We spent a lovely day hiking in Slovensky Raj park (translates to Slovak Paradise).  A wide, often perfectly clear, river is the heart of the park.  Our hotel is actually inside the park so we can start on the trails right from our hotel. I am completely in love with the flowers here ... so many and so very tall. It’s a different ecosystem here from where we were just hiking in the High Tatras, but we can see the High Tatra range from here, so they’re very close by. 

The first portion of our trail led us to the ruins of a monastery that was built and then destroyed by monks to prevent marauding knights from gaining access/possession of it.  (I guess they weren’t very noble knights.) On the gentle slope of the monastery grounds, I fulfilled my self-imposed duty of log-rolling wherever I travel. I am bent on log-rolling all over the planet (if you didn't already know this).

In addition to loving the flowers around here, the trees have some extremely trippy roots.

The next leg took us hiking up a stream bed via ladders and chains. The water level was very low, so the prolific waterfalls I had read about were more like trickles. Nonetheless, it was gorgeous and intensely lush, and was a unique experience to hike up ladders in the middle of a steep stream bed.

The last leg took us along the river. Here there is not room to have a trail beside the river, so little steel shelves (Erik likens them to refrigerator racks) are bolted into the sheer rock cliffs and a chain bolted in above them. So you walk on these narrow metal grate-steps, holding on to a chain against the rock face like a railing, right over the river.  I love how non-safety-oriented it is. Some of the little shelves are marvelously loose and wobbly, and the chains some places have come unbolted, and there’s nothing between you and the below. I think it's fun. 


We met a nice British couple and convinced them to walk up the stream bed with us (they were a bit leery about it). The man of the British couple had spent a fair amount of time in Central and Eastern Europe in the 1980s Communist era. He had some interesting things to say about those times. I'm sure I can’t tell it correctly because of course I forget everything 5 seconds after I hear it, but the British guy related a local joke from the communist times ... about a Polish dog and a Slovak dog meeting at the border, each one trying to cross into the other’s country. The Slovak dog asks the Polish one why he wants to come over to miserable Czechoslovakia. The Polish dog replies, I want to buy bones so my family can eat, we’re starving over here and you have plenty. Then he asks the Slovak dog why on earth he wants to cross the border into miserable Poland. The Slovak dog says, I just want to bark!

Well, tomorrow will be Erik’s birthday. Hopefully our plans will come to fruition (nighttime candlelight tour of a castle). After a number of days of hiking, it will be nice to spend some time in a car traversing the country. Looks like a lot of pretty winding road ahead.

*

 Read more articles about Central Europe

 

Pin It

Updates

Subscribe to the SKJ Travel newsletter to be notified when new posts are added to the blog.
emails arrive from "Shara Johnson." Assure your spam filter I'm your friend!

Archive

 

-- AFRICA --

 

Uganda

 

South Africa

 

Lesotho

 

Botswana

 

Namibia I

 

Namibia II +Witchcraft

 

Kenya

 

Tanzania

 

Save Rhinos

 

 

 

-- NORTH AFRICA --


Tunisia


Morocco

 

 

 

-- MIDDLE EAST --


Iran  All posts


Iran  photos only

 

 

 

ANTARCTICA 

 

 

 

- SOUTH AMERICA -

 

Argentina

 

Uruguay

 

Brazil

 

 


-- EUROPE --

 

Central Europe


- Czech Rep.


- Poland


- Slovakia

 

Catalonia, Spain

 

Andorra / France

 

Italy

 

Iceland

 

Greece +Refugee

              Camp

 

 


-- ASIA --

 

China I

 

China II

 

 

 

CENTRAL AMERICA

 

Costa Rica

 

Panama

 

 


- NORTH AMERICA -

 

Ixtapa, Mexico

 

Colorado

 

Maui, Hawaii

 

Puerto Rico

 

Maine

 

Utah

 

California

 

 


Trip posts for Trazzler

 

(worldwide)

 

Travel Essays

Most Recent Additions

1. Meet Shara Kay Johnson at CanvasRebel added to Interviews

2. Meet Shara Johnson, Writer & Photographer added to Interviews

3. The Road to Columbine Heaven added to Articles by SKJ

4. Life & Work with Shara Kay Johnson added to Interviews

5. The Tiny Woman added to Travel Essays

6. Things People Told Me: Conversations in African Landscapes added to Travel Essays


 

Follow SKJ Traveler

Facebook
 RSS Feed
 Twitter
Instagram

 

<script type="text/javascript" src="https://apis.google.com/js/plusone.js"></script>
<g:plusone></g:plusone>

Support

 



If you like what you read,

feel free to support the

website, so SKJ Travel

can keep showing you

the world! Expenses include domain name

& website hosting.