The south end of the beach at Hua Hin, Thailand.
Where are Kevin and Ruth now? Hua Hin, Thailand.

Where are Kevin and Ruth going next? Maldives on March 23rd.

Monday, August 27, 2012

Hiking into the clouds

Despite the fact that we couldn't see anything, there were still some highlights to this hike!

We took the 10:00am bus to the village of Zverovska. It's a little higher up in altitude, and also allowed us to hike all the way back to our town in Zuberec. Here's the map of our Sunday stroll...

15.4 kms (9.5 miles). 

Ruth, modeling the signpost. We are headed up to Brestova peak, three hours away.

And I mean three hours of uphill, every step of the way. The signposts don't give distances, only estimated time to get there. We found that we must hike at a pretty average speed because we're always pretty close to the estimates on the uphill sections, and we usually beat the estimated times by a fair bit on the downhill sections. The estimated times on the signs include what people would normally take for rest breaks.

The only problem is the weather. 

We knew it was cloudy at higher elevations, but we decided to go for it anyhow. We hoped that we were going to be above the clouds once we were at the top, or that they would dissipate. The worst case scenario was that we would be in the clouds the whole time.

Up.

Up.

Up! Notice that it's getting a little foggy!

Kevin, sitting in the mist at a rest point.

There was a lot of moisture in the air, but it never did rain. But there was a slight breeze, and anything facing towards the breeze got a little wet. One side of my head was soaked because your hair would pick up the water in the air!

The grass was wet even though it wasn't raining.

And, at 1:10pm, here we are at the top. No view at all!

And I took a 32 second video of our view from the top. Three hours of hard work got us this fantastic view!


Turn up your volume for the commentary!

And then it was time to head down. Our route took us along the ridge. This normally would have given us some great views, but instead we looked to the ground for interesting things to see.





Hmm. Turned out that this wasn't a problem. Yes, it was damaged by water, but not enough to warrant putting the sign up.

Finally made it back through the clouds!

So we did get the odd nice view. Just not as good as it could have been.

Coming back down.

Where we had been!

When we got back to town, the clouds had lifted and you could see where we had been! So I guess we should have stayed up there for a couple of hours and waited. No, I don't think so. Still, it was a little frustrating! 

We were pretty tired after that hike. We have done 55 kms (34 miles) in the last five days, and some of it has been strenuous uphill climbing. We are due for a break, and fortunately it's cloudy and they're calling for showers today so that kind of forces us to relax a bit. Sounds like a good day to stay inside and watch a couple of movies! So that's what we're going to do!

Happy Birthday Helen! We didn't forget, we just forgot to say it yesterday! We will celebrate in September!


13 comments:

  1. My father grew up in Relov.He took us all back home several years ago.It was incredible!I will go back!Thank you for this wonderful peek of "home".

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    1. Glad you were able to enjoy a little trip back in time. Hope you do make it back here, we have really been enjoying all that Slovakia has to offer.

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  2. Finally made it back to the Ranch where I could catch up on blogs and have DSL to post comments, You guys are sure having a great summer, I hope you get to stop at the Ranch on your way back to Mexico and you can spend a few days and regale us in your travels. Donna reads your blog at work so she can't comment but is enjoying it immensely.If it's an enticement the beer and pizza will be waiting for you guys the next time you get back this way. We ,iss you guys. Be safe out there. Sam & Donna...

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    1. Hi Sam and Donna, hope you are both doing well. We haven't yet decided on our route back for the fall, if it heads your way we will definitely let you know and stop by for a visit. I can't believe how fast the time is flying by! Give Riggs and Sadie a pet for us.

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    1. I think it was one of our steepest ones to climb so far, other than the Grand Canyon but that was back in 2005.

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  4. Another great adventure, thanks for sharing.

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  5. good job on the hike..too bad about the view at the top though..you will just have to do it again on a clear day?..enjoy your day of rest!

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    1. We won't be doing that one again, as we head on to our next stop but we will have others that we can do some other day when it is clear. I think we will take it easy for a couple of days!

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  6. I say you two get a couple of bikes with panniers and take the paths all over Europe. Couch surf when you can and live off the land! You know you can do it.

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    1. That thought has crossed our minds. You never know that may be a possibility.

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  7. Would have been an amazing view but........still looked like it was worth it.

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