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 
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