Weather: 🌤️⛅⛅🌤️🌤️
Picnic: 🥪🥪🥪🥪 (4 out 5, Bublanina on a bench in the shade)
Track: 🇸🇰🇸🇰🇸🇰 (3 out of 5, mountain trail through the forest and flower meadows with nice views)
Track intensity: 😯😯😯😯(4 out of 5 tough but doable)
Milestone: geographical centre of Europe and actually our halfway point!
Overnight stay: 🛌🛌🛌🛌🛌 (5 out of 5, great hut build and maintained by the Kapucin monks with toilet, shower and special well inside)
Name of followed trail: SNP trail
We got an excellent breakfast, and more Bublanina to bring for lunch. We left around 9.15 and started on our 24 km day. It took us longer than we expected, but it was a nice trail today. The trail undulated à lot, but mostly not too steep.
We met some friendly people along the way too. It’s enjoyable to meet people on the same trail! A lot of people are hiking the SNP trail, or know of it. We both enjoy the short conversations along the trail, especially with fellow hikers.
We had a lunch break at a nice hut in the shade. Baska gave us enough Bublanina to replace our regular wrap lunch, thanks Baska!
After lunch, we had a few rough climbs, but after that the track became more gradual.
4 km before our destination we came across a pub in Kunesov. We had a few rackets here to cool down and rehydrate 😁😁. The owner of the pub gave us both an SNP button as a souvenir. What a cool Slovak souvenir!
From there we walked to ourdestination, the monastery of Kremnice Bane, where the monks have build a beautiful cabin
for (SNP) hikers. The monastery is situated in the geographical centre of Europe. And somehow this is also around our halfway point! 3470 done 3400 to go! Incredible to think that going back is further now…😅
The market of this center of Europe is just a rock, but to us, an important milestone.
The hut is beautiful! They thought of everything a hiker needs, including places to hang and dry clothes, store their bags etc. The dorm is provided with insulated floor mats, so you could even sleep here without a mattress. Luxury hikers as we are, we of course use our mattresses 😜.
The best feature of the hut is the special build in well, with a bucket filled with goodies!
We enjoy a relaxed evening here and go to bed early.
Vandaag kwamen we in het Ilztal bij de Baumschottenmühle jullie sticker tegen! Leuk. En dat terwijl jullie halverwege zijn. Wat een prestatie al! Het vervolg zal vermoedelijk veel zwaarder worden, maar jullie zijn getraind. Veel succes en plezier weer!
Fenno en Mieke