Day 127, Visnové – Inoveca chata

Weather: ☀️☀️☀️☀️☀️
Lunch: 🥪🥪🥪 (3 out 5, bread from the supermarket in the forest)
Track: 🇸🇰🇸🇰🇸🇰🇸🇰 (4 out of 5, pretty trail through the forest and through the city of Nove Mesto, the river valley, and up Inovec mountain passing Beckov castle.)
Hotel: 🛌🛌🛌🛌 (4 out of 5, modern, pretty room in mountain hut with nice bed and private bathroom)
Name of followed trail: E8, yellow and green markers.

A great day of hiking today, with a good physical challenge at the end!

We start around 8.00 with a walk along the river. Soon it goes steep up the hill, out of the gorge. From there we walk slowly down hill towards Nove Mesto. The town looks grey and boring at first, but has a nice central square with a good coffee bar.

We cross the river (where Mark is watching trout) and walk along a bicycle path through the valley. By the time we get to Beckov, we’ve hiked 16 km, with almost no elevation. From here we steadily go up the hill, past the castle, towards Selec. But first, we have a drink and a cool looking (and delicious) apricot cake 😋.

We ascend 300m on a steady track and go down a bit towards

the sleepy village of Selec. Here we get some water for the last 6 kilometers. First we go up for 350m on a steady wide trail. It’s steep, but because it keeps the same gradiënt, it’s really doable. It’s a good workout at the end of the day. We get to the saddle where we we’re planning to pitch. We decided however to continue up and over Inovec mountain 250m up and 100 down in 2,5 km), so we can sleep in a hut. It takes us 1 hour extra to do so. (Rein, you would have enjoyed this a Lot ;)). The last bit is really steep, so we’re both happy to reach the top, and to get to the hut. We enjoyed the good exercise too.

By doing this up and over we’ve used an extra hour, but it has brought many rewards too. First of all the great room (and shower) we have in the Inoveca hut and the lovely home made meal we get served. But also the sense of accomplishment because of the ‘workout’ we managed really well. And last but not least: we don’t have to start with a steep uphill track right after breakfast! 😅

So we enjoy our accomplishment and celebrate it first with a shower and then with a good meal.

We meet Ivan, the owner, and eventhough the kitchen is closed for the day, he offers us some good Slovenian dishes (halusky and perky).

In the hut we admire Ivans collection of Beatles memorabilia. Immediately memories of our visit to Liverpool in April come back to us. It feels so long ago that we walked Penny Lane! Funny how we are now in this tiny Beatles museum in the Slovakian mountains 😁, more than 2000 km of hiking from Liverpool.

After a good meal, we go to our room to relax, and enjoy a good night of sleep.