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A Gordon Bennett never
forgives a mistake. So we take the time at home
in Düsseldorf, to inflate our D-EUREGIO with
cold air to inspect it from the inside. The
result is calming: Only a few spots, that have
to be sealed.On
Thursday, September 19th, we drive to Lech in
the Austrian region of Vorarlberg with all our
stuff. We have Max Tenthoff and Ute Schubert as
chase crew, Jürgen Schubert and me. The anxious question. What is the weather doing?
At the main briefing on Friday, 5 p.m., Gordon
Bennett chief meteorologist Herbert Pümpel
encourages all competitors: Wind in the lower
altitudes from West-South-West. But in altitudes
above 3000 meters from the West-North-West, this
means drift in the direction of Yugoslavia, not
very tempting, considering the political
situation in this country. In addition, in
regard to the Soviet Union there is no
permission to enter this country. All the other
countries including Albania, Romania and
Bulgaria had given permission, which is a sign
of hope.
The numerous clouds, that darkened the sky on
Friday, should move away on Saturday and the
wedge of a high pressure area should rule the
weather. Possibly good conditions. So on
Saturday morning, next to the other balloons,
D-EUREGIO is laid out and prepared for inflation.
What a bad surprise, when at about noon, a
strong rain shower falls on the already prepared
balloon. Everything is totally wet in a moment.
Channels form in the carefully taped rip out
panel and they have to be removed. An unpleasant
work especially since there is so much to do
prior to a Gordon Bennett launch. But it was a
surprise also for Herbert Pümpel, who could not
detect any other shower within a circle of 200
kilometres around. St. Peter finally sends some
sunshine, soon sucking the rainwater from the
slowly expanding gas balls. So the launch
preparations on the Schmelzhofwiesen continue.
We had drawn launch number 13. Will this mean
luck for us? If you like it or not, there is
always much tension before such a launch. Is
there really everything you need in the basket?
At 8 p.m. everything is
ready. One balloon after the other lifts off to
the night sky under the sound of its national
anthem. The weather situation is a little
critical, because only in the lowest layers the
wind really comes from the South-West. Someone
who wants to fly high at once to cross the Alps,
risks to enter a faster wind from the North-West,
facing a landing in front of the Yugoslavian
border already in the same night. Herbert Pümpel
advises all the crews, to stay low and use the
downwind of the valley to fly along the river
Lech. Then to reach the northern side of the
Alps at Reutte and to continue there with the
wind from the South-West. That is also our
decision.
The little space in the basket we have to share
with: 28 bulging sandbags, two canisters of
water-ballast, an instrument box with barograph,
a Dittel FSG 70 radio, a Becker-transponder with
altitude encoder, two ICOM radios, a heavy bag
for maps, oxygen set with bottle, a huge bag of
food, ELT (emergency location transmitter), two
batteries for the supply of the night-beacons
with energy and different other tools.At 8:59 p.m. D-EUREGIO
lifts off from the platform at Lech. The balloon
makes its 44th flight. For Jürgen, it’s his
70th, for me, flight number 207 in a gas
balloon. Behind us we leave hours of hectic
preparation. It is a little relief, to be in the
air at last. But this relief doesn’t keep for
long. Our balloon is the only one, which is
heading straight towards the cableway to the
Rüfikopf, which I don’t like at all. When I
force the balloon to a very low altitude, this
individualistic guy changes its heading and
follows the other balloons down the valley.
First we fly very low over the church and
rooftops of Lech. Many shouts and whistles come
from below. The last balloon has just taken off,
the national anthem had ended. Slowly we fly
down the valley of the Lech, accompanied by the
roaring of the river. An avalanche of cars makes
its way in the direction of Warth, obviously
most of them spectators of the launch of the
35th Gordon Bennett Race.
After having passed Bürstegg, the flight becomes
a little faster. Some tree covered hills force
us, to pull up our night beacon quickly. I have
to pay attention, not to collide with a fir
tree. Friend moon is fully in the sky and
watches us. Only sometimes he hides behind huge
mountains of clouds which suck up his light.
Only the edges of the clouds have a silver
shining. On many mountains around fires burn, a
nice little farewell from the mountain rangers
of Lech to the Gordon Bennett pilots. There is a
concert of the cow bells, ringing from the
alpine pastures around.A look to the map
frightens me. The valley of the Lech has many
bends and curves. Impossible, as I think, that a
balloon will follow them. Jürgen thinks
different. He has a lot of mountaineering
experience, and was an active mountain climber
in former days. Well, we’ll see!
Warth is ahead of us and welcomes us with is
lights. Here, the valley makes its first huge
bend. At first, it seems, as if the balloon is
heading straight towards the mountain in front
of our track. But then slowly but soon very
definitively it follows the bending of the
valley and passes well between the huge blocks
of rock. With great respect, I look northwards.
How huge the mountains and how precipitous the
rock walls rise there, and how small and fragile
compared to them our balloon and we are! As if
the moon wanted to emphasize my thoughts, he let
his pale light fall to the steep rock walls. I
have an enormous respect of the mountains, but I
also realize the unique beauty of nature, that
is revealed to us. We see things, only a few
people may see in their lives.
Always when the aerostat is close to a hill
slope, animals flee from the monster in the sky.
This often creates rock-fall. As hard as we try,
we can’t see the fugitives. It maybe chamois.
Like dark, sharp shadows the fir trees stand out
clearly from the background where the moonlight
reflects on some rocks from time to time.The shadow of the
balloon seems to be glued to the hills. My
feeling is that we are proceeding much to slowly.
We have just watched another balloon flying
quite close to a rock wall, being forced to
sacrifice ballast. An other one flies at the
opposite side of the valley about 200 meters
higher than we and close to a tree covered slope.
Again and again the pilot checks his distance to
the trees and the rocks with his strong beam
light. Ghostly the light of the strong beam
rushes through the dark fir trees. I admire the
strong nerves of this crew regarding this little
distance to the obstacles. Till now, we were
kept away from larger sacrifices of ballast.
Let’s hope that it will stay this way and that
we will manage to fly out of the Alps. Anything
but high and to Yugoslavia. About an hour ago,
we could see, how a balloon was driven away to
the Southeast. Quickly the lights of its
anti-collision beacon disappeared. It was very
high and Jürgen said: "He has already purchased
his ticket for Yugoslavia."
Everything works well until we are about 5
kilometres from Reutte. There, crossing the
valley of the Lech, is the Namloser valley.
While we are flying a little higher, to keep
enough distance from some trees. About 100
meters lower Helma Sjuts flies her balloon right
through the middle of the valley. She keeps
exactly the direction, our balloon didn’t want
to take at all. Even a short pull on the vent
doesn’t help anymore. We are pulled inside the
Namloser valley and thus away from Reutte and
the north side of the Alps. All moaning and
cursing doesn’t help. Yearning, my eyes follow
Helma and Alfred, who don’t have to fight our
problems. Jürgen can’t believe, what a trick the
wind played on us. Even in the lowest altitude,
it is impossible to slip back to the valley of
the Lech. What do we do? D-EUREGIO meanwhile
purposefully climbs up a hill towards a mountain
ridge. I start to feel unsafe. A half bag of
ballast is sacrificed. At once, the balloon
follows and lifts us over the obstacle. But on
the lee side, it starts to fall again. A very
steep, dark valley with sharp rocks envelopes us.
