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AN ARCHAEOLOGY OF THE IRON CURTAIN
as I walk up the hill is the by now so familiar corridor of younger trees
stretching out 3–4 m until more mature trees take over. Two faint ridges
run parallel with the path in the middle of this corridor. These were created
as the fences were pulled up and out of the ground, subsequently keeping
their form due to water running down the hill. Directly at the start of this
path at its bottom there is a drain constructed in concrete with a wire frame
over it to guide the water coming down from the hill away from the patrol
path. As I walk up the hill concrete supports for poles or fences and former
electricity or telegraph poles cut off near the ground start to appear. It takes
me a while to spot the sawn off poles as they have started to assimilate into
the background, their colour similar to the trees around it and the moss
slowly growing in the circles middle (Figure 66).
On the opposite slope as the fence line ran westwards from the river Dyji
towards Podmyče I encounter a completely different picture. This is the
second section of the former patrol path along the fence line that does not
appear to have been tarmacked. Here the stunted growth of trees is the only
sign of the former fence line. There are no signs of a path. A single section
of an electricity or telegraph pole is lying on the ground here (Figure 67).
Figure 67: Part of electricity or telegraph pole located along the former fence line. Photo: Anna
McWilliams 2010.
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