Hiking on 6 continents

Climbing in Swiss Alps           Whitewater rafting in Kazakhstan

Trekking in Karakorum            Skiing from glaciers in Dolomites

Paragliding in Aspen               Exploring Pyramids in Guatemala

Geocaching in Canada            Orienteering in Scandinavia

Backpacking in Pamir              Exploring caves in New Zealand

Canyoning in Utah                   Exploring highest railroad in Peru

Safari in Kenya                         Swimming with dolphins in Mexico

Sea kayaking in Costa Rica     Windsurfing in Baltic Sea

Camping in Puerto Rico          Sailing to “Treasure Island” (BVI)

Adventure racing in WA          Elephant riding in Thailand

Dog sledging in Canada          Horseback riding in Poland

Camel riding in Australia         Scuba diving in Black Sea

Snorkeling in Japanese Sea    Cross country skiing in Europe

Our three generations family loves adventure travel.

1^st generation                   Helena, Mietek

2^nd generation                  Dorota, Peter

3^rd generation                  Julia

We made trips to 70 countries on six continents.

The snapshots of our voyages include trekking in Karakorum, rafting in Costa Rica, hiking in Australian Outback, and celebrating New Millennium in New Zealand.

The family has impressive achievements in orienteering (an adventurous sport consisting in running with a map and a compass through woods). Four family members won medals on national and international competitions. My mother Helena won second place in Masters Games in Australia (2002), and 8 years old daughter Julia was already 2^nd in Long Distance US Championships (Maryland, 2005).

When Julia was 3 years old she already traveled in a Jeep through Guatemalan jungle finding Mayan temples. Travelling is not always easy and smooth for us. Sometimes we experience unexpected adventures like cut-off from the civilization. This happened to us after a huge rainfall during whitewater rafting in Costa Rica (Paquare River, November 1996).

On the picture above the whole family traveled to New Zealand to celebrate the New Millennium. It was the first travel done by all five of us together, so it began a new era in our family traveling – New Millennium, new dreams, new hopes.

At midnight on January 1^st, 2000 a huge crowd of people gathered in the central square in Feilding (a small town on the North Island) to welcome participants of the first orienteering competition held in the New Millennium.  We run through the streets and parks of the town. Julia was too small to run alone, so while running I pushed her in the special 3-wheel stroller. She also got a medal for the participation. She was very happy and proud to be prized. Thanks to  her first medal  she learned the value of receiving a trophy for achievements.

During the rest of the trip we participated in World Master Orienteering Championships, explored caves, volcanoes, geysers and hot springs.

Orienteering is an adventurous sport where with a help of a map and a compass you need to use you navigation skills to find control points hidden in woods, mountains, marshes or deserts. The sport originated in Scandinavia over 100 years ago and it is currently done in 67 countries.

Some of our achievements:

                                                  Helena

·       2^nd place in World Masters Games in Australia in 2002 (in her age category).

·       Twice 4^th place in World Masters Orienteering Championships (New Zealand 2000 and Canada 2005).

·       Multiple medals on international competitions in Europe.

                                                    Mietek

·       6^th place in World Masters Games in Canada (in his age category).

·       Many gold medals from mountain bike orienteering championships and ski-orienteering championships.

                                                    Julia

·       2^nd place in US Long Distance Championships (MD, 2005)

·       5^th place in US Championships (OR, 2005)

·       3^rd place in Western States Championships (WA, 2005)

·       2^nd place in Fair Hill national event (MD, 2005)

All starts were in the age category Girls 10 years old or younger, so she mainly competed with older girls.

                                                    Peter

·       In my lifetime I won around 120 competitions.

·       5 times first place on Green course on US Championships.

·       Winnining US Rank List in 2004 on a Green course.

·       8^th place in World Masters Orienteering Championships in Edmonton.

However, the greatest satisfaction gave me the award that was not for winning the competition, but for being “good sports”.  While running for a medal in a rocky terrain I suddenly noticed one of my main competitors lying on the ground. His ankle was twisted. I interrupted my run and helped him to go down towards the finish. Having spent 15 minutes on assisting him, I returned to the course, but obviously I had no chances for a good result. A few months later I was pleasantly surprised to be awarded a yearly “Fair Play Award”.

The same kind of satisfaction gave me the surprise of Julia’s photo being posted on the Internet. On US Championships in Oregon Julia did her best which was noticed by a photographer:

Dear Parents,

Thank you for showing us how to fill our lives with sport, travel and adventure. Your achievements are great examples for us, your granddaughter, and next generations to come.

Let me recall some of them. When you were in your sixties, together with a group of friends you took part in one month long whitewater rafting expedition, trekking in the mountains of Asia, and safari in Central Africa.

When you are in your seventies, you keep your active lifestyle – every week you participate either in orienteering competition or in some other adventure event. When I called you once on Sunday evening and asked about your activities during the weekend, your answer was: “This week there was nothing interesting to do, so we just participated in a 10K street run”.  Your biggest orienteering successes, including silver medal in World Masters Games, came in the last decade.

Unfortunately, this website is too small to describe all our adventure travels when you were young and I was a kid, but all of them stay in my memory and influence my present life.

I love you for all this. Once again – thank you for establishing such a wonderful tradition of adventure travel in our family.

                                        Love,