Trekking Slovakian Style

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Trekking Slovakian Style Rob Stone hilst on holiday in Eastern SO are not allowed to de- windows. I use that - fitness, you term advisedly, as - A Europe earlier this year, viate from a marked track. A permit is some of the less attractive features of Carol and I spent three needed to climb all but the simplest communism-boredom, rudeness and weeks looking at castles, cathedrals peaks (such as Gerlach, which you ride indifference-also prospered there. and numerous other dilapidated build- to the top of in a cable car, and enjoy We wondered whether Basil Fawlty ings, and of course sampling some of the view from a café) so I didn't ex- was alive and well and working as a the best and cheapest beer in the pect to be breaking any new ground. consultant to the Slovakian Tourism world. I quickly discovered the quaint Search and Rescue is also not free. Council at times. European tradition of having to pay (in Because of the huge numbers of visithe correct coins) to use a toilet, at tors to the lower, more accessible ar- Alighting at Stary Smokovec (990m), the risk of being ejected by a burly eas, things are very tightly controlled, the central township which is about female attendant with huge forearms, and I felt in some places you could the size of Ohakune, we headed for called Olga. By this time we had hardly see the view for the signs! the cheap accommodation at Hotel looked around the Czech Republic, Sport. Slovakia is generallyveryc cheap and werel heading through Slovakia for We took a train to Poprad, the nearest to visit (partly a reflection of the lack Poland. It was time for a change of city, and then changed to a local rail- of things to spend your money on); pace and scenery, SO we headed for way which services about a dozen ski however, three price structures are the mountainous border between villages along the base of the Tatras. openly displayed- firstly for Slovaks, these two countries, the High Tatras The area is primarily a ski resort, de- secondly Czechs, and thirdly every- National Park. At least, thought, you veloped for the communist officials, body else. We often had to pay double could duck behind a tree and pee for and because it was late spring when the Slovak price, although the (lack of) free up there. we arrived, the place was fairly quiet. service didn'tvary. The railway showed all the hallmarks Lonely Planet describes the Vysoké of communist full-employment poli- That night the weather packed up Tatry National Park as "the only truly cies, however, and villages about the badly, with snow and high winds. We alpine mountains in Central Europe". size of Sanson had stations with up to had intended to catch the cable car Gerlachovsky stit (Mt Gerlach) is the eight staff. This included a station the next morning to Lomnicky stit highest peak at 2,655m and there are master in uniform and red braided cap, (2,632m) but this was not running so several other bumps over 2,500m. Six who brandished a small green flag at we headed to the other end of the hundred kilometres of "trails" cater for passing trains, plus left luggage atten- range by train to have a stroll on the all levels of trekking experience and dants, gardeners and "Information" Magistrâla Trail. a 7C fUTTU Not quite your average 3-wire bridge Rob Stone TRAMPING & MOUNTAINEERING 1996

1E Chata pod Rysy Rob Stone Using a combination of five or six Rysy (Chalet Mt Rysy), about 3 or 4 sciousness that night after my tenth badly pronounced words and lots of hours on, well above the bushline at dumpling that day! arm waving, we managed to glean 2,250m. It was advertised as being from the National Park office that the open and offering a free cup of tea in We waddled off onto the track to Rysy, lower level tracks were open for the return for carrying up a pine pole. This declining the offer of the "free tea for season but thel higher level areas were huti is serviced entirely on foot, by war- wood carrying". The track climbed still closed. We stashed our packs at dens carrying specially constructed gently at first through pine forests, the left luggage office and headed off pack frames, with loads of up to 75kgs! crossing picturesque wooden bridges to Popradské Pleso, a one-hour walk When I read this in the Lonely Planet and between a maze of quaint to an alpine lake with a hotel. book, I said "nonsense, they mean wooden-roofed signs, which we 75lbs. I It's true though; they carry couldn't read but assumed were tell- The track was about 1% metres wide, food, kegs ofl beer, even sacks of coal! ing tourists to turn back SO weignored formed of flat rocks laid really well, "That's the place for us, " I said to them and plodded on. By the time we and climbed through pine forest with Carol. "We're trampers from New had climbed well above the treeline great views to the tops. It was fairly Zealand, not bloody tourists like these and hit knee-deep snow, I became a busy by New Zealand standards, with other nerds.' ' This was despite thet fact littlel bit concerned. No sleeping bags, al huge range of apparel being sported that we had one small pack between storm gear or food, and just an old as well. Mind you, we looked like the us containing a credit card, corkscrew map given to us by a friend in Wellquintessential tourists, with our min- and clean hankies. ington which was printed in Slovakian. iature day pack and shiny Reeboks. I At worst I thought we could take it in did see men in knickerbockers and red We raced off to thel hotel for fortifica- turns to perch on the credit card if socks, with Tyrol hats, which Carol had tion of Gulas and dumplings. The day things went bad. The sun was off the warned me about. Most people we was moving on; we still had 1,000m route too and the ground underfoot encounteredi were Slovaks, think, and to climb, and I felt vaguely nervous was starting to firm up; however, were actually very tidily dressed for about our lack of anything in the pack, alongside a glacial lake we came the outdoors. The average Tararua sO I tucked into my dumplings with across a hut warden heading down tramper in shorts, smelly polyprops great gusto. Carol could only manage with a tiny little 50lb pack full of ruband 3-day stubble would be looked a couple, SO I tidied the rest of hers bish, who didn'ts seem at all concerned upon very poorly. up as well. Little did I know that by at the sight of us plodding on up. This the end of the day, I could have been 1 took either as a good sign that what Time had drifted on and it was nearly a contender for the Slovakian dump- we were doing was sensible, or untwo o'clock by the time we got to ling-eating shield, as when we got to fortunately that he worked for Search Popradské Pleso. Approaching the Chata pod Rysy, guess what was on and Rescue and saw us as a couple of hotel we found the track to Chata pod the menu? I lapsed into semi-con- day's wages. TRAMPING & MOUNTAINEERING 1996

