Grand Demanovska Dolina

... br>After a steep descent into Zakopane, during which I revised my policy on non-brake use, I was really tired.

Zakopane is a major town for visitors to the area and has so embraced tourism that I nearly had and in fact partially did, have brain overload and subsequent shutdown at the number of signs. Although there were signs for everything from sausages to wild hog racing I couldn't find the ...

9:18am came pretty quickly and it was time to board the train. We found our cozy couchette and got settled in for the long haul. It was going to take us just over 20 hours to make it to Split! On the way, there was a one hour stop in Slovakia and we got to get out and grab some lunch. We were on a regular train and not a fast train, so needless to say the train made many, many, many, many stops!!!!!!!!!!

... thing. Not white water - you don't even get wet. There is river near that is very calm. They have guided tours through the gorge. So we took a bus there. I got yelled at on the bus for some reason (still don't know why) and everyone was staring at us. Maybe thats what the information people mean when they say its impossible to take public transportation. Oh well, we got there just fine. They have 5 long, narrow boats that they tie together to make the raft. We were on ...

... 9am.

We thought about it, and decided to go and have a look anyway. By the time we got there, the queue was about 6 people wide and 200m long. Clearly it would be a long wait. Consulting the map showed us a cable car stop half way up, so we decided to walk half way and see if we could catch it there. Saskia wasn't impressed with this plan, as she still remembers our exhausting, wet walk up Snowdon, last October. Anyway, she got out voted, and we walked up through the ...

... became a winding stairway, and the sounds of a rumbling waterfall followed us down.
The path became straight, and led straight across the side of the mountain, through the waterfall, to the other side of the valley. Jon looked at me in dismay, and set off, the water flowing over his boots. I followed him safely, though the rocks that I used to jump across were wobbly and slippery.
The rain started up again, and the rest of the trip down was wet. The storm from the ...

... Paul had garlic soup. Both were really good. There was a rain shower, but it didn't last long, so we put on our day packs and headed up the trail. It followed the river up by a stony path, which was well graded and not very steep. The valley was quite narrow, with tall mountains on either side. Then we crossed a moraine into a flat stony area, where the creek ran underground. Near the head of the valley we started climbing, but still the going ...

... people or people with young children. After about an hour we came across a shepherd with a large flock of sheep. The shepherd was an older man who seemed to be joking with the passers-by. He was wearing traditional Polish mountain folk dress, including canvas trousers with embroidery on the front. He was also wearing international standard rubber boots. The sheep were very strange-looking with curled horns, very long legs, and large furry feet. The road paralleled the Koś ...

... vegetation was lost and was just snow covered rocks from here to the summits. It was much colder at this point and with the distance of the flora seemed as though I was distancing myself even more from life on earth. I stopped and ate some oranges that I packed at intervals to provide myself energy and used these opportunities to keep putting layers of clothing on for my warmth (I skipped that whole bread insulation idea). It was freezing now and I have been trekking ...

... and out of the corner of my eye I see a sign "Banska Bystrica 39 K." I jog my memory remember this town being our ultimate destination. I sprint to the front of the bus, ask the bus driver to stop, and after unsuccessfully trying to get my fare refunded run across the street to check the schedule going the other way. The entire time I have been text messaging Michal updating him of my lost state with various plans and scenarios to which I get nothing in reply. I decide to get a coffee ...

We stopped somewhere in Slovakia and climbed around an old castle. We free camped in the middle of nowhere and we then stopped off and had a look around a little town. Can't for the life remember the name of it though !!! I do remember that the locals were drinking at 09:00 !!!