Where have you been?

Now that we have finished the chronology of our trip I want to add a few side posts that I think you guys might find interesting. The first has to do with my overwhelming fear of falling to my death. Technically this is called Acrophobia but it is more commonly called a fear of heights. I know, I am a wimp.


While we would be walking along a trail, steep or otherwise, I would be fine. Then a narrow section with a large drop below would come along and things would get tense. This feeling occured several times but once, as we were making our way from Morskie Oko to Dolina Pięciu Stawów Polskich (Valley of Five Lakes), I couldn't overcome my fears and had to turn back. Here is a picture of the overall trail although I do not know if the "hard" section can be seen. I think it might be the large slide section seen as tan right in the middle but I am not sure.


Either way the trail at this point was only about four inches wide and was not a ledge so much as a flatter section of a large bald rock across the trail. There was not really any grip either and the span was about eight feet and the fall below was at least 40 feet. If there had been a chain to hold or something it might have been different but as it was there was no way I was going to make it. This picture shows me just after we decided to turn back: "The look of fear". Nice huh?


On the positive side we decided to walk up to Czarny Staw after we returned to Morskie Oko because we had the rest of the day to kill. So while the trip to the Valley of Five Lakes was a bust we did get to see Czarny Staw. As I said before, "next time". Here is a few of Morskie Oko as we made our way back down.