Follow the Mountains : Day 55: Tatra

This morning I was a little annoyed. It started with the fact, that I wanted to avoid the wet grass and tried to shortcut into town. Of course I ended up walking much longer, bushbashing, walking through hip-high wet grass and finally did a big detoured thanks to a fence of some allotment gardens...

When I was finally in town, I got to the supermarket, which was tiny. So I spent a lot of time, walking up and down the aisle to find something that is not a little package and bloody expensive. I had thought to buy food for 5 days, but ended up buying all the oats they had and for about 4 days, so I guess it'll last only 3 days with me :)

Then it was a short but really busy road walk in the sun. Since everything had taken much longer than I thought, it was hot, uphill and I was hungry, since I have had no breakfast. I finally dropped my pack in the first shade I found and ate some bread directly on a dirt road. Afterwards I felt a bit better ;)

It was still lots of open area I was hiking through, which is nice for views but also warm, especially when it's uphill and the backpack is heavier :) But then followed some nice forest hiking to the 1251 m high Kopec.

Afterwards I dropped down on a little path, colorful meadows and ended up in Huty.
After another bit of road walk, where I was dreaming about shade, ice-cream and a swimming pool, I entered the Tatra National Park. At first I was a little shocked, cause the stream of my map where I wanted to get water, had no water! But there was another branch of the same stream, where I found water! Puh... it'll be the last water for a while, since I want to walk on the ridge. I guess the next days I will have to drop down several hundred meters in elevation to get water. Although, I'm hoping to find some further up, since there are still tiny bits of snow left.

Anyways, after I had the water, I got ready to walk up. It wasn't as bad as I had expected and certainly not as steep as I had done before. But it was still more than 800 m.

The last bit up to the peak of the rocky 1805 m high Sivy vrch, was light climbing again. Of course there are chains and it's not really hard, but that's really something, I never feel comfortable with, especially with a heavy backpack... I'm getting old!!!

I made it up and wasn't alone. There was a guy who asked me where there is a bus stop in the direction where I came from. We talked a bit and he confirmed, that I should not continue hiking today, but stay on the vegetated ridgeline descending from Stivy vrch before heading up the next mountains. There is no cover and the weather looks like there might be a thunderstorm. I already heard some thunder. Sad, since it is so beautiful and now I want to continue ;) This is another short hiking day, but also gives me time to plan my route for the next days.

I'm looking forward to a night in the mountains. Although I'm not having great views and I'm basically sleeping at the unofficial toilet, it is flat and it was the only spot for camping off trail on the entire ridgeline!