| Walking long distances, sometimes on their knees, Poles devoutly cross hundreds of kilometers in devotional, yearly pilgrimages. With guitars and violins in hand, and the notes of their songs caressing the breeze, this devotion becomes a journey radiating joy. A similar expedition took place this week – another pilgrimage, after a fashion – to Australia’s highest summit. Folkloric costumes, instruments and song, crowned Australia's snowy mountains, where the intersection of Australian and Polish cultures resounded over the peaks.
Preparations
Months of toil preceded the actual, two-day events – the organisers beginning their work well before even the Christmas season. Puls Polonii – and at its helm, Dr Ernestyna Skurjat-Kozek – as well as Lajkonik’s Artistic Director, Urszula Lang, ensured that weeks of careful planning would see the two-day celebrations executed without flaw.
Most of the participants drove to the alpine region on Friday, the 16th of February, arriving at midday, or by late evening. (By nightfall, however, the group staying at Pygmy Possum lodge had begun to wonder whether our wonderful Jesuit priests hadn’t lost themselves in unfamiliar territory along the way…)
The fatiguing six-hour drive from Sydney, past Canberra – an adventure in itself – was rewarded by serene vistas of undulating farmland, forest and gently sloping mountains.
The Sydney Windjammers installed themselves comfortably at Stillwell Lodge, Charlotte’s Pass village; Puls Polonii and a merry assortment of instrumentalists and vocalists, as well as our camera crews, in Pygmy Possum at Charlotte’s Pass; while Lajkonik housed itself in Vasky Lodge, Jindabyne.
Alarm clocks, a solid breakfast, rucksacks, bottles of water, sandwiches and a windproof jacket - were all prepared for the route to the summit the following day.
A brief meeting at Pygmy Possum was followed by a hurried night of unpacking, preparing equipment and provisions, phone calls and final arrangements. Whilst most of the group (now undoubtedly careworn and exhausted,) did proceed to their beds as early as convenience allowed, some members of the traveling party did not retire until much later – did they even decide to sleep at all?
Charlotte's Pass - sunset. Photo: Lukasz Swiatek |
| 
