January 29, 2009 - Day 3 of the Hike

If you checked the pictures yesterday, be sure to check again - we're adding them daily (when we have Internet access).

The first night of the hike, Jan. 27th, we started out at 11:00pm from the South Compound of Stalag Luft III (SLIII), and walked up the road that runs between West Compound and the South and North Compounds. The curator of the SLIII museum, Jasek, brought along a plastic "burp" gun -- he was our "guard"! :o) Actually, he drove his jeep-type vehicle in front of us and once we were out of the camp, our bus driver followed behind us. Before we left the camp, we immediately spread out and lost several of our group. The delay was minimal, but taught us some lessons. We were happy to be walking late at night through Poland, because they zip along on those ice-covered roads there. The weather was cold, about 25 degrees (not near what it had been there about a week before, thank God!), but we found that many of us were somewhat over-dressed. We sang a few songs: "I've Got 6 Pence," and what we could remember from the Air Corps song ("Off we go, into the wild blue yonder..."). Once on the main road, our bus driver followed behind with his lights on, flashing to us when a car was passing him. There was no sidewalk, so we traveled in the dark on the road. Often, there was a shoulder on the road, but when we went over the Autobahn, there was none. The first night we walked nine miles. More later... it's time to march again!

The link to more pictures is here