made our way along, within the edge of the trees, as far as we could before deciding to stop for the night.
We made camp on a dry patch of deep pine needles. After gathering some stones to make a hearth we lit a fire of pine twigs, melted considerable quantities of snow in the tin cans to get enough water to drink, nibbled on a bit of chocolate and settled down for the evening by our fire so as to be ready for an early start next day. Before settling into our sleeping bags we melted more snow for a morning drink and checked out our kit and supplies so as to make best use of what we had. As instructed, we took off our boots and put them in our sleeping bags with us to stop them from freezing, then settled down under a clear, starry, frosty sky.
The firebed was still hot next morning and we soon were able to melt the ice in our tins for a hot drink, this time with some chocolate peelings in it for flavour and a little nourishment. After dowsing the fire with snow, and clearing up after ourselves, we started on our way but soon found our route blocked by an impassable treelined, deep, rocky, ravine. Having no alternative but to find a way round this obstacle we headed downhill into low cover, cautiously crossed some open ground and started back up towards the cover of the forest.
We hadn't been careful enough and had been seen. A shout "Halt, wer ist da?" came from a lane in the valley below. We were going to dive for cover when the voice shouted "Halt oder ich schiesse". Standing by some rocks, but in poor cover, we had no alternative but to reply "Ja, wir warten hier, wo sind Sie?".2 Panting up the steep slope came a rotund Austrian Policeman brandishing a gun rather too purposefully for our liking. We moved into the open so that he could see us. Again he shouted breathlessly "Halt, oder ich schiesse". So we stood still. Just then, and by now less than fifty yards from us, he tripped, fell on his face, and dropped his hand gun. It was too much for us and we both burst out laughing. Picking himself up, and now very red faced, he stumbled on towards us, and we moved down to meet him in friendly fashion. With our hands now raised because of his gun, we explained who we were, what we were doing, and where we were from. We showed our identification to prove what we had said. Satisfied, he put his gun away, shook hands with us and made his way back down the side of the valley. We made for the trees again and moved on as fast as we could.3
We made very good, surprisingly good, progress and, instead of taking two days to get to our rendezvous we did it by nightfall that same day. Now we could relax and set up a proper camp. There was just light enough for us to set up a hearth on some bare ground in the forest and light a fire. By the light of this we cut enough wood to construct a lean-to in the manner we had been taught, and did a very rough thatching job. That night after opening some of our hard-tack, for by now we were getting very hungry after not stopping at lunch time, we boiled up some sort of stew with melted snow. Very tired, we settled into our sleeping bags.
It had rained in the night but our rough thatch had kept us reasonably dry. We at once set about improving our shelter so as to cover in part of the front. With spruce fronds we made a mattress some four or five inches thick across the floor. We moved the hearth to nearer what had now become the doorway to our snug little nest. As the day wore on we decided to apply some camouflage and covered much of the roof with loose leaves and detritus from under some deciduous trees. By now the snow had melted considerably and only lay in patches. We ate and drank what we could, even mixing dissolved chocolate with edible lichen scraped from trees, just to find what it tasted like - awful! Knowing that the exercise would be over next day, and we had completed our journey early, put us into a more relaxed mood.
_____________________________
2 Translations: Halt, who is there. Halt or I'll shoot. Yes we're waiting here, where are you?
3 It turned out afterwards at debriefing that this Polizist had mistaken us for German smugglers crossing the border with illicit goods (our packs) and which was only a mile or so away from where we had been seen.
104