No human settlement can be seen. Eerie sounds
the roaring of the deer from below. Somewhere
water falls to the valley with thunderous noise.
The thunder is reflected and strengthened by
many rock walls, A unique scenery of sounds.Fortunately, the fall
could be stopped with the sacrifice of a little
ballast. At a low altitude the balloon makes its
way around the mountain. The lights of a little
village are now visible and on the little road
outside of the village we can see our chase crew
giving us a sign with the headlights of the car.
Reutte can be seen in the distance. Somehow I
feel as if the lights of this town would give us
a scornful grin. Can we still manage it to
return to the valley of the Lech? D-EUREGIO has
flown almost a circle keeping the direction we
have now it doesn’t appear impossible.
But now, another problem had come up. The moon
had decided, to make life and flying a little
harder for us. We had loved his light up to now,
but now it becomes disturbing. Because we have
changed the direction the light now comes from
the front. Very bright over the ridge it dazzles
in a way that obstacles ahead can’t be detected
well enough anymore. Also, the balloon is
heading straight towards the mountain top of the
Thanneller. There is almost no more speed and
the mountain is dangerously close. Finish,
that’s not the way to carry on! One bag of
ballast is sacrificed. No matter what happens,
lets just get away from here. Slowly, then
quicker, the balloon climbs and lifts us out of
this complicated situation. Nearly 1½ hours we
have spent on the Thanneller.
But what is that? Suddenly a sharp wind blows
from the front, the envelope of the balloons
starts flattering and the basket shakes.
D-EUREGIO has obviously come to the lee waves of
the mountain. We climb with 3 meters per second
now and have a speed of 50 km/h. The heading is
not so good – 85° - but still good enough, to
help us leave the Alps possibly at
Garmisch-Partenkirchen. Flying higher now we
have a fantastic view to the mountains around.
Also impressive is the night sky full of stars
around the black ball over our heads. The track
of the balloon had calmed and stabilized as well
as my nerves. Often I can see shooting stars,
falling from the sky and seeming to disappear
behind the high mountains. If you see a shooting
star, you may have a wish!At 4 a.m. we are over
the town of Garmisch, west of the mountain
Zugspitze. By its greatness, it clearly stands
out of the neighbour mountains of the
Wetterstein range. A lonely light can be seen on
its top. I try to keep enough distance from it
to avoid more climbing because further up the
wind still blows towards Yugoslavia. It is very
difficult to get the balloon out of the Alps
completely. Again and again black mountain
ridges, which have to be crossed, appear in our
track. It’s not easy to estimate the distance to
them. Concentrating we stare into the darkness
which holds so many secrets.
The moon doesn’t help us anymore. He has become
tired; his brightness has gone. He still swims
on the western horizon above the pall of haze to
which human beings contribute such a lot, but
soon he dives into it; starts to flicker as if
he wants to dissolve, and finally disappears.
Good night or better, Good morning, because in
the East twilight starts.In the last hours there
has been almost no clouds but now in the North
huge cumulus clouds were rising. I do not trust
my eyes – there are flashes of lightning inside
the clouds. It must be the rest of the
thunderstorms from the previous days; hopefully
not dangerous anymore. With increasing
brightness these flashes finally disappear and
the clouds collapse more and more.
D-EUREGIO passes the town of Mittenwald in the
North and flies into the valley of the river Inn,
heading approximately 80° . Speed has decreased
a lot. The whole valley is covered with fog. The
white carpet slowly moves to the North. Suddenly
we see a Polish balloon east of us. They have to
climb because they are heading straight towards
a tree covered hill. For quite a long time, we
can only see the upper half of the envelope
looking out of the trees moving as slowly as we
do. An interesting image.Meanwhile, it had
become brighter and the sky in the East glows
red. In the glow one can see mighty peaks
standing out. The mountain peaks of the
Kaisergebirge, belonging to the northern calcium
alps. This view is so impressing that all
tiredness and strain of the night before is
blown away. D-EUREGIO stays south of the
mountain called Wilder Kaiser while Thomas Fink,
flying very low, passes it to the West. The
question for us is if it is sensibly to force
the balloon to stay low, thus sacrificing lot of
gas or ballast but proceeding more North; or if
it is better to allow the balloon to climb under
the influence of the warming morning sun and to
cross the eastern Alps first and not to give
away the possibility to fly a second night right
now. The decision is very difficult but finally
we agree to give free way to the balloon but
brake it down a little bit on its way up.
In higher altitudes; suddenly a balloon appears
in the Northwest. Quickly it comes closer and
its heading is definitively more to the
southeast as we fly. It is D-CONTINENTALE with
Helma and Alfred. But also D-EUREGIO has
struggled itself higher and makes more speed now.
The heading is 100° to 110° . Not very
encouraging considering which country is in that
direction. But we see no sense in forcing the
balloon close to the ground and making almost no
more speed while spoiling a lot of ballast in
the coming up and downdrafts. But I can’t stop
my thoughts running ahead for many hours
imagining a landing on the Austrian-Yugoslavian
border.
How bad are wars and how much suffering they
bring! Four years ago we could land in
Yugoslavia with no problems but today it is
impossible. Those views are too fascinating, to
think about it any longer. The balloon crosses
the ‘Steinerne Meer’ (rocky sea), a high plateau
of huge dimensions. It is probably the most
famous karst landscape and forms the
south-western wing of the Alps at Berchtesgaden.
Looking down vertically we can see, how quick
our balloon is proceeding. Really, the rocks
down there look like waves. Totally noiseless
our tramp moves on over the Steinerne Meer to
the East. We can still see it for a long time.Very different shapes
of mountains are crossed by the balloon. Very
impressive compositions of rock, nature had
created here! On shaded spots snow remains.
Small glacier lakes formed colourful
counterpoints on the grey, stony nowhere-land.
One mountain is coated with veils of mist
playing around it, always changing its shape.
Only the peak peeps out of the white mass.
It is 10:20 a.m. and position is south of
Schladming. Still 20 bags in the basket and
present heading 120° . Overwhelming is the view
to the Dachstein range. Jürgen knows almost
every peak and lots of anecdotes from his time
as mountain climber. Far from the South
Großglockner and Großvenediger are greeting us
and above them a little spot, D-CONTINENTALE.
What a great experience is a traversing of the
Alps!In the valleys
particularly thick fog still rests. No one down
there will expect a balloon over himself or can
imagine, how beautiful it is up here. We wonder
where all the other balloons are. We can’t see
anyone of them. Could they have managed to stay
on the north side of the Alps and to filter into
the wind from the southwest?
In the early afternoon and already on the south
side of the Alps I have a little rest on our "deluxe"
balloon bed made by Woerner. But suddenly I am
wide awake. Jürgen states: "If we continue like
this, there is only one hour to Yugoslavia".
