwise she had no trouble with her coordination, and I hadn’t noticed any whiff of alcohol until then. So it wasn’t Werk’s train, where the beer flows freely. If only it were just beer :D. I explained to her that there’s no stop in Jablunkov and that the order is Navsi – Bocanovice – Mosty u Jablunkova, where the line ends and turns back, and that the next station is Bocanovice.
She just added that she couldn’t even remember the last time she’d taken a train 😀 and went to the door. Just before the train stopped in Bocanovice, I went after her to ask whether she actually needed Jablunkov or somewhere else. She replied that she needed this stop, Bocanovice; the train had already been standing there for a few seconds while she was trying to press some kind of light – I don’t know what it’s for – and the doors wouldn’t open for her. I opened them for her, she got off, and we went on. (Otherwise the fairy tale would go on: “And if she hasn’t died yet, she’s still pressing that light to this day..” :))
In Mosty I set off, as usual, along the red trail towards Velky Polom; that trail starts at the Bukovec, school bus stop and ends at the Bily kriz / Biely kriz chalet. I crawled to the first signpost. Or rather steamed my way there – I underestimated the air temperature and overestimated my own :D. It was about a kilometer from the station, and it felt like I’d leave my lungs right there and carry on without them. Could it be … ? 😀
Anyway, at the Kostelky signpost I should have taken the blue trail, and I’d have ended up exactly where I’d planned that morning. But when I saw Kostelky, I had an irresistible urge to go see that forest church where Protestants gathered during the Counter-Reformation. I know the place; there’s a cache there too, and that’s how I found it in the first place. That whole fairly wide area is called Kostelky, and you could head off in several directions, but only 2 were marked trails – the others would lead who knows where.
I tried one, and nothing suggested I was on the right track, so I started hunting for a mobile signal. There was none where I was, so I took the blue trail. A view into the valley opened up: I was standing at the foot of the biggest slope of the Severka ski resort. There was still some snow on the slope – the photo only shows a snow-white sky – but on the ground green was sprouting rather than white lingering, and mobile internet kicked in, very weak, but working, so I downloaded the GeoCaching app, looked up the coordinates of the Kosciolki cache and put them into the GPS.
The Mountain Rescue Service station was also located here.
At the stone chalet Velky Polom I again walked for a while where I shouldn’t have. Only when the arrow on the GPS started drifting away from the red trail did I come back from the purple one and take the right one. I always do this – I feel like that path only leads to the chalet, so I don’t go anywhere near it; I try to avoid these restaurant establishments whenever I can. Along a pleasant non-path in windless weather I trudge on to another signpost I know by sight, which tells me the summit of Velky Polom is 20 minutes away, and I already had 7 km in my legs.
So now Koscolki mattered more than the LTE transmitter of VF.
Which was a bit of a mistake, because I’d have reached the transmitter in no time, whereas getting to Kosciolki was much harder and more time-consuming. But the decision had been made, and the best option was to get to Murinkuv vrch – not to the summit, just to the chapel – and then along the yellow trail that led to Horni Lomna and ended somewhere in Uspolka – Horak. On Velky Polom I was seized by a bit of euphoria, so I sat down and wrote a few little verses that came to me at that moment. And the visitors’ book was great anyway – it always has been, you know me =D. The verses went like this:
The sun is shining, Birdsong rings, Nature is waking, The snow is thawing. Spring is on its way, We’ll meet here again someday, Life is beautiful after all, With people, in the forest tall. It’s no masterpiece, but it was done in just over a minute, so hopefully it’s fine :D. The snows were melting here and my breath was taken away. This is where I finished on Christmas Eve 2015, but today I kept going along the red trail to the aforementioned Murinkuv vrch. I’m listening to Il Cammino and discover a song I’d probably never heard before. At that moment it tugged at my heartstrings so much that I was balancing on the ice, singing along, la la la la la la LA LA and jumping for joy :D. Forget the gym – the best thing is moving in the fresh air, so let’s keep moving in that spirit.
Luckily, I only met 2 groups of 2 people all day, both between Velky Polom and Murinkuv Vrch, so there was some risk of being mistaken for someone who’d had something really good, but I didn’t notice anyone. I’ve since looked the song up on YouTube and Spotify and found out that its title translates as “Lonely in Love” :D. Il Cammino played this version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aL3mho_Au7g which is also on Spotify. This one, however, isn’t there, and I like it much more. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OscwM-euMsM
Otherwise it was beautiful up on the hilltop, though as for why it’s called Murinkuv, I still don’t know to this day. Under threat of a 100 EUR fine, roughly 2700 CZK in our money, you take your rubbish with you, or toss it up like in basketball, but never drop it at your feet. If I were a poor, wronged economic migrant collecting benefits in Germany, I wouldn’t worry much about it, since everyone there gets 800 EUR straight away – well, damn, don’t take it, it’s “worth” it. The facilities also included tables for feasting, a spring with a mug, a little roof over the visitors’ book and, here, a wonderfully pretty little chapel. Just like on Velky Polom, I took photos of the last pages of the book.
Here you are close to God, God welcomes and hosts you here, Here is joy, life and laughter, Bring people joy, don’t be like a monk! But then I got lost. The navigation showed the yellow trail, which wasn’t marked at all – there was a path, but completely buried in snow. In my sneakers it was unthinkable to get through, if only because there was no yellow marker anywhere.
