Day 68: First hotel

The night was very hot, probably also because I was so low and the mosquitos were annoying already after sunrise. Thus, I started relatively early.

I found some strawberries on my way, lost the trail again and got my shoes wet when crossing a small stream to get back on track. 

Since I was close to the Ukraine border, there was police around.  The first car with people and a dog only greeted, but the second controlled my passport. They didn't speak English, but seems like they were only concerned that I walked over boarder. 

When I reached the road to the border I was very surprised to see it basically being dead. It looked like a big road in my map and i had expected a busy road. So I walked along an empty road for the last kms to my hotel, feasted on mulberries and saw some storch clattering on the power lines.

At my hotel, which is a restaurant with some rooms, nobody spoke English and it wasn't open when I arrived. But it opened at 10 am and then I still had to wait. So I decided to walk the few km into 'town'. Found a health center, where also nobody spoke English, but found out that I can't do a corona test there, which I had expected. So I bought some food and a small ice cream in the little store, before heading back to my hotel. It was lunchtime and the people of the hotel/restaurant were very busy. But I got a three bed room and then took a really long shower :) Since they were so busy, I didn't ask for a washing machine, but washed my cloths in the shower. At the end they were still dripping dirty water, but better than before and I was too lazy to spend more time on washing. 

The afternoon passed with me trying to find out where and how I can get a corona test. According to my research, there are places to get a test in Snina, which is about 45 mins bus ride from here. But only for people with Slovakian residence and not for people like me, who have to pay! Then there are private test laboratories in Kosice, about another 100 km further, which all seem to do PCR only. But you have to register and the first date available would be the 3rd of July and it takes them 24 to 48 h to give you the results :/

So the plan is to take the bus to Snina tomorrow late morning and hope for the best! If it's too much hassle, I might have to skip the Ukraine (which would be about 2-3 weeks of hiking) and walk through Hungary, which would be really sad. I certainly wouldn't follow the mountains!!!!

There were only many things I wanted to do, but the time just passed and I still haven't figures out my.rpute or resupply yet... And I would prefer my tent to the room at the moment cause it is so humid hot here under the roof. But at least it's dry, cause there were some thunderstorms today (not too bad though) and I got an SMS warning from bad thunderstorms again. But it seems like the weather will stay like that the next few days, so I might wish I would have a room like I have now ;)

If thebunlikely event happens and I manage to get into the Ukraine tomorrow, this might be my last blog post for a while. Leaving the EU, there is no roaming and I'm not sure yet, if I will buy a local SIM card or not! But of course I will continue writing and upload it, whenever I have Wifi or latest when I enter Romania!

Morning fog in the valley

:)

Storch

Dirty and sweaty- time for a shower!

Day 67: Leaving my nice border walk

This morning I continued my border walk. There were some views today and at a little saddle with a road even some people! It rained once but was nice most of the day. Just so beautiful and relaxed hiking.

On 1189 m high Durkovez, I was sad to leave the border, dropping down into Slovakia. Most of the afternoon was road walk, but at least there were hardly any cars! And I even found a few (not very ripe) wild cherries :)

Now I am camping away from the road, pretty much uphill in a little dip in a beeche forest and the mosquitos are annoying. I might have to get bug spray! My room for tomorrow is booked, and since it's only about 15 km to get there, I should have enough time to get clean and organise my next hiking bit.

The first view of the day

Nice forest

Not long anymore and I should be feasting on berries!!!!

My last hill on the border with grass instead of forest - pretty unusual

Wooden church in Ulickse Krive 

I got a little list and had to fight my way through high grass - work but certainly nice for a picture ;)

Day 66: Bread and thuna

Another day, where I enjoyed hiking. Today's motivation was to go to a little store and get some food. It was really tiny (e.g. no oats & peanuts) but I got some bread, Thuna and cookies to get me to the next store :) I messed up my detour from the store a little, not taking the trails I wanted to, but ended up back on the border trail at some point.

The forest was partly really beautiful, since there were protected Reserves again! I love hiking in the shade, often on a ridge with a good trail. Only my electrical 'resupply' is lacking a bit. Thanks to the bad weather the days before, lots of shady trails and some clouds, I could need a bit more sun for my solar panel. But not complaints!!!
I am anyway considering going into a hotel before entering the Ukraine. I guess a warm shower with soap and a watching machine after more than 45 days might be a good investment :)

Nice tree!

Yummy!

Ants 'milking' some aphids

Water from a creek - nice, more than just a little trickle 

I like hiking along the border and protected reserves

Day 65: Pleasant day

Today was a very pleasant Sunday. Not too hot but sunny, a nice shady trail on the border, an actual 'stream' instead of only a trickle of water, nice forests since I passed several Reserves and a National Park, a tiny bog, a graveyard in the forest and a tower, which didn't had any view. I also passed a museum and huge tower today, but there were to many people and I was too lazy to get out my money, which I had put at the bottom of my pack in the morning. 