Everything, but not this! I force D-EUREGIO to
lower layers hoping to meet a streaming there
which would save us from a landing on the
Yugoslavian border. Minutes of tension begin.
Will the balloon change its track enough? It
does! But I have to concentrate completely on
the flight now. Low mountains are underneath.
There are still many up und downdrafts, which
may cost us a lot of ballast. And that is
something I have to keep away from, otherwise we
could forget the second night. I manage, to
stabilize the balloon at 1500 meters. Quite
limply the envelope looks, no wonder, D-EUREGIO
comes from 3500 meters.Mount Wolfsberg is
passed and slowly the landscape becomes
definitively more flat. Heading is now about 65°
. But we still have to pay attention to the
Yugoslavian border. First we fly parallel to it
and don’t recede from it. D-EUREGIO approaches
the control zone of Graz and a very fruitful
radio conversation begins. The controller allows
the aerostat to pass through the middle of the
final approach sector south of Graz and requests
only to keep an altitude "round about xx feet".
I love this, because every order to keep a
definite altitude would cost us ballast.
Weather-information from Graz for the next night
sounds good. Up to 5000 feet wind from southwest
with 5 knots, above 5000 feet turning via west
to northwest, 10 – 15 knots. A worsening of the
weather – if any – may be expected not before
the second half of the night and then only of a
very moderate kind. In our direction, Hungary,
there is no worsening expected.
14 bags are left in the basket. So the course is
set for the second night. We only have
continuously to care to not come too close to
the Yugoslavian border. At the present heading
of 40° to 50° , this would hopefully become no
problem.Now we leave the
airspace of Graz. Slowly dawn comes up. The
cooling makes our balloon fall. Again and again
some shovels of sand leave the basket, to keep
the altitude. The sun has disappeared behind the
mountains in the West. In the many night hours
ahead we will miss her warming beams. Unnoticed
by us, the moon had left his bedroom and looks
at us with curiosity. For sure he is astonished
that we want to stay a second night under his
guard. It is time for dinner. Austrian
unleavened bread with salami, a few grapes and
mineral water. At the next Gordon Bennett race
we will also take a toothbrush with us.
D-EUREGIO approaches Hungarian airspace. I try
to make radio contact with Budapest. In vain!
Obviously the distance is too big and our
altitude too low. The daylight disappears and
below more and more lights show up. Many
children, still playing in the courts, wave and
shout. Our chase crew is quite close to us. They
will stay overnight somewhere, a wise decision
after a 24-hour drive.
Our yellow gas filled ball now moves in a
direction of 25° to 30° , the speed is 20 km/h.
The navigation is not easy. For some time now
the balloon flies along a motorway. But we
cannot find this motorway on our maps. So we can
just estimate our position. Also it becomes more
and more hazy. Only a few lights can still be
seen from below, everything else is sucked up by
the fog.
If you are overtired and get confronted with
different problems at the same time, many
thoughts shoot through your brain. My
imagination is thinking of the worsening of the
weather with upcoming clouds. A feeling of fear
overcomes me. Do we really have to land at night
in this hazy soup? We can’t read the VORs, drawn
on my maps. A fatal situation! I try to make
radio contact with Vienna. With successful
contact and with the help of the transponder we
finally get our definite position. D-EUREGIO has
flown with the wind almost from the south,
predominant in the lower layers, to the area of
the Neusiedler See. This also explains the haze
appearing so quickly. The motorway which we
could not find on the maps is the one from Graz
to Vienna. We had thought to be already much
more to the East.But now the next
problem comes up. Our balloon is heading
straight towards the TMA of Vienna, and it does
not help that we are Gordon Bennett competitors
and have a properly working transponder with
altitude encoding on board. We are a little
disappointed for the officials at Lech had
promised us no problems, especially with Vienna.
But instead of this the controller requests us
to land. I try to explain him that it may be
extremely dangerous to land at night with a
balloon. "Then climb to 10000 feet at once,
please". Under normal circumstances, this would
also be impossible or could be done only with
big sacrifices of ballast. But now the situation
is different because the balloon had been up to
almost 3500 meters during the day. Only one bag
is dumped and soon the aerostat climbs to the
requested altitude. The controller is satisfied
and we are too, because up here visibility is
again unlimited. Heading is now 95° .
The speed, the controller tells us, is 15 knots.
According to our own calculations, it seems to
be a little less. Its cold up here, extremely
cold. But that’s a problem you can live with. We
cover with everything we had taken with us.
Vienna and Bratislava can be seen close together
brightly illuminated. Hard to imagine that these
two towns belong to two very different nations.
We can see clearly now how the balloon moves
more and more to the East. We easily accept this
because we want to try to extend the flight as
much as possible during the next day and to fly
deep into Romania. Our chase crew still don’t
know of this idea. I ask the controller at
Vienna, to phone the championship office at Lech
and inform them about our further intentions. I
also ask him about the other balloons. He tells
us he knows only of a D-COLUMBUS and an Austrian
balloon, but nothing about all the others. We
can’t imagine that only three balloons are left
in the air.
Vienna advises us to call Budapest for our
aircraft is already deep in Hungary. Now we have
no more problem, making contact. Our transponder
is permanently running but I am a little worried
about using up the energy. At once, the
controller at Budapest accepts my suggestion to
activate the transponder only every 30 minutes
for a short time. Even more, he is satisfied
with a one hour period. Wonderful! Now finally
some calm returns to our little basket. So we
can alternately have a little rest on the
Woerner bed. But when laying down, the cold is
felt even more uncomfortably, so sleep is almost
impossible.It’s midnight. Below us
the large Hungarian town of Csorna passes slowly.
Jürgen had laid down and so I have some time to
follow my thoughts. How little do I know about
the country of Hungary! What kind of a town is
Csorna? How many people live in it? But all
these questions stay unanswered and the balloon
carries us further on its voyage to eastern
Europe. What can we expect, if we really land in
Romania or Bulgaria? Will there be great
difficulties? Or doesn’t the balloon fly so far?
Questions and more questions.
The sky over Hungary is full of iron. Again and
again I can hear and see airplanes, fortunately
much higher than the balloon. For safety reasons
I switch on the transponder again and call
Budapest.
Cirrus clouds approach at high speed covering
the moon for a short time and then disappear to
the Southeast. Will it really work, down to
Romania? Or does the bad weather proceed faster
and will catch up to u? More and more often,
cirrus clouds accompany us on our way and don’t
let us expect the very best. But there are also
sequences without clouds allowing an unlimited
view to the clear nightly sky full of stars. How
unique is our situation up here in the small
willow basket 3000 meters above Hungarian
terrain!
West of us we can still see the lights of Csorna.
Why don’t we proceed faster? Jürgen is also
unsatisfied about the speed. What can be done?
But very sudden, our attention is turned to
something different: There was a flash of
lightening in the West! There, again! But no
cloud can be seen and no thunder can be heard.
How far away may be this thunderstorm? Hopefully
far enough!
