Fireplace Gorge & farewell to Slovakia

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Our final day in Slovakia dawned dry & sunny! Because we'd had to swap hikes around due to the rain on Friday we had a longer hike than planned to do today so we set off early. Jamie's hip was complaining after all the hiking yesterday so we drpoped her off to do a shorter route with plenty of strudel time at Ranč Podlesok, which we'd taken to calling the Strudel Hut! Her walk was slightly more adventurous than she thought, in part due to a large gate blocing the route forcing a detour.

The rest of us headed over to trek up Piecky (Fireplace) Gorge, which gets its name from the amazing rock formations that span the canyon. Again there was more water than usual due to the previous rain and there was a lot of careful picking of ways over and through the stream. Everyone ended up with their feet in the water at some point! Although my waterproof socks meant that whilst the water got through my shoes my feet at least were dry. We had more ladders and via ferrata as we climbed beside waterfalls and over rushing water.

We stopped for lunch at the beautiful meadow Malá Polana before a gentle stroll back down through the woods. The autumnal colours were stunning, especially as we went through the beech woods. Paradise National Park is truely well named, I will have to return here to explore the area more.

Returning to the minibuses we joined Jamie at Ranč Podlesok for a quick bite - I finally got to try the delicious garlic soup! - before heading back over the border to Krakow airport where we said our farewells. Much thanks to Andy, Jan & Martin for such an amazing adventure! Jamie and I then headed into Krakow on the train, found our way to our hotel, Flaminio Smart Sleep, where we crashed after a much needed cuppa!

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Photos

There was't much of a dry path to find here!
Photo by Shona

Picking my way upstream
Photo by Andrej Pizem

On the board walk
Photo by Shona

Climbed through the spray on this ladder!
Photo by Shona

Fire salamander
Salamandra salamandra