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;)

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 58: Too much snow

Today started with a nice walk around several lakes. The plan was to go up Rysy and drop down to Slovakia. However, when I came to the upper lake, I saw lots of snow on the steep slope leading up. I talked to 2 guys coming down. They were wearing climbing gear, had ice axes, helmets and crampons. They didn't think it was a good idea to walk up there with microspikes only. I thought it might be possible, cause the snow is really soft and there was already a 'path' but I really didn't look forward to hiking 4 h in snow, feeling uncomfortable the entire time because I might slip and die. So I decided to walk differently.  Looking on the map, there was only one way to get around that mountain chain: a road that was an official hiking trails. Shit! Well, I put in some podcasts and decided to enjoy the day anyways. It was crazy. No cars but tons of people walking on that road. I short cut the road walk into Slovakia via a river-crossing and then had a really pleasant trail going up again into the mountains, always following a stream. At the third lake and shortly before the pass I decided to camp. It was windy bit I found a little stone wall next a weather station. I hope I'm not on camera, since it is pointed directly at me...

I already got out my microspikes for tomorrow, cause there is a really steep snow field before the pass. Although, I am thinking about climbing a little around and maybe getting on another route  Will have to see tomorrow!!

That's where I wanted to go up to Rysy...

Day 57: Wrong-way hiker

Last night the wind picked up, coming from all directions and I put my rainfly over the tent. Then I couldn't sleep because it was noisy and I was afraid my tent might brake...

The next morning, I managed to start early. But it was still windy and I was wearing long pants and a pullover for a change. But not long after, it was warm again and I changed to my usual hiking Cotham of T-Shirt and shorts.

I would have liked to stay on the ridge, but there was no official hiking trails on my map. There were some trails, but I didn't know of they would involve real climbing, so I chose the safe way: dropping down around 1000 my and then up again.

It was crazy. Steep, hot and Saturday, which means really EVERYBODY was walking up and I felt like being a wrong-way driver in the rush hour!!!

However, my trail back up was just lovely! Hardly any people, not too steep and lots on the shady forest with beautiful views later on. However, when I came to the juntion for the last ascend, it was crazy busy. No wonder, I was directly looking down on the bog city of Zakopane!

It felt a little too crowded, but it was a beautiful day and although everybody seemed to do the ridgewalk along the border, I still likes it. Just when I came to Kasprov vrch, it was really like a circus. That's the mountain with chairlifts!

Then I was really a wrong-way hiker!!! I walked up to 2301 m high Gladki Wierch, where I felt totally underdressed! Everybidy had at least gloves, lots were wearing helmets, microspikes and iceaxt... All nice but not really necessary, although there was quite some snow left on the chain-secured climbing bits!!! And I was slightly worried about my coming route. I wanted to drop down on the other side. On my map, there was a trail but no official marked hiking trail. But I had gpx tracks from other people, so I knew it must be possible to walk there. And when I came to the trail junction, there was even a trail marker. There was also a sign saying, that the trail is closed due to recent rockfall and that there is still a risk of falling rocks. But a guy just came from there, so I decided to give it a try. The next guy I met, I asked if I can walk there. His English was poor, but he said no. So I asked if it is possible  (I mean he just came from there) and he sad yes, but couldn't explain what else he wanted to say. So I continued. REALLY slow, basically climbing all the time along chains. When I was nearly done with that part and there were only a few snowfields left, I met 3 guys. They spoke English and explained, that this trail is a one-way trail only and I was walking the wrong direction! Ups... Luckily I was nearly done anyways.

Then I dropped down to some lakes and decided to call it a day. This time I set up my tent better protected from wind ;)