First we did not notice that D-EUREGIO had
started a moderate fall. The old altitude can be
reached again with ease and quickly so why not
try? How fast is the wind below and which
heading the balloon will fly there. So we allow
it to continue the fall. At 600 meters I level
out.
We fly in the direction 20° to 30° and are much
faster than on 3000 meters. So we keep the
altitude and continue low. Soon we reach the
border to the CSFR. My stomach feels
uncomfortable. Two years ago, at the 33rd Gordon
Bennett race, Gustav Vornbäumen and me had
failed at the Czech border and had been banned
to the last place. Also, there are no VFR
flights at night permitted here. I say goodbye
to Budapest thanking for the helpfulness and
then call a little insecure Bratislava on
frequency 132:35. I can’t trust my ears: "D-EUREGIO
you are welcome in CSFR". We are overwhelmed.
The helpfulness and friendliness of this
controller can’t be beaten and continues the
next hours. It is really unbelievable!
Frequently, we get accurate position reports and
other information.We are very worried by
the weather. More and more clouds appear and I
almost regret it, to have descended from the
higher altitude because I have the feeling that
we will sucked right into the middle of the bad
weather. It becomes again more and more hazy
around us and I don’t think that this time the
Neusiedler See is the reason for it. We climb a
little, to keep the overall view. In fact soon
the balloon lifts us out of the haze at an
altitude of 1800 meters. Clouds below, clouds
above. My heart beats faster. In the Westthere
are flashes of lightening again but this time
much closer. 4:30 a.m. and still two hours until
sunrise. If I had known this before I would
certainly not have flown the second night. Our
controller at Bratislava tells us that we have
to expect showers in the next hour but he had
heard nothing about thunderstorms. But again and
again Jürgen and I see the flashes in the West.
We also hear Stefan Makne on the radio. I ask
Bratislava if I can have a short talk with him –
no problem. Quickly, I file a warning to Stefan,
concerning the thunderstorms. We decide to
continue in our altitude and to keep an eye on
everything. As soon as we come too close to a CB
cloud we will land. No matter or where!
Oh dear – these minutes until daybreak can
become damn long. But we were lucky. The CB
clouds we could see were all at least 20
kilometres away from us. Only weak thunder can
be heard. As frightening as it is to watch a
thunderstorm from a balloon basket, it is also a
gigantic performance of nature in front of our
eyes.We feel very relieved
when the first daylight finally makes its way to
us from the East. Particularly since it has to
penetrate thick mountains of clouds, which
appear even more threatening by this. Aside of
these clouds the sky starts to glow. Never
before I have seen such an impressive morning
atmosphere. South of us is a CB cloud which is
very active. Again and again there are flashes
inside making it look like a huge torch but
thanks goodness the distance to D-EUREGIO is
quite big.
Meanwhile it had become so bright that we could
land. So we decide to leave our thunderstorm
guard post at 2600 meters and to fly to lower
layers. Bratislava gets informed about our
changing of the altitude and we meet some
agreements for the case since we could no longer
keep the contact. Bratislava will inform the
championship office at Lech about our position
and in case we will land in the CSFR, we will
phone Bratislava to report our landing position.
In case the balloon will not land in the CSFR
but continue its flight to Poland the helpful
controller tells us some frequencies on which we
can make contact in Poland.But first the
controller slows down our descent. In our track
are some higher mountains of the ‘High Tatra’,
we can’t see through the layer of clouds below.
Not before we were north of the ‘High Tatra’,
the controller allows us, to descend.
Meanwhile some sunbeams had slipped by the
towers of clouds in the East and now shine on
the layer of clouds below us. As a response the
layer tears open here and there opening the view
to a wonderful landscape, reminding me at once
of the ‘Black Forest’. They are the northern
foothills of the ‘High Tatra’. We decide, to
continue our descent.
The weather has calmed and no thunderstorm
activities can be detected at the moment. If
D-EUREGIO stays low we see no risk in continuing
the flight. If the weather worsens rapidly, we
can land at once. Decided, done!
First, D-EUREGIO hesitates to leave the warmer
layers but some pulling on the vent finally make
it fall. From 1800 meters we then enjoy an
unclouded view to the landscape. A small town is
below. We can see an industrial area and a
railroad. Hearing the horn of the locomotive
makes us recognize a foreign country. Everything
looks different. Hard to describe but very
impressive to us.
Very slowly the forest becomes less and the
terrain more flat. We have no more radio contact
to Bratislava. We also don’t hear Stefan Makne
anymore. On the balloon frequency 122:25 an
unfamiliar calmness rules. Shall our balloon be
the only one which is still in the air? I can’t
imagine. But where are all the others then? But
first of all Jürgen and I are very happy that we
did not have to land at night and that St. Peter
agrees to let us fly on a little.
Will we be able to reach Poland? It looks like
this. At our present altitude the balloon has a
heading of 50° to 60° with a speed of about 40
km/h. In fact, at 8:00 a.m. the Orava lake
appears in front of us and on its north shore is
the borderline to Poland. The joy is great to
reach this country. It is more than 52 years ago
that the last German balloon has crossed this
border.
A tiny village is on the east side of the Orava
lake. As much as we look we can’t detect a
border station or something similar.
Unfortunately we still have no radio contact
with Polish ATC even though we tried many times
on the different frequencies we had received
from Bratislava.
Endless wide spaces all around mostly used for
farming. The shape of the fields are very long
and very narrow. I remember at once to the 1987
Gordon Bennett Race to Yugoslavia where it
looked quite similar. Many little villages can
be seen mostly without a face. Just a few houses
on both sides of a lonesome country road.Above the clouds tear
open again. The balloon wants to climb. Well,
let him go. Perhaps we can make radio contact
with Warsaw and get an actual survey of the
weather in higher altitudes. Both work. But
Warsaw is not very cooperative. We are told to
call Bratislava again because in this part of
Poland, Bratislava is in charge of the airspace.
Weather information can’t be given.
All efforts to make radio-contact with
Bratislava again are in vain and no wonder
considering the distance. Our own weather
observation shows cumuli above the torn layer of
clouds reaching up to 3000 meters and higher but
mostly they look harmless. We have to be careful
and this works only in low altitudes. So back
down again.
At 2000 meters D-EUREGIO crosses the town of
Tarnow, a good point for orientation. The
balloon continues its fall down to 500 meters.
With a few hand full of sand I can stop the fall
and we are continuing stable at a low altitude.
Above our aerostat the clouds had become more
thick again. You can already say, grey in grey.
The little road below looks suspiciously dark.
Should it rain? Very soon our rain eave tells
the truth and a little later the water is
falling quite hard from the appendix down to our
basket. A wet surprise. Quickly, we store all
tools to a plastic bag and into plastic films we
fortunately have on board for this case.We prepare for the
landing. It is 10:35 a.m.. Everywhere around is
enough space for landing. We have still 5 bags
in the basket and also some water ballast. We
agree that the flight will be continued even in
the rain as long as ballast permits and no
thunderstorm comes up. Everything is wet already.