The big viewing tower and museum

Saw three dead moles on the trail today!

Cemetery in the forest

Tiny bog with boardwalk

Tower without any view

Day 64: A slow day

Not much happened today. I started late due to the rain and didn't get far before I set up my tent again. I ate all my chocolate, knowing I will have to do a detour on Monday anyways, read and waited.

Around noon the rain stopped and I continued my walk along the border with some beautiful beech trees, sometimes even with a little sun. But clouds were looming and there was thunder. Once in a while when it rained, I hid under trees, considering to set up my tent. Luckily I didn't cause the rain stopped quickly.

I met another hiker, who was walking already two weeks and warned me about really bad vegetation the next few kilometers. Not sure what he meant. There was a nice little path all the way!

In the early afternoon it looked really bad again and I decided that it is enough and there are some nice beech trees for a camp. Of course, not much later the sun came out... I guess I call today a lazy weekend ;)

Tomorrow will be another bordered day and then I will have to find food on Monday and figure out if and how I can enter the Ukraine. If I am allowed in, I might hike a little around the area close to the border in Poland and Slovakia before getting to a town in Poland for a test and official border crossing to Ukraine.

Back on the E3

Day 63: Crazy weather

It did not rain yesterday, but really early in the morning, it was crazy windy and finally the thunderstorm came with much less rain than I had expected. 

I started when the rain stopped into a wet but nice morning, always walking along the border mainly through a beech forest. There are some really nice old trees on the way! However, I was tired, rather slow and unmotivated, taking lots of breaks. For example at the open church, where there were 2 wells with buckets to fetch water!

I had one really steep ascent (the trail really follows the border, which often is a straight line up or down a hill), but thanks to all the fire salamander on the way, I had lots of excuses to stop :) I saw 10 in total today, with only one on the evening!

Just after noon, I heard thunder again and there were a few raindrops. It didn't look too bad and after my experience of the day before, I kept on walking. There were trees everywhere to hide, so when the rain started, I stopped under some trees. However, it did not only rain a bit... it poored down. I got my rain fly out and tried to protect me and my backpack (which still had my solar module on top) from the rain. It was certainly better than nothing, but not good enough. I got quite wet. It was raining like crazy, windy and there was some hail in between. At least it wasn't too cold! Later today when I had cell reception, I read an SMS again, that was warning from bad weather....

When I continued on my way, I discovered that less than 100 m from where I hid, there was a roofed picknick area :/ Since it didn't look like the weather would improve, I sat down, got my dry pullover out and ate some chocolate. The weather stayed dry but foggy and dark - very strange! So I finally decided to walk at least another few kilometers, fetch some water from a stream further down the hill and then set up my tent.

Since tomorrow is supposed to be like today, I didn't get much hiking done, ate too much food and was already very short on my food calculation, I guess I have to do a detour to a store at some point. So sad, since I chose my route, avoiding towns and stores ;)

I saw 10 fire salamander today!!!!

One of the few views I got today

A huge blue slug!

What a giant!

Well with buckets to fetch water - some sun in the morning!

This is how the afternoon looked like - at least it is still kind of warmish;)

Hiker hack: Butt chafing

Another quick and easy hiker hack for you to prevent butt chafing. 

I usually have the problem at the beginning when I start hiking or (like now) when it is really hot. I swet, my underwear gets wet and then it's rubbing and my butt is chafing.

Easy solution, when you notice this is happening: get rid of your underwear :)
And put some creme on it at night.
I've heard some people to successfully use vaseline, but never tried it myself!

Another hiker hack in this context:
How to quickly take off your underwear without having to take off your shoes or pants.

Lower your pants and underwear. Squeeze one foot through your underwear. Now you can already pull up your pants again and hide your butt from potential hikers coming around the corner :) Then let the underwear drop down through the other pantleg and Voila!

Just remember when you go shopping next time, that if you lost weight and you loosen your hip belt, your pants might drop and you might be the attraction of the store ;) Never really happened to me, but certainly had some close ones!!!

Day 62: Waiting for the rain

The night was hot again and in the morning I was woke up by ants, crawling all over me. They didn't leave me a chance to just turn over and sleep a bit longer. So I was back on trail pretty early. Good, cause there was a beautiful view plus a water source, I hadn't expected!

After making it up to Pisana Hala, it was a beautiful ridgewalk through the Barnowiec Reservat, in the shade with some wind. Much appreciated in this humid moist conditions. It was around noon and incredible hot when I reached 1114 m high Jaworzyna Krynicka. There were a chair lift, lots of restaurants and thus several people. But I'm not even sure why people go there, cause there weren't good views. I quickly passed and walked down the ski area. On the way I passed the Diabelski Kamien, a funny looking stone formation.

