Weather: ☀️☀️☀️☀️☀️ 🥵🥵
Lunch: 🥪🥪🥪 (3 out 5, wraps in the shade on the forest track )
Track: 🇸🇰🇸🇰🇸🇰 (3 out of 5, tough day on a mountain trail with a lot of elevation and some nice views)
Track intensity: 😯😯😯😯😵🤯(6 out of 5. We were done before we got there…)
Hotel: 🛌🛌🛌 (3 out of 5, basic hotel room with nice beds and a shower with a wall mount!)
Name of followed trail: SNP trail
Special mention: the young lady and the elderly man who offered us a lift eventhough they didn’t go that way. Thank you for doing so, we needed that bit of luck!
After a good night of sleep, a last refill of our water and a round on the swing, we say goodbye to this lovely campspot (with the most luxurious long drop toilet I’ve seen). We start with a steep climb. The views up there are amazing, but the track up drains a lot of energy. The track down isn’t much better for us, since we’re both not that good at steep descents. With the heavy pack, we struggle the first part. Luckily it flattens our a bit after a while and becomes a nice trail again. The first 3 km took us 1,5 hour. It’s been a while since we were this slow on a track! The heat and the tough trail yesterday don’t make it easier ofcourse.
We keep going and want to have lunch in Zliechov, but the town just doesn’t come any closer it seems. We settle for wraps in the shade instead, next to a flower meadow full of butterflies. Unfortunately they refuse to sit still for a photo..😅
We continue towards the village and get to a meadow with a slightly uphill track. In the midday heat it completely drains us. We don’t know if we can make it to Čičmany today, so we decide for a long break and some replanning in Zliechov.
In Zliechov we sit down in the shade across from the post office, with 2 large bottles of soda. First drink and rest, then decide what to do. There is no bus to Čičmany, so we settle for hitching to our hotel. The first car I see stops and the young lady agrees to take us to Čičmany even though they weren’t going there. Such a kind offer! For us this is the break we need right now, so we are really happy with it! The lady brings us to the doorstep of our hotel.
We first take a shower and rest before we do anything else. We appreciate this shower extra, because there is a wall mount, so we don’t have to hold the showerhead. Little things can mean a lot 🙂.
At dinner we discuss what to do next. This section is tougher than expected and apparently after 3300 km our bodies don’t recover as quickly as we thought 5 days ago… Time to take a step back and slow down.
With the help of Jana and Daniel, our Slovakian fellow hikers, we make a plan for the next 3 days. First the 9 km from Zliechov to Čičmany, then 11 km to Fučkovske sedlo and then another walk off 8 km to the next road we cross.
With a solid plan B, we relax and drink a glass of wine on our balcony to enjoy our surroundings. It’s really beautiful here. To be able to visit places like this is an important part of our hiking journey. Hiking a country makes you experience it in such a different way. Much more in detail, feeling and touching the land you walk through. And eventhough this comes with sweat, pain and fatigue, it’s such a great way to travel!
But I’ll be honest, eventhough I love to keep up the good spirit, today wasn’t our day. Today we got beaten by the track and the heat. No worries though, we’re getting back up again 😅😁