Okay.

Let's say it was recently.

A small group of people, small mountains, and my experience in hiking same.

I prepared stuff to pack: a backpack with an aluminum frame, a baseball cap, thick socks made of sheep's wool, a scouts knife, an immersion water heater, a cassette player (yes, a music player from my high school times), and shoes - brand new ones straight from the scouts depot, the so-called "Pioneers" (today I prefer to call them "hiking shoes"). I also found and took out of the basement the "camo" type pants in the size of "we do not recruit such slim boys to the army".

Proud and ready to go, I covered my shoes with an appropriate layer of "Lux" shoe polish (because it was probably luxurious ...), to protect them against moisture (one knew such things without Google). I sat down and waited for the signal.

The departure took place soon. Colleagues, a small group of probably seven people. Visually, I was a professional climber, with at least several years of experience. Some funny comments that new shoes should not be taken to the mountains, I dismissed with indulgent snorts.

We spent the journey laughing and giggling. We got there in full strength and saw ourselves as the conquerors of the highest (though not very high) peaks. It seemed that no evil would bother us …

After the second day of hiking in my new shoes, I had a hole in my heel the size of Wetlinska Meadow Massive. Blood poured into my sheep sock. I was looking in vain for at least one plaster in my backpack. I dreamed about the first aid kit, which in some supernatural way would be placed between the scouts knife and the immersion water heater. None of this ... All I found was my cassette player. To cheer myself up during the march, I played music hoping for some relief from joyful, tourist music, and then I heard Sting singing "There's a hole in my life"... I sighed, gritted my teeth, and without saying anything to anyone, I set off on the rail on the third morning.

The breakthrough came during the march. A friend began to suspect that I was hiding a clubfoot. I was no longer able to hide that I was limping and barely walking. I agreed to have my feet examined - the more willingly as the friend was otherwise very attractive. He impressed me to the fullest. He got from his backpack a provisional first aid kit packed in a plastic bag from Pewex. He took out of the bag all possible dressing materials enriched with disinfectants. He took care of my heel professionally and - I don't know why - also the entire foot and a half of the calf. I thought that this was a professional way of applying the dressing materials and gave up on further speculations ... I felt taken care of. I got new, fresh socks and went on with new energy. My comfort improved, my contact with a colleague increased, and female colleagues began to complain more often of abrasions and cuts all over their body, demanding medical intervention. A trip to the mountains suddenly turned out to be pleasant.

The conclusions are obvious. First of all, don't wear new shoes when you go out on a long hike. Second of all, during summer trips, apart from the obvious (Sting) and subjectively necessary (Sting) matters - always take a first aid kit with you.

Since then, I always remember about the "holiday essentials", in which I will include all kinds of dressing materials: plasters, preferably soft with hydrogel, swabs, preferably sterile, gauze, elastic bandages and something for disinfection. Let them not be useful! But it's worth having them.