I walked through Krynica-Zdroj with a quick stop at a grocery store and then headed towards the Polish-Slovakian border. I had decided to follow the border the next days, since that route seems to have the least amount of villages and roads involved. But before I got to the border, I did a little detour to a spring. Didn't know it's a mineral spring. It's called 'the spring of love', should give me good luck in love and help my mental as well as digestive health. I got an entire liter, so let's see :)

Already shortly past 4 pm I set up my tent. The thunder was rolling already for an hour and the sky was getting darker. But so far, it's just thunder. But since I even got an SMS, that sever thunderstorms are expected tonight, I didn't wanted to risk anything.vPlus, I can enjoy a relaxed evening with reading! I just hope my tent will survive and the weather will be less humid hot after the thunderstorm :)

Beautiful morning!

The hay is ready

Diabelski kamien

The spring of love

All set up, waiting for the rain

Day 61: One of those days...

The morning started early with a big bird concert.  Just when I wanted to start hiking at 5:10 am, a harvester was passing by my campspot on the road but I was still hidden.  

The day was just weird. It was humid hot all day and kind of foggy. Everything is sticky and apart from a trickle I passed no water. I couldn't enjoy views from the mountains or the mountain chain I was walking along. Instead I could see lots of border markers while hiking along the border between Slovakia and Poland.

And then the supergau happened, just before I reached Piwniczna-Zdroj: my cell phone died again. I pressed several buttons, hoping it will turn on again at some point like last time, but nothing happened! Luckily I could already see town, so I headed down and asked for a store to repair or sell cell phones. I was directed into the center, where I found the tourist office. They told me, that there isn't any store like that in town, but I have to take a bus to get into Nowy Sacz. I tried to get cash for the bus, but the ATM wouldn't give me money. I finally found some place where I was able to change Euro into Zloty. Of course I just missed the bus and had to wait 50 mins for the next one... it's just one of those days!

In town I found a store, who said they could look at it the next day. The guy of the second store I went to, pressed all buttons and my phone turned on again. Voila! Not that I had tried that thousand times before that day... So now I'm a little scared, that this will happen again and at some point I might not be able to turn it on at all. I guess I have to buy a new phone at some point :(

At least I got lots of good food (yes, I felt like I deserved it after a sucky day) and then took the bus back again. It was nearly 7 pm when I was back and after a few kilometers, I set up my tent between trees and fields. Still humid hot!

Border between Slovakia and Poland 

The water from the trickle was rather dirty but waiting a bit helps to get at least some clear water on top ;)

Walking in the sunset - still foggy

Day 60: Goodbye High Tatra

I said goodbye to the high Tatra this morning, enjoying a few last beautiful views in the sun. It did rain the night before, but now it was sunny again.

After a long descent, I went shopping and headed up on the next mountain chain. Sadly the weather wasn't great, so the views were rather sad.

For some reason I really had problems finding a decent campspot this night and finally settled really late with a spot next to a forest road where clearly some harvesting is going on!

Day 59: Two snowy passes

The morning started with a steep and snowy pass. I had scouted a direct and nearly snowfree route for the first bit, since the official trail was going around a lake, all through snow on a steep slope! But the last bit up to the pass was steep and a huge snowfields. Slow progress, but the snow wasn't too hard and thanks to my microspikes and steps from people of the day before no problem. On top there was only a short snowfree climbing bit with a chain, before it was snow again, again basically a vertical down for several hundred meters. On the lst, less steep part, I sat on my bud and was down very quickly ;)

Then came some lakes and a hut, before heading up for the next pass. Same game all over: a steep, snowy pass. Just a bit more of climbing along chains on top. While the morning was sunny, the first clouds started to form in the mountains and when I had finally made it down on the other side, there was some fog and clouds were hanging in the mountains. Good! This way I didn't feel bad not to go over another steep snowy pass :) But that meant lots of altitude and about 10 km in addition. At least the trail was nice easy and I got some good views. When I came to the green lake, where I would have dropped down from the third pass, I was so happy that I didn't go over that third pass. It looked crazy!

There were dark clouds already all afternoon, but only a few drops fell. Now the thunder is rolling and I wonder if there will be lots of rain at last...

I am leaving the Tatra tomorrow. It is sad, since it was a real highlight with incredible mountains, but I am also glad to have easier hiking with less snow ahead of me! But I REALLY need to buy new shoes. Mine don't have any grip.anymore. But I think it'll be a while to a bigger town...

Little bit of climbing on the first pass

To give you an idea of the pass: Looking back up on the first pass to 2 people that passed me when I headed down

The first clouds

Looking back up to pass two - the two dots are the women from Slovakia

Green Lake