The Tatra’s are made up of a chain of granite peaks all around 2500m. The highest peak is Gerlachovsky at 2654m. Below the mountains is the forest, which although decimated by catastrophic winds, still abounds in natural wildlife. The forest has bears, wolves, wild boar and wildcats! I was certainly hoping that we would not enjoy any close encounters with these beasties! I don’t like bears! An unfortunate viewing of that film “The Edge” with Anthony Hopkins about a man-stalking bear has given me a fear of bears similar to all those gullible viewers of the “Jaws’ movies. Personally I prefer sharks!!
1/ They're not joking!
It had been snowing lightly all night with a cold and strong easterly blowing. Despite the weather, Dana and Tibor took us up through the sheltered forest to a lovely chalet nestled in a mountain cirque by a frozen lake.
It was as a lovely skin up the mountain trail through the forest. Tibor & Graeme striding ahead swapping stories about outdoor equipment with the girls trailing behind. We were busy solving the world economic crises! According to Graeme, we were also using up our allocation of words. He has recently read somewhere that women use 35,000 words per day and men only 20,000! He takes every opportunity to cite this new piece of useless trivia!
2/ The Boy's using up their word allocation!
The snow continued to float down as we broke the tree-line. Unfortunately, the clouds were down and the peaks were hidden. But every now and then the clouds would lift and we would get a glimpse of the ice falls and high peaks covered in the snow. Dana pointed out the ice-falls where she and Tibor climb. After reaching the high valley, we arrived at our lunch destination, another perfect chalet in the mountains. This chalet is very popular with climbers in the summer who come to climb the high peaks. But in winter it is quieter and the friendly staff have more time to talk with their clients. Tibor used to work here and this chalet is where he met Dana – 21 years ago. We enjoyed a local speciality – sounds terrible to our western palate, spiced sour cabbage soup and rye bread, but I can assure you it was delicious!
3/ The Team outside the Chalet
And then the fun part! The ski down through the trees! I always loved skiing in the trees as a child in Australia and today's run through the forest of the High Tatras will be a special memory for me. Graeme took some fantastic film footage skiing behind me as we sped through the forest. Definitely worth a look!
On the way home we stopped at the local ski resort above where Dana and Tibor live to collect water from a mineral spring. It is an acquired taste I must say. The water is slightly aerated and has a strong ferrous taste. I am sure it must be good for you (Dana & Tibor are certainly very healthy) but Graeme and I think we’ll stick to our own health tonic – red wine!!
4/ Tibor filling the bottles with mineral water. It's -8C - check out the bare hands!!
Finally tucked up in Dana and Tibor’s gorgeous little house in Stola we enjoyed another delicious Slovakian meal. Tibor is rather a famous climber in Slovakia and he even has films made about his climbing and mountaineering. We persuaded him to show them to us and settled in for the evening!!
1 comment:
great to have the blog back in action - felt like something was missing - and thanks for the email earlier today. work fine - well back into it. off to leigh's wedding tomorrow. LOVED the footage skiing through the trees. xx
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