The route sidled another lake in a hanging basin, and then climbed 250m above a waterfall. There were steel chains bolted on the rocks all the way up, So you could haul yourself up. They looked strong enough, so we attacked at full speed, keen to get off the ice that was forming. It didn't pay to think about Cave Creek scenarios as you examined the fixing of these chains. Above the waterfall we were in another basin, with a 20-minute plod up following the warden's footsteps, and lo and behold, a beautiful little stone hut sitting about 100m below a saddle. This two-storey building nestles into the slope, with steel-shuttered windows and a flat area to one side for stacking kegs of beer. A veritable trampers' Shangri-La with a coalfire heated common room and kitchen below, and open bunkroom above. We kicked the snow off our Reeboks and pushed through the double doors, and werei immediately greeted with "Tea?" by Viktor, the hut warden. After downing a couple of cups of this sweet fruit tea, there was just time to race up to the saddle for a first look at Poland, before it became too cold. Because there were only the three of us in the hut that night, Viktor didn't want to light the fire and use precious timber so wel huddled over a kerosene heater with cups of "grog", the same Quaint wooden-roofed signs Rob Stone fruit tea with lots of rum in it, while Viktor prepared dinner-you guessed it, Gulas and dumplings. Soon after, about ten o'clock by three people ar- be slightly dangerous, but perhaps all we retreated to the bunkroom and riving from below in street shoes, we lacked was the video camera and piled the blankets onto one bunk. jeans, and carrying a video camera. a six-pack. Unfortunately, we didn'tget They collapsed in the hut and pulled to do any more trekking as the weather Next morning there had been a good out a six-pack to celebrate the climb. and time were against us, and we freeze, which wasn't so useful since Viktor looked bemused; we made for moved on to more ancient and dilapiwe had no climbing gear. But after the door. dated sites in Poland. Itwas a welcome breakfast (no, not dumplings again) we relief for a short time from the crowds made a burst for the top of Rysy, be- The waterfall wasn'ttoo bad, aided by and human landscape of Europe. fore the weather crapped out again. the chains, but by the time we got down it was sleeting and visibility was Our stay at Chata pod Rysy, which in- The claim to fame for this 2,499m peak down to 10m, so it was full speed to cluded two bunks, six teas, two grogs is that Lenin climbed it from the Pol- the tourist trail and out to the hotel (rum flavoured), two soups, Gulas and ish side, and had vaguely entertained bath. On hitting the Magistrâla Trail dumplings, two breakfasts, and three ideas of crossing the border this way we encountered all sorts of weird postcards, cost 585 korunas, which is ourselves. Not such a good idea re- sights, including walkers in full length about NZ$30! Whilst Slovakia is not ally, as apart from visa implications, see-through capes, trailing in the mud upmarket, it is relatively uncrowded we were technically off the trail and at thel bottom with a bedraggled head and laidback, andl reckon it would be in need of a permit. We did a quick up at the top. We recovered with grilled a perfect cycle touring country-flat and down to thel hut again, in deterio- sausage, beer, and a hot bath. (apart from the Tatras), cheap, plenty rating weather. wasn't keen to hit the of campsites, villages only 5km apart, ice on the waterfall too soon; however, 1 still find the concept of climbing a excellent beer, and over 100 castles my caution was upstaged completely 2,500m peak with virtually no gear to to explore. TRAMPING & MOUNTAINEERING 1996