2024-04-16 10:14:35
“I know a lot of moms who like the mountains and traveling and think that when the baby comes, that’s the end of it, the stop sign comes. But in my opinion, it’s about access,” says Hanka Zubalová, who walked part of the Czech Trail with her young son in a stroller. But as she found out, active moms can really stir the bile of commenters on social networks.
Hanka, who is athletically inclined, set herself the goal of completing the Czech Trail. The two thousand kilometer long route leads from the westernmost point of the country to the easternmost. By the time she was nearing the end of her northern leg, she was already pregnant. But she planned to finish it later and it played into her hands that the southern route was considered easier. There are no such hills on it and a large part of the route is on paved roads. So it is a little less attractive for adrenaline junkies.
She originally planned to cover the trail with a stroller during one expedition. She was preparing, packing, but she knew that the decisive factor would be how her son would endure the journey. “It was clear to me that if he kept crying and wasn’t happy, I’d go home and there’s nothing to discuss,” admits the young mother, who had to go on the trail with a stroller also because her Ben didn’t want to be in a carrier. A loaded stroller is an advantage on the level, but it can become a curse uphill and in worse terrain.
After the first week, it was clear that all the members of the expedition had no problem with the traveling regime. “We knew when to take a break, unfold the blanket and play with the little one a bit. We walked the most kilometers when he was sleeping in the stroller,” Hanka describes the first ten days, when she and her partner and son walked about 660 kilometers and managed the difficult transition together Beskydy, Javorníky and part of the White Carpathians. The partner then disconnected, so he and his son continued alone. A friend joined her for a few days, so at least she had a partner to converse with.
People wrote to her that she was abusing her son
At the southernmost point of the trail, she had to stop. Paradoxically, she made this decision because of her heel pain, not because of her son. The break lasted three months. When Hanka recovered, she continued with her son alone. The partner only joined on weekends. “It’s like carrying luggage for a partner,” she describes the situation when she was already on the route with little Ben.
Hanka is energetic, runs and has a lot to do. Movement energizes her and she likes to overcome challenges. But she caught it from some people on social networks. People wrote to her that she was abusing her son because he had to be in a stroller all day. “But no one was with me on that trip. No one saw how it worked. It wasn’t like I was dragging him around all day,” she points out. In reality, she did not encounter bad reactions, people rather cheered her on.
“It was only when I came to a bigger city, to Hodonín, that some people looked at me strangely. On the one hand, I understand it, a person is five days without a shower, bundled up and dirty. I was a little afraid that the social worker would call me.” laughs Hanka.
The haunted part of the Czech Trail
Many will surely wonder if such a mother with a small child is not afraid in the forest. Before, Hanka was not very happy about sleeping in a tent. But with the arrival of the baby, the fear disappeared, or better said, it turned into a fear that the child would be okay. “The longer a person is out in nature, the more he is afraid of people and cities rather than the forest, where at night he only hears animals, which in turn are afraid of you,” he notes.
The traveler only felt a little uncomfortable in the deserted borderlands of the Bohemian Forest. “From the information boards there, you will learn that death marches went this way during the war, and that doesn’t add to a person. I didn’t sleep the best there. Moreover, there aren’t that many possibilities for accommodation and replenishment of supplies. You also have to count on that and have supplies for at least a few days in advance,” says Hanka, adding that today you can also order some supplies to the delivery boxes in the place where you are going.
In Šumava, the young woman was more afraid of waking up others with her baby at night in designated emergency shelters. She prefers to go to nature to relax. But she also prepared in advance for spending the night outside. The tent is a completely new environment for the child, so she familiarized him with it first and unpacked it in the living room before the trip so that the child could get used to it.
Better than a home routine
“On the trip, we were partners who are connected to each other and always have to communicate with each other. It’s not like a home routine where you put the child somewhere and go turn on the washing machine or cook lunch,” compares Hanka. She advises other adventurous moms not to rely on their surroundings and simply find out for themselves whether it will work or not while traveling with a small child.
For starters, he recommends the sections Český les, Dolnomoravský úval, Česká Kanada or Novohradské hory. On the northern route, the Ore Mountains, where you go mostly on asphalt roads, which are ideal for strollers. If someone goes out with only a stretcher or backpack on their back, it only depends on their physical condition.
One would hardly expect that Hanka and her family would stick to one adventure. And also that another one is already on the way. They bought a van and plan to head north as a threesome.
Martin Úbl talks about how happy he is to have created the Czech Trail, which inspires many people to travel to the countryside. | Video: Radek Bartoníček