Due to the closed layer of clouds above updrafts
can’t build up. So it is possible to continue
the flights of this worn out and meager little
balloon very low and stable without the use of
much ballast. And soon the rainfall ends.
Wonderful! We want to fight for every meter.
Everything, but not landing. Our ambition have
awoken. But we will not take any risk.
The balloon flies low over many farms.
Everywhere we see huge herds of geese. My
impression is that they react to the balloon
with even more panic as they do at us. Wherever
the balloon appears a big excitement of shouting
and waving starts. We reply to every greeting
much to the joy of the people down there. Not
many of them may have seen a balloon before in
their life.
The area below becomes still more lonesome than
it has been before. Suddenly I see a flock of
gigantic birds on a field. As we approach they
hurry to a forest nearby to look for protection
from the monster approaching from the sky. Are
they been buzzards? I have no other explanation.
Then again tiny villages and in front of every
farm a huge flock of geese. Dogs are barking.
What’s this ball, up there in the sky? The
clouds above tear apart again – unbelievable.Meanwhile it has become
noon and its time to eat. The balloon climbs
again. Still four bags and some water-ballast.
Ahead of us there is a restriction-area, called
EDP21. In any case we want to stay clear of it.
We neither know how far up it reaches nor which
activities happen there. To pass it the balloon
has to fly more east so up we go. It works.
D-EUREGIO stays south of it. But we are again
quite high. More than 2000 meters and the
balloon wants to continue climbing. Below the
clouds – north of us – we think we hear shooting
several times but maybe we are wrong. In any
case it was good to stay clear of the area. I
feel a little uncomfortable, hanging in a small
willow basket under a worn out little balloon in
the middle of a completely strange country.
We haven’t seen any aircraft at all till now.
Generally on our flight over Poland there have
been no control zones, except for this single
restriction area, of which we could stay clear.
Up to the Russian border, no more obstacle of
this kind can be seen: very good. If only the
weather and the balloon continues to play the
game with us. Suddenly I realize, that D-EUREGIO
is in the air for more than 40 hours now. We
feel much joy about this fact. Curiously enough,
we are absolutely not tired. Is the fact that we
see so may indescribable new things the reason
for this?
The weather in the west look worrying. Some
cumuli clouds rise up high there. Once we think
we had heard thunder far away. Or not? These
cumuli clouds are approximately 50 – 70
kilometres away. We now want to fly very low
again and stay there. Another climb would be
impossible considering the situation of our
ballast.Below a forest area of
huge dimensions awaits us. The layer of clouds
above is again thick enough to allow a stable
low altitude flight across this nature
preservation area. What a unique beauty! A
lonesome farm is below. They have just
discovered the balloon. We fly on across a
forest of birches with a kind of moor land
around. On a little river we can see the
reflection of our balloon.
Speed has reduced very much. Our yellow ball now
flies with 12 – 15 km/h very low across the
landscape. Surface wind is completely calm. It’s
crazy: After 41 hours flight, we now make a real
minimum distance competition over this unique
forest area.
A moped rider, probably coming from the farm,
tries to chase us. Again and again the wheels of
the vehicle slip on the sandy ground. He follows
us up to the beach of a lake. The balloon is so
low, that we can see his face. In his face we
read disbelieving and astonishment. Who are you?
Where do you come from? Where do you want to go?
The track ends and he stays back waving. Now we
see our reflection in the lake then endless
forests approach. Wild animals rush away in
panic and we hear the cracking of branches but
don’t see anything. A herd of wild boars? The
forest becomes more open as birches and alders
replace the firs. Jürgen has seen a moose. I
don’t see it. Later, we see deer.After about one hour
the forest suddenly ends and the balloon flies
over wide farmland. Many people work on the
fields on this cloudy afternoon. Whenever they
discover the aerostat they let everything go and
their eyes follow us with astonishment. I
remember back to the times of Ferdinand
Eimermacher and Carl Götze. It must have been
similar to us in those early times when a
balloon appeared. And what we can see also fits
better to those times. The people still work on
the fields with their hands or the help of
horses. Numerous horse drawn wagons are used to
carry home the harvest. Only a few tractors are
used. The main product seems to be tobacco. That
is something we did not expect here. Often the
people make signs that we should land. What
should we expect us after a landing? Always as
we cross a village and half of the population
follows the balloon.
The mood in the basket is at its best. Even if
the sky is grey and grey we love it because it
is our only chance, to keep the balloon in the
air. A little less than three bags of ballast
are left in the basket. But the flight of
D-EUREGIO is so stable and the altitude kept so
constantly that I use up almost no sand. Jürgen
concentrates completely on the navigation which
is not easy with maps of a scale 1:500.000. He
performs very well and we always know exactly
where we are. So I can concentrate completely on
the flight. From time to time the balloon wants
to go down and then I have to correct it with a
little sand.
Jürgen and I wonder where our chase-crew may be
now and how they feel. Observer Kurt Fabes has
contact with gas ballooning for the first time
in his life. We hope he will cope with our
marathon flight.
D-EUREGIO now crosses a little mountain ridge.
My feeling is that the layer of clouds becomes
lower and lower. Can we make it to the Russian
border? We are now in the air for 44 hours.
Speed has increased and the heading has changed.
Why this? Up to now we flew at the low altitude
at 70° to 80° and 30 km/h. Now the heading is
more 100° with 40 km/h.
Suddenly the sky darkens in our direction! It is
as if we were heading towards a black wall.
There a flash of lightening! And soon, pouring
rain starts to fall. Down as quick as possible!
So we are just 150 meters high, everything goes
quickly. A short pull on the vent line. The load
of the rainfall helps. With 2 meters per second,
we rush down. A long pasture between high trees
is exactly in our track. That is very good. With
the last full bag, I stop the fall completely.
The trail rope is released. Even if the
horizontal speed is high, the balloon touches
the ground with a sinking speed of only 20
centimetres per second and the razing on the
ground is short. A thick frog jumps aside
shocked and is the first creature that welcomes
us here. The balloon is ripped out and the
envelope deflates in a hush.At once I rush out of
the basket and run to the balloon pulling the
upper half to the middle of the envelope to
prevent the rain water from entering to the
inside. It is coming down in buckets. No human
being can be seen. Then I realize that an
important balloon flight has come to a happy
end. We don’t know anything about our ranking,
but our joy is enormous having made such a long
and distant flight. "Happy landings, Jürgen!"
The rain clatters loud on the ripped balloon.
Gusts of wind lash the tops of the nearby poplar
trees. Jürgen makes some camera shots of the
landing field. It has become so dark already
that he has to use the flash. How shall we
continue? I am a little bit disappointed,
because no helpers show up. Has nobody seen us
landing? Finally from the other end of the
pasture a tractor approaches. It stops, and I
try to explain the driver with hands and feet,
who we are and where we come from. He looks a
little helpless. Suddenly, a Volkswagen with a
German number appears. We don’t trust our eyes.
It is the family Kamiski from Buxtehude visiting
their relatives here in this area. Her mother
drew her attention to the balloon as Mrs.