In the end I went by the signpost; there was nothing there either, but less snow, and after about 200 m I even started passing yellow markers. I breathed a sigh of relief so big that somewhere down in the valley the shock wave blew out the window panes. When the GPS can’t pinpoint me properly, maybe I should pinpoint what’s wrong with it :). Had I kept following it, I wouldn’t have missed Horni Lomna. By then I had completely forgotten about the transmitter, and I continued along an unmarked path; for a few hundred meters I rightly took a turn-off that looked more like a track for tractors hauling timber, but it was the best choice – I didn’t have to descend steeply at all.
At the scene of the crime. First I examine the traces left at the cache by the last perpetrator. I no longer knew exactly where it was, but with the help of the GPS I found it and was quite surprised, although now I realize it’s nothing unusual, given that it was winter. In 2015 there were 3 finds in May, one in June, 3 in July, 2 in August, 2 in November and one in December – that was yours truly :D. So I signed in again on the same sheet :).
The listing of this cache is at https://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GC31VFJ_lesny-kosciol-kosciolki . My log from December – The old log on geocaching.com is gone for good.. And I see my opinion is still the same, just like everything else :(. Of course I didn’t go there just for the cache or to see what it looks like – for a change of pace :D. A very peaceful place; the only things drumming on my eardrums were the little songbirds in the surrounding woods and the nearby Jestrabi vodopad waterfall. Amazing – even though the place sits at almost a thousand meters, it has real depth. Thank you, Lord. Compared with what the Tesin CASD congregation puts on, it’s 100 and 1, or rather 100 and –1 :(.
I stood up, and with me rose the question of how I was actually going to get to that transmitter :D. I want to take the GPS coordinates I’d written down on a train ticket from Slovakia and enter them into the GPS, only somehow I can’t find it. Good thing I still had the one from CD :). Vodafone wouldn’t get a signal here even with a satellite dish and two amplifiers 😀 (the other operators would be just as out of luck) – there’s nothing for it but to go somewhere I can pick up a signal.
I head back, planning to return to the yellow trail, even if it takes me until dark :D. After a while of wading through snow I give up; I’ll go down to Dolni Lomna and then along the main road up to Horni – that’s safer. At this rate I’ll end up all the way at Velka Raca, but if my legs are so keen on it, let them stroll along as they please. I only walk past a luxurious lookout tower :D.
Only I don’t know what they mean by “Mensi vrch” (“Smaller Hill”) – I don’t see anything by that name on the map, only Mionsi vrch. Some other time, …. 😛 (sticking my tongue out, at Uplaz). Down in the valley there’s just a lookout tower for the plebs, a cable car for real stuntmen and lovers of extreme adrenaline, and something to do with water – a pity it’s not something to do with Vodafone.
Since the transmitter is in Horni Lomna, it won’t be somewhere up in the mountains, just on some high point of the village’s inhabited area. With that argument I went down, and right on the main road there’s a bus stop where the signal was fine, so I look up the coordinates and put them into the GPS.
My first impression was shock. Whaaaat? Wooooot? I don’t want to walk 6 km there and 6 back, least of all in a winter jacket – at that point it hadn’t occurred to me to stuff it into my backpack. No way, forget it! I also wanted to get something done at home, which led me to the sinful thought of heading for the train in Bocanovice. Suddenly I see 2 bicycles and a very young girl climbing up the stonework of a viaduct.
Next to one of the bikes stood an older man – her uncle, I’d guess. It was instantly clear to me that they were geocachers, so I hurried over so I could still sign the cache log without having to climb up there myself. I didn’t know where the caches around here were, and since the girl was almost down, I asked the man whether she had been placing it or retrieving it. To my surprise, they told me there was no cache up there. I didn’t want to ask why they were climbing there, then; it would have been tactless, and besides, whenever you see some madman climbing somewhere you’d never imagine a living soul would go voluntarily, it’s usually a geocacher :D.
They did tell me, though, that the cache was on a road sign a few meters from the viaduct. With a few words of thanks I said goodbye, and the two of them crossed the road onto the yellow hiking trail; I found the cache and looked over at the narrow bridge they were just riding across – the girl was still watching me, so I smiled at her :).
On the way I just crawl under a high-voltage line carrying 400 kilovolts and gaze up at the clouds at some interesting technical contraption – I’d say it’s there for lightning protection. Golden Czech hands.
The GPS had announced about 2 hours earlier that the batteries were low and would soon give out, and exactly when I ran up to the pair, they died completely =). I got to Bocanky just in time for the 16:50 train to Mosty. Without a vacuum bag, I somehow crammed the jacket into my backpack; my water bottle and Sophie’s World no longer fit, but I’ve got 2 hands – it worked out. And I headed home. The only peculiar moment came after I got off at the Ropice stop. Next to that house there were tall, mature trees; since my regular camera was at the bottom of my backpack, I only took a picture with my phone:
but yes, they’ve surely been there since before I can remember. Literally. Still, I keep thinking: I’ve been walking past there for so many years and I’ve never noticed them; they never caught my attention enough for me to be aware of them. Bridget Jones in a man’s embrace – at her wits’ end, just like me with this blog post.
All photos from today Earlier visits to Mosty while geocaching:
GeoCaching Mosty u Jablunkova for the first time, November 10, 2015
GeoCaching Mosty u Jablunkova for the second time, December 5, 2015
GeoCaching Mosty u Jablunkova for the third time, December 24, 2015, the most beautiful gift =)
The track from the moment I turned on the GPS, that is, from getting the coordinates of the Kosciolky cache – The page moved away and left no forwarding address.