Pavel Nedvěd / Were they walks or tramps, those lovely activities I devoted myself to until I was about 58 years old? They might have been tramps, walks are not too risky, they are shorter and the pace is more comfortable.

My tramps would usually happen at the beginning of spring. Again and again I had to comfort my soul not to worry. I kept convincing myself for a couple days to eventually set off. I kept walking streets where there were more and more cars and trucks and their speed kept increasing. At the same time, I was losing the rest of my eyesight. Eventually I lost sight of my own feet and then my hand clutching the white stick was gone, too. Before that I could at least see the roadside marked by the white line, but I wouldn't say it was safe anyway. Once, near Policka, I was heading my way, following the white line of a roadside. Suddenly, on the spot where I imagined the trench would be, a car flew past. I understood then that I was following the white line in the middle of the road. I was walking day and night. It is really peaceful after dark, but if you lose your way there is nobody to ask. I was wearing reflecting mirrors on my sleeves and in my pocket I had a poster saying: I am blind and have lost my way. Please help. There was a buttom sewed onto the poster so that I knew how to show it. I think I needed the poster only twice. You would rarely meet another person, but if you do, you can get scared or both of you can get scared. That's how I happened to scare a woman who was walking to a cow-house at about three o'clock in the morning. Back then, I was quite scared too. But then we said hello and the anxiety was gone. You can even meet a bum or other strange people. One such person of about 40 offered me his help. I don't really remember where from and where to. It might have been some side street or a similar dark place. While we were walking I was carefully waving my stick. Why would you do that, he asked. Just to be sure, I said in what I hoped was not too anxious voice. But I know you are a good person and you wouldn't do anything bad to me. Once again I heard his voice but it was strangely cold: You know I'm a real bastard, but I am not going to do anything to you. And he didn't. I would have thought he had been in prison before, but I don't know that. Mainly I rambled through my native land of Vysocina. So it happened I walked from Kamenicky over Policka aand Svojanov to Letovice, from Hlinsko over Nove Mesto and Krizanov up to Trebic, from Borova to Litomysl, from Krouny over Skuteč and Lezaky up to Železne hory. Being able to hear with one ear only, it was sometimes quite difficult to cross streets, especially if it was windy or there were harvesters in the fields or jet planes in the sky. I got hit once while crossing a street. I don't know what hit me but it torn my trousers, injured my leg and eventually disappeared. In the region of Kyjov I had a favourite one day tour: from Kyjov over Jestrabice to Korycany, then through the woods to Vresovice and then back through Kostelec. About 33 km. My record, which I don't think I will ever beat, was 130km in three days: 60+30+40.

I missed the views of countryside, trees flowers and stars. There was a fraction of it left I could percieve through my nose and ears. I've always loved the crisp mountain air of Vysocina, only there musn't be any cars nearby. I also like to smell freshly mowed meadows, lime-trees in blossom and elderberries. Once, after a gale, I was ihaling the smell of wounded trees. I felt like the trees were weeping. During days I prefered blacbirds and robins, but my most favourite one was definitely a titlark. I would say he is a Mozart of birds. When you walk through woods at night you can hear owls talking, sometimes a scared scream of a bird that was dreaming about a predator. Sometimes there is a sudden crack of branches, maybe a boar. Nightingales sing beautifully at night, but I've heard them only twice. A while ago I heard a flock of wild geese flying overhead. I stopped and listened in amazement, for a while I felt like one of them. Quite more often you would meet common geese somewhere in a village, you greet them and their multiple voices happily answer back. The most admirable thing is the rutting of deer. Once I heard four of them challenging each other by Vidle, in the mountains of Jeseniky. I walked over 20 night kilometres there, but I was not alone then. I am pleased by wind in the trees and cheerful spring streams, too. Actually the droning water and humming trees are part of our national anthem, aren't they?

I must have walked thousands of kilometres. I even counted those one year. I celebrated the thousandth kilometer with my friends in Snezne. We had some wine and I made a toast: To our feet, may they carry us till the end of our days so that nobody else has to do that.

I used to wonder quite often if I would let a close person ramble the world like this. I would surely be worried but at the same time I wouldn't be able to forbid these walks for I would know how much they mean to him. The crowded streets of today make these thoughts not worth thinking – long, independent, solitary walks of a blind person are now possible only inside his memory.

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