Kaminski said. She was running to the house,
shouting: "Satan, the devil incarnate, comes
from heaven"! After a look out of the window
they quickly realized, that "Warsteiner" will
hardly have done something with the devil and
assumed, that this may be a German balloon
having made quite a long flight with its crew
maybe needing help. What luck for us!
Now the landing report must be sent to Lech as
quickly as possible. We decide that Jürgen
drives to a telephone with the Kaminskis and I
will stay with the balloon. I have no idea at
this time what it means, to phone from Poland!
Jürgen leaves and I stay back at the balloon in
the pouring rain.
Meanwhile in the little village news had spread
like a crown fire. What a strange ball had
fallen from the sky and to which purpose it may
be used? An invasion starts. Within a few
minutes more and more people come even if it’s
still coming down in buckets. They feel the
envelope make signs that it will be very good
for rain clothes and look at me with curiosity.
I remember quite well the landing with Gustav
Vornbäumen in Yugoslavia four years ago when
only the police could keep the curious crowd
away from the balloon. The situation is not very
easy.I am very tired I feel
cold and I am wet down to the skin. About 30 –
40 persons stand around me and bomb me with
questions which I unfortunately don’t understand.
I try, to approach these people open minded and
kindly. Somehow I feel that everything else
would be wrong. Often, they stand together in
groups, discussing vividly this exciting event.
I also try to ask questions. Who has seen a
balloon before, and so on!
A cigarette is offered to me and I try to
explain the guy that I am a non-smoker. Then one
of the farmers offers me a candy. Normally I
don’t like candies but to be not considered as
impolitely I take it with thanks. It doesn’t
taste very good but the farmer smiles at me. He
will be the one to whom we’ll have to owe a lot.
Jürgen is off for more than an hour now, and I
start asking myself, where he is? A telephone
call can’t take so long. Strange thoughts shoot
through my brain. After a balloon flight of 44
hours, I stand together with 40 people on an
lawn in the rain, 50 kilometres from the Russian
border, completely overtired, cold and totally
wet. A surrealistic situation. What happens if
Jürgen doesn’t return? Perhaps, an accident has
happened. What can I do now? The only conclusion
is to wait, wait and wait again.My "candy-farmer" takes
special care of me. He gives me a sign to take a
seat at his side on the tractor. I try to
explain that it is necessary and to wait for
Jürgen because I think he probably wants to take
me home with him. But he doesn’t give up. He
even knows some words German and wipes over the
seat with his hands as to clean it and says: "Please,
please". I can’t say "no" any longer. I climb
with him on the old tractor. But he doesn’t
drives off. Now I understand, he just wanted to
keep me away from standing in the cold rain any
longer. The tractor has a roof keeping the rain
away. I am touched. But where is Jürgen? He is
off now for one and a half hour.
More and more people come. I shake hands with
everybody, smile at them. Often, they ask me
about brandy. I pretend to love brandy and have
the feeling the people like that.
My farmer points with his hand to his mouth and
says: "Hunger!" I understand this as a question,
concerning my rumbling stomach and nod my head.
At once his little son, approximately seven or
eight years starts with the bicycle. Another
half an hour passes. Meanwhile it has become
completely dark. Then finally a light comes from
the direction the Volkswagen has disappeared two
hours ago. But my joy was too early. It is the
boy with the bicycle packed with a big linen bag.
He has brought bread from his mother at home and
a thermos flask full of tea. There is nothing on
the bread and the tea consists almost completely
of sugar but it is quite hot and helps me a lot.
The subject I am thinking about for a while is
the balloon. Can we risk it to let it stay here
overnight? I have my doubts. The people are
simply too much interested in the envelope. But
how can we recover the completely soaked
material in the darkness? I don’t know.
Finally, the headlights of a car appear in the
distance. Thanks goodness, it is the Volkswagen.
Jürgen takes me aside and tells me that the
Kaminskis advise us to recover the balloon. I
understand at once and together we discuss the
next steps. Our farmer offers to fetch a large
trailer on which we can load all the material.
It is good that the Kaminskis are now present
for translation. So all the open questions can
be discussed now.
Jürgen shocks me a little telling me that he was
not able to file the landing-report. I can’t
imagine. They have been to the school with the
teacher. There was the only telephone in the
village. Unfortunately, even trying often and
hard, no connection could be made. Jürgen
reports to me the reaction of the teacher when
he learned, that they wanted to phone to Austria.
"Come in first, this may take long."Our farmer returns with
the tractor and pulls a huge trailer behind it.
We decide, to wrap the balloon together with the
net like a hot air balloon and then load it on
the trailer. The light envelope of D-EUREGIO now
weights much more with so much water is on it.
It is a bone breaking work. All people present
people help a lot and finally I feel a little
warmer being still wet to the skin.
Finally it is done. The Kaminskis invite us to
stay overnight with them. Together we drive
along the sodden track leading from the landing
place to the house of their relatives in the
Volkswagen. Last but not least the car gets
stuck in the mud on a hill. Only pushing helps.
Ankle deep we sink into the sodden ground and
get splattered all over by the spinning wheels
of the caravan. Finally we arrive. I haven’t
seen much of our route since all windows were
fogged up.
Micha, the sister of Mrs. Kaminski, a young
woman of 21 years with blond curls gives us a
warm welcome. She is married to a young Polish
man whose name I cannot understand. I find
myself in a house which is not very old.
Everything is furnished quite simple. The
furnishings of the room serve as accommodation
for the night and consists only of a small
double bed and a table. On the wall is a poster,
showing the port of Hamburg. It is a naïve
painting with the ship "Wappen von Hamburg" in
the middle. I had used the original for several
trips to Helgoland, What a coincidence.
We store all the instruments in the room and our
wet clothes can be hung in the loft. It is very
cold and a little damp, let’s hope they dry up.
After everything is stored somehow we discuss
what to do now. Jürgen and the two men drive to
Zamosc, where friends live who own a telephone.
The town is about 30 kilometres away and the
roads are very bad. And there is still the
pouring rain.
It’s time for them to leave. So Jürgen had
already dinner at the teachers house, it’s my
turn now. Micha had made sandwiches with white
bread, liver sausage and tomato slices. It
tastes wonderful. It becomes a nice evening.
Micha and Raschka know German quite well and so
we talk about this and that. In the background,
an old tape recorder plays Polish music. Raschka
explains the situation with the balloon to me:
"The people here have nothing. They would have
cut the envelope to pieces and make coats of it".
Well, D-EUREGIO is now safe in a barn. Slowly, a
little relief comes up and with that also
tiredness. A bottle of beer we share has some
effect on me.
It is over, my longest and most adventurous
flight. Where have all the other balloons landed?
What has happened to them? Which ranking may we
have achieved? Where is our chase crew right now?
If everything worked fine they are on our track.
Hopefully the friendly controller at Bratislava
had phoned to Lech and told our position.
With much tension we wait for the return of the
Volkswagen. Hopefully they could manage to get
connected. Meanwhile I can realize what it means
to make an international call from Poland. I
also realize how little I knew about this
country till now.
