Weather: 🌤️🌤️☀️🌤️☀️
Lunch: 🥪🥪🥪 (3 out of 5, wraps and hardkeks in the shade)
Track: 🇸🇰🇸🇰🇸🇰🇸🇰 (4 out of 5, Nice but tough track on the ridgeline down into Priehyba saddle and steep up again towards the hut, great views, blueberry bushes and forest along the way.)
Track intensity: 😯😯😯😯 (😯😯)(4 out of 5 for us, 6 out of 5 for Rein!)
Campsite: ⛺⛺⛺⛺ (4 out of 5, nice but a bit sloped place next to a hut with good food and draft beer 😁)
Name of followed trail: SNP trail
We get up in time after a good night of sleep. Today will be a 20 km day, with quite some elevation. Rein isn’t too keen on this, but it’s the first good opportunity to find a nice campspot along the way. So we’ll take it easy and we can take the whole day to get there. Maja and Nikola are joining us, because they’re not too happy hiking alone through bear country 😅.
Together we hike up along the narrow trail that winds through blueberry bushes and pine forest, where the trail is sometimes quite steep. Rein is struggling a bit with the terrain, not being used to the steepness and the challenging trails.
We slow down, so he can keep up. But the terrain doesn’t get easier, and the pace we can keep slows down even more. At some point we realise that at this pace, we’re never going to make it before dark. We need to decide together how to solve this. We agree on hiking to Priehyba, where Mark an I will continue to the hut and Rein will hitch to a village nearby, so we can meet up again tomorrow. Not the most fun decision, but the best option for all of us.
We take it slow getting across the mountain to Priehyba saddle. Around 16.15 we arrive there and leave Rein at the road there. At 16.30 we walk away and start our ascent of 500m elevation. In an hour we get to the top. It’s been a tough hour, but the view is SO worth it! From there we walk on, the last 4 kilometers to the hut. We enjoy the great views, and hope that Rein find a taxi or a lift. We’re pretty sure that he’ll find a way to get down with an adventure of his own 😁.
We get to the hut around 18.45. Andrejkova is a beautiful but with an amazing view over the high Tara’s.
We meet Nikola and Maja again, and enjoy a good meal with sauerkraut soup, and a huge dumpling with jam as dessert! We receive a message from Rein that he made it to Telgart, where we will see him again tomorrow.
After a cup of sweet mountain tea and a card game with Maja and Nikola, it’s time to go to bed after a long and tough, but beautiful day of hiking.