Archive for the 'walking it across' Category

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Day 1: Tuesday, Lysa Polana – Cottage under Rysy

Published on September 2, 2008 in trekking and walking it across. 0 Comments

At 9 am we arrived by bus to Lysa Polana, which is a border crossing with Poland.

After the first hour of hiking (warming up) we arrived to the Miskiewicz waterfalls. Here we found out that the direct road to Morskie Oko (Sea Eye) is closed and we will have to go through 5 Polskych Stawov (5 Polish Lakes).

The views on the path and at the lakes were amazing but we have lost more than three hours when compared to planned route. We have taken a rest at the Cottage at the 5 lakes and also at Morskie Oko.

From this cottage the climbing to the peak of Rysy was hell. Already on the first one hour part between the lake Morskie Oko and Czarny Staw (Black Lake) made sweat trickle down our faces, but the around 45 degrees ascent that took another three hours killed us both.

We have even few times went off the path, gradually I was falling behind and honestly the last few hundred meters I was on the edge of exhaustion. I felt like I have no more strength to continue, actually missing more the psychical strength than the physical. First was a feeling I don’t want to go any further and later I felt depleted, my lips felt like tiny pins were irritating them.

After we got over the peak of Rysy we just limped to the cottage. It was already after sunset and going any further would be stupid (but we met a family of father and two kids who decided to continue down hill and risk getting to the next cottage – one and half hour away – while there were still some light left). The price was 500 sk per night/person, damn a lot, but we had no other choice. People like us who have no other choice… well have no other choice than to pay. They set the price high to scare away those who would come and just hang at the cottage for few days – the cottage is always crowded.

So we finished up sleeping there with another like 20 people (full capacity with few of us sleeping on the floor). We have been told that that day there was some guy who came to the cottage all the way from Morskie Oko because he found a lost jacket and came to ask if it doesn’t belong to any of the guests – crazy! There was also one guy, who passed us during the climb, in shorts and with only a plastic bag in his hand – weird. Ivos knee started to hurt, was not that bad at night, I also have not feeling too much fit.

Intro to the trip across Slovakia

Published on September 1, 2008 in walking it across. 0 Comments

I got this idea a long ago – to walk Slovakia across. From East (Dukla) to West (Devin), it’s a proper route that was used also during WW2 and that’s also why is called the Partisans route. It takes around 26 days to make it…

But with my time fund I did not allow it. So I told myself that if West to East is not possible, why not North to South?

I have sit down to it one day and did a proper research, two webpages were the core – www.turistickamapa.sk (interactive map of all tourist paths in Slovakia) and www.hiking.sk (has a Hike Planner that tells You all needed info about the route – time needed, ascend, descend, distance, stops). I planned a complete route from the Polish/Slovak to Slovak/Hungarian border. When I put the route together the final distance was more than 180 kms, 53 hours of continuous fast walk, and more than 6000 m of ascend and 6000 m of descend…

But I knew that my mum would have big issues with allowing me to go alone and also its rather risky to go for such trip without any company. So I have sent a mail to 4 friends about whom I thought that they could have the motivation and also condition to go for the trip. The only one who responded positively was Ivo Melay, my exMCP from Slovakia, who just came back from a pilgrimage to Compostella – 900 kms in 41 days across Spain.

We put together the plan and in early morning of Tuesday 2nd of September got on a train and bus to the Polish border. We took a tent, (useless amount of) food, warm clothes for the mountain part but also shorts for the summer heat of Southern lowlands, sleeping bags and some basic equipment. From todays point of view we have stupidly overpacked… but that topic will get more attention later :)