Slovakia and Poland (again)

Ahoj!

Our Last night in Czech Rep was on quite a high altitude pass between Czech and Slovakia and was a cold one, about 2 or 3 Celcius I think, which for an unheated van is a bit chilly! I'm glad we took Mam's advice and took two blankets and a duvet instead of just one blanket! In the morning we willed ourselves out of bed, and headed across the border into Slovakia which is a very beautiful country. Even though it was raining heavily all day, you could really get a sense of the majesty of the highest mountain group in the Carpathians. This is where we are headed, the High Tatras, and we arrive at the resort town of 'Stary Smokavec' which is instantly apealling. It's a bit of an out-of-season ski resort, but has everything you could want, along with some beautiful old wooden buildings and and old-mixed-with-new feel. Slovakia already seems to be a bit more sophisticated, clean, and has finer scenery than Czech. We then settled down for the night on a side road with amazing views of the Tatras.

Our basic routine so far has been to wild camp for two nights, then find a camp site for the 3rd so we can use the showers, washing machine, fill up with water and empty the portaloo etc. It seems to work quite well, as the van recharges itself when we drive (which is quite a lot), and every night we can boil the kettle, charge the laptop etc to our hearts content. The only thing we can't do is run the fridge all night, so the milk gets a bit confused! That reminds me, milk is still very diffult to get hold of around here, ever since Germany, I don't know what the locals have with their wheatabix, but it sure aint cerstve polotucne!

On Wednesday we climbed up Slavkovsky Stit, which at 2452m is one of the highest mountains in the Tatras, and the highest you can climb without being obliged to hire a mountain guide (and without requiring technical climbing skills). What can I say but perfect mountaneering weather! It was glorious sunshine all day, and despite layers of suncream, we still managed to get ourselves burnt! We weren't quite ready for the epicness of this mountain, and we were walking for 9 hours before we got back to the van absloutely knackered! It started off quite hot through the forest at the bottom, then from halfway up we were wading through patches of waist deep snow, and the whole top was just capped in deep, crisp unbroken snow. We saw one other person (from a distance) for the whole day, other than that, the mountain was ours. It was good to get the crampons on, which Rhona particularly enjoyed as she "just sticks!". The views from the top were absolutely amazing, all jagged snowy peaks on one side and open space on the other. What a day! (but very tiring!). We found a very dubious campsite that night, had showers and went to bed exhausted.

We think it is quite amazing that since we left the UK, we have had quite a lot of rain(storms), infact it has been every day apart from the two days that we have been out treking, which have been spectacular sunshine all day. How about that!

We had a bit of a change of plan at this stage, and we decided that instead of going through Hungary, Romania, and then Bulgaria as origionally planned, it would be far more interesting if we missed out Hungary, and detoured east back into Poland, and into Ukraine, then down into Moldova, getting back on course in Romania again. It would add a little extra distance, but a lot more excitement!

So the following morning we headed off into Poland and towards the Ukraine border. This would be our first 'proper' border crossing, as so far we have just been driving through EU countries and you just drive over with out stopping. We've heard that it can be very tricky negotiating the Ukraine border, as the ex-Soviet regime has left behind a legacy of corruption, and you are certain to be harrassed for bribes at every corner(border crossings being the worst!). Moldova is similar, but we have been assured that the muderous separatists are in east Moldova, so we won't need to go there.

I think we will start eating out a bit more, as we had a big slap up lunch with drinks in a fancy hotel in Poland today and it cost us a grand total of £7.50. Great, and it's gonna get cheaper! I love a bargain!

So for now, end of day 8 we are stopped at a beautiful spot, up a steep windy road in south eastern Poland near to the Ukrainian border. Goodnight!

PS. We didn't sleep loads that night, it turns out that after this very popular spot is Used by couples to have long deep discussions, it is used by rowdy men in vans doing whatever they might want to do in a secluded spot in the middle of the night?

Slovakia dirt road mileage: 102662

smokovec night: 102672

poland night: 102859

day 7: 10 miles

day 8: 187 miles