It’s almost midnight, before the men finally
return. "I could hardly manage it, to give our
landing report to Hanne Hohmann", reports
Jürgen. "A longer talk was impossible as the
connection became worse and worse." Jürgen tells
us, how difficult it was and how much time it
took, to get a connection to Austria at last.
They had driven to Zamosc, where friends of the
Kaminskis live. This family is in the lucky
situation to own a telephone – perhaps, because
the man is a pilot.
Now we can go to bed peacefully. More could not
be done today. In bed I think again of what
happened. But I don’t get far because I soon
fall asleep.The next morning we are
awakened by the shouting of children. This are
Melanie and Andreas, the two kids of the
Kamiskis. Breakfast is already done. The host
himself was at the stove. He has made scrambled
eggs with cubes of ham. A Polish specialty for
breakfast, as they tell us. The eggs are from
their own hens and so there is a whole bowl full
of this really tasty breakfast.
Soon we are powered up and ready for new deeds.
The sun shines and only the soaked ground with
many puddles indicates how much it has rained
here yesterday. I hang our still wet clothes on
the line in the garden. The Alfred drives us
with his Volkswagen to the farm, where the
balloon is in the barn. How is our balloon and
who has carried us here so brave?I finally see something
of the landscape. The little roads are mostly
unpaved. Scattered farms and lots of tobacco
fields around. The farm, where we drive to, is
not far away. The farmer is happy to see us
again. Alfred tells us that the barn on this
farm had burned down last year and that the
farmer was very lucky to be able to build a new
modern barn. Obviously, it is extremely
difficult in Poland to get material for
construction. If you order something you have to
wait long until a part of it is delivered. And
then there is still the question if the
community needs something of it first. A
situation we can hardly imagine.
D-EUREGIO is really stored well in the barn.
Fortunately the platform of the trailer on which
the balloon is, stored looks like a huge riddle
so some of the water could already run away. A
horrifying work to separate the net from the
envelope is ahead of us. On the fenced lawn in
front of the barn we start working. Alfred, his
son Andreas and the farmer help us. It is a
trial of patience to untangle the net and put it
to the shape it had before. But after some hours
of work we had finally made it. The envelope is
spread on the lawn and has already lost some of
its moisture. Everything else – the trail-rope,
the sandbags, the flag and now also the net -
hang on the wooden fence on the side of the lawn.
A colourful and strange view.Meanwhile it had become
noon, and while the envelope continues drying in
the sun we care for the balloon-mail. To more
than 300 letters the data of launch and landing
have to be written, before they can be sent. An
enormous amount of work. But the day is still
long and the material still not dry. We get a
good idea seeing the gusty wind. The rip panel
is opened completely and we hold the opening to
the wind. Soon, it has blown up the balloon to a
half-ball and becomes difficult to hold. We have
to take care that the balloon isn’t blown away.
Now the envelope dries very quickly also on the
inside so our hopes grow that we can pack a dry
D-EUREGIO.
It is half past one when the farmer comes and
invites us for lunch. That is something we did
not expect. Soon we sit with him at the table.
His mother had cooked. She is a farmers wife
like out of a novel. The menu starts with a soup
cooked from beet roots and tasting wonderful.
The main course is fried sausage with smashed
potatoes, savoury vegetables and a bowl full of
grated cucumbers with a cream garlic dressing.
Something that reminds me a little of tsatsiki
and which also tastes perfect. The farmers wife
talks to us but we can’t understand. Does the
farmer know where we came from with the balloon?
I ask him for a map. Soon he has understood
jumps off and returns with a very old atlas from
school. Together, we show him our track. He
whistles through his teeth. From so far away?
I look for the restroom in the house. The farmer
gives me a sign to follow him. When he leaves
the house I think he may have misunderstood. He
walks around the house towards the stable.
Behind the building he then points to the dung
heap. I am speechless and try not to look too
shocked. That something like that still exists.
But also with our host family particularly
strange conditions rule. They have a bathroom
with a toilet but no paper. Fortunately we could
save some from the basket.
Meanwhile, our balloon is completely dry. So we
can pack the envelope in the afternoon. The
balloon mail is also almost ready. I always have
to think of our chase crew. Why haven’t they
arrived yet? Where are they right now? Probably,
they don’t know about our landing. Did they have
problems entering Poland? I am worried. Jürgen
thinks, they should be here already. Together we
discuss all possibilities and reconstruct the
situation of the past days. "If they are not
here tomorrow morning, something is wrong",
states Jürgen. Let’s hope for the best. During
our flight, we had been passed several times by
a military helicopter. We are sure he had
recognized the balloon but nothing happens.It had become evening
when the material is completely packed and the
mail is written. We decide, to have a walk. "The
teacher", Jürgen tells, "told me that our
landing spot must be close to the mouth of a
river". We decide to find it.
We start walking along unpaved roads and across
wet lawns where many frogs live. The sun is deep
between the trees and the air is absolutely
clear. I am lucky that not many people watch our
walk. Who else makes an evening walk in moon
boots? But what can I do? My baseball shoes are
still soaked. After a 20 minutes walk, we reach
our landing spot. Just a few spots of sand and
flat grass witness what happened here yesterday.
We estimate the two rivers in southern direction.
Under wild fruit trees and through high bushes
we make our way. The first river is only small
with little water. Hidden between trees and
bushes, it wasn’t easy to find. But where is the
second one? We wade through knee high grass. The
swampy ground moves under our steps and is
obviously an ideal place for snakes. It’s good,
to carry moon boots!
Finally we also find the second river. The banks
of this river are covered with close vegetation
and we conclude that this is still a healthy
river hosting many animals. The water runs very
slowly. A little later we have found the place
where the two rivers unite which is a good spot
for orientation on the map. On our way back, we
see a farmer, bringing home fresh grass with a
horse drawn wooden wagon. An uncommon image for
our eyes.
On the lawn in front of the farm the balloon is
waiting to be brought back to the barn. This
time we manage it with a big wheel barrow.
Inside the barn the farmer covers everything
with tarpaulins so nobody can find it. Then he
proudly shows us his harvested tobacco and the
stable. The pigs were just fed and there is an
enormous noise.
The little black dog must have fallen in love
with Jürgen and me because he doesn’t leave us
alone a single moment. We talk about our evening
walk. The farmer draws a snake on a piece of
wood. I had been right!
The daylight becomes weaker. It’s time to return
to the Kaminskis. We say good bye and thanks for
the help.The way back on the
little road to the house of our hosts takes only
15 minutes. It is a nice evening atmosphere. The
Kaminskis are very proud that they can offer us
two bottles of beer, we share among five persons.
After I returned home I learned how difficult it
is in Poland to buy beer and other things
natural for us.
After dinner we sit together in the kitchen for
a while and talk about life in Poland. Soon, our
chase crew is the topic and speculation starts
where they may be and when they may arrive at
Nielisc. At 10 p.m. Jürgen and I go sleeping. We
are quite tired. It was a straining day.
At midnight I wake up from the bang of a car’s
door. A little later I hear loud knocking on the
front door. Steps on the floor and then Raschka
looks into our room and says: "They are here!"
