Blogs from Malá Fatra, Zilina Region, Slovakia, Europe

Vratna valley, Terchova So our base for the next 5 days was here. With the weather still good, we made our way up Boboty peak as a warm-up for the larger peaks. The climb was 400m, but very steep. The descent involved a bit of clinging on to a chain over a bit of rock. The day after we went via Stefanova for the climb up to Poludniovy Grun and the 1608m Stoh. It was tough going, as it was very steep, and I got very hot on the lower slopes, carrying all my crap. Maybe it’s because I was brought up in the Yorkshire Dales, but waterproof, spare food, jumper, all seem essential to me, unlike this wee Polish lass who wandered up in plimsolls/pumps and no rucksack. How she got up is a ... read more

First impressions on entering Slovakia was that we had landed in a giant cereal bowl, with seemingly endless fields of corn and wheat on the horizon - a bit like a scene out of ‘Honey I shrunk the kids!’ Our frustrating discovery that a symbol of a tent on a map does not mean there is actually a camping ground in the vicinity happily led to us spending some very comfortable and inexpensive nights in pensions (guest houses with self catering facilities). Camping does not seem to necessarily translate and sometimes can refer to private grounds with little chalets on them (all occupied). Surburban towns provided free entertainment in the form of tinny pop music(followed by very serious sounding sermons) via loudspeakers which were dotted about, probably used in the past for broadcasting Soviet propaganda, these ... read more