We jump from our beds dress in the minimum
necessary and rush outside.
A torch blinds us. Max wants to be sure that
really we are the ones who live here. The joy is
great to be together at last. The hugs are
endless. For almost one hour we stand outside
and share our adventures. We are not very quiet.
But then we remember our hosts and press all
together into the little bedroom. Fortunately,
our crew has enough sleeping bags with them. But
first a bottle of brandy circles. It is one from
Lech with the engraved subject "Gordon Bennett
91", we got as souvenir.
Falling asleep is not easy because some of my
mates snore quite loud. I develop the "snoring
hit parade". For reasons of discretion, I don’t
tell, who was on top.
Next morning everybody was getting ready to go.
The balloon had to be fetched from the barn and
then the problem had to be solved on how to
press all the baggage, instruments and five
persons in the Volkswagen of the chase crew.
Kurt has a look at our landing spot. Then it is
time to leave. A warm fare well to the Kamiskis
family who helped us so much and then the car
drives off.
We are not heading home but to Zamosc, a
renaissance town of 55,000 inhabitants which is
worth visiting. In the beautiful old downtown
many houses from the 16th century are still
standing. Here, at the post office, we want to
postmark and send the 350 letters of balloon
mail. It was a unique situation that happened to
the employees of the post office at Zamosc in
South-East Poland on the morning of September
25th, 1991. A woman and three men enter the
office and do honestly insist in sending 350
letters to Germany and other foreign countries.
That had never happened before. One of these men
also wants to send two telegrams to Düsseldorf.
A Polish man, speaking some words German, helps
to clear up the general confusion a little bit.
He helps me filling in the form for the
telegrams and also translates at the counter for
stamps. Jürgen is on the way to the next bank to
change money after we were told how much this
will cost. We can read disbelieving in the faces
of the clerks. So much money they can pay they
must be mad! Ute's efforts to have 50 letters
stamped but wanting to get them back to take
them with her, fixes the image they had got of
us. That is something the friendly lady behind
the counter doesn’t agree with in any case. All
explanations don’t help. These fifty letters are
for philatelist collectors who want to have
undamaged characters. But we have no choice but
to send these letters on the "normal way", too.Not before 1 p.m. we
are back at the car we had parked a little
outside of the town. Kurt had been so kind to
stay back at the car and is happy that we are
finally back. A gas station has even unleaded
gas so the problem of refuelling is also solved.
Then the long and arduous way back begins.
The larger roads are in a better shape than
those in our new German territories but still so
bad that going fast is impossible. First Max
drives the Volkswagen on the road to Lodz, then
we turn towards Wrocklaw. It is planned that
Kurt takes the night train from Dresden to
Vienna.
Uncountable fires to dispose of potato leaves
are burning on Polish fields this afternoon. The
whole country seems to be under a pall of haze.
It’s like driving through flat ground fog. Late
at night we arrive at Wrocklaw. Misguided we
wander through the streets looking for the road
to Dresden. Very old trams cross our way and a
lot of cobblestones are on the street. Short
before the Polish – German border we have the
opportunity to refuel with unleaded gas and to
get rid of our last Polish money. Then the fears
at the border crossing start. Will we have
problems? We pass a line of trucks, kilometres
long. Then the car is in front of the barrier.
Some custom-officers run up and down. They are
busy controlling a truck. One of them comes
close to the basket once and looks curious, but
his attention is soon drawn to another subject
so we can continue our trip without any hold-up.
A big stone falls from my heart.At 2 a.m., after a
13-hours drive, we have to find the central
station at Dresden. The first station was the
wrong one and a taxi-driver then shows us the
way. When we finally arrive at the central
station they tell us that the night train to
Vienna Kurt wanted to take had left two hours
ago. Wonderful! The next train to Vienna leaves
not before next morning. Jürgen and I try to
find a room for Kurt, but all the hotels around
are booked out. After much discussions we make
the wise decision which is to take Kurt with us
to Düsseldorf. From there he may travel home as
well.
The tiredness catches us so we have to change
the driving often. The weather worsens and soon
we have pouring rain, reducing our speed. At
8:30 a.m. we are 10 kilometres from Cologne on
the motorway A 10. The same as every day, a big
traffic jam. At 10:30 a.m. Ute and Jürgen unlock
the door of their house. Done! After a 22 hours
drive finally at home in Düsseldorf.
Which ranking may we have achieved? Kurt phones
to his wife in Vienna. "You have won", he shouts,
"it was on the Austrian radio news!" We look at
each other and can’t believe it. Jürgen and I,
we had an idea that D-EUREGIO must have finished
on one of the leading ranks but we had not
thought it may be the first place. The whole
world knows it for two days that Jürgen and I
had won the 35th Gordon Bennett race, just we
had no idea and learned it at last.
All the tension and over tiredness of the
straining drive back home is swept away by a
feeling of happiness seldom felt in one’s life.
After we had breakfast together, I drive home.
The telephone is ringing without interruption
and several telegrams of congratulation have
arrived. I have only little time to take a
refreshing shower.At 6:30 p.m. we all
meet in front of Ute’s bookstore. Kurt has never
before been to Düsseldorf so we show the
downtown to him. We walk along the narrow
streets and have a beer here and there. The
atmosphere is great. Late at night we go
sleeping. But we can’t sleep long because early
next morning the next meeting is fixed to drive
together to the awards ceremony at Lech. After
seven hours of a speedy driving we arrive there
but not without having a look to the Namloser
valley first. The valley that had worried us so
much the first night.
At Lech, the first snow had already fallen. It
is much colder than a week before. We get a very
warm welcome. The awards ceremony is in great
harmony and a lot of interesting discussions
between people from different nations take place
this evening.
The next morning means to say good-bye to Lech.
How many wonderful but also thrilling and
exciting hours have we had here during three
Gordon Bennett races. So the farewell is a
little hard, it was nice to travel to a well
known place and to stay in a familiar lodging.
Epilogue:
For me, it was in every case a superior balloon
flight. The most beautiful, most exciting, most
straining, longest, most distant, most
adventurous but also most successful flight.
Such a long Gordon Bennett flight is an extreme
strain and can be stood only by offering all
physical and psychological power. But also, the
human part must fit. With Jürgen, I have found a
co-pilot, to whom I feel close friendship and
with whom coordination in the basket works
excellent and creates much of fun.
Generally, I continued with this flight at the
point, where Gustav Vornbäumen and I had to
finish two years ago. Then we had to land at the
Czech border and thus being banned to the last
rank, even if D-EUREGIO had the most north
position of all balloons also at this 33rd
Gordon Bennett race!
Let’s hope together, that the East will open
wider and that the next Gordon Bennett races
also make possible other distant flights in this
direction.
My great hope is that the Gordon Bennett Cup
will stay in Germany longer than just one year.
That we may not get left behind with the
material. Net-less balloons and some more
improvements are necessary, to achieve the same
amount of ballast, Joschi Starkbaum and Gert
Scholz take with them to the race every year.Good luck and success
to the 1992 Gordon Bennett race.
Volker Kuinke |
