Tatry Gramble
This is a story about four friends taking a ride around Tatra Mountains. Riding through Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia and back to Czech Republic. We packed up our bikes with necessary things and went for a four day ride.
There are my journal notes in czech, then english translation and at last photos of one of each days.
Enjoy.
day one
Day One – english translation & photos
We started in Opava, first we took a train ride to Třinec where we started our ride. There was a lot of cyclists on the train.
After 3 kilometers we hit a first steep climb. We rode through almost all of the hills of the Northern Beskydy Mountains. At the Czech/Polish border we had 30km and 1000m of elevation gain, we were sweating like piggies. But we had to push, because we wanted to reach Namestovo, a town i Slovakia.
The mountains flatten out a tiny bit i Poland and the ride got along pretty fast. This brought up our morale. In a couple of hours we arrived to Polish/Slovakian border and the smooth road changed to tank training grounds. After a while a police car stopped us and gave us a speech that we can't ride in the middle of the road (even though the road was totally empty). We replied, what about the holes?? Anyway, we carried to our first stop at the Orava lake.
day two
Day Two – English Translation
Waking up in the morning wasn’t that good. If we could we would stay in bed longer. But then, the plan wouldn't go on as we planned. After breakfast we hopped on our bikes and set off on the journey. Asphalt was already scorching hot from the sun. There was a polish border awaiting us.
Views along the way where stellar, peaks of Polish Tatra Mountains, stunning.
Cycling path was pretty good and led us almost to Zakopane city. Something like Aspen in the US. Views along the way where stellar, peaks of Polish Tatra Mountains, stunning.
From the city of Zakopane, there were nothing but climbing up to get back to Slovakia and see the other side of the mountains. The road up was winding up through lush forest with tops of the mountains peaking from the forest. Sun was almost at its sunset time but the heat was still the same. Everyone of us already drank like 4 bottles of water.
Before the long descent to Ždiar we stop for a cabbage soup, baked potatoes and some coffee. Next stop Štrbrské Pleso (mountain lake).
We have visit the lake today because there’s a thunder storm coming from Austria and we don’t know if we’re gonna be able to visit it the next day. Weather forecast not for 100% so who knows what’s gonna happen tomorrow.
We stayed at Štola village at Monty’s Ranch, a house full of landscape paintings, and cowboy portraits. Exhausted we’re falling asleep wondering what's gonna happen tomorrow.
day three
Day Three – English Translation
We woke up into a gloomy morning, but it didn’t rain. Breakfast and got ready for a first hill which was our warm up for the day. We pedaled just to the bottom of Štrbské Pleso which we have to get back because, there were no accommodation near by.
Once we hopped on our bikes rain started, nothing major but despite the weather forecast it looks like clouds are going away from us. After the hill was conquered there was very long descent which was quite fast apart from water spraying from the wet road. Wet bottom are not ideal. Now the positive things. It was warm, our bibs got dry fast and the views… Tops of the mountains peaking out from the mist, pretty nice and it got better and better.
A big part of the today’s ride we spent on marked cyclepaths. Some of them were smooth with black tarmac, some were gravely with little crunchy stones and some were like a tank drove through–unridable. But that’s the spirit of an adventure, you never know what’s going to happen. We even got a broken wooden bridge and we had to find another way to fort the river.
Our bellies started growling, lunch time! The first restaurant that comes to our way, we’re gonna feast. We ordered a classic Slovakian food and filled our tummies. Last hill was just about the corner and the timing couldn’t be better.
Right after we got to a place where we were staying, it slowly started raining as we were walking to check out local pub. We did not have cash money, only some change just for two beers. So we spent the last money we had and while we drinking the beers, we are ordering a pizzas online. Outside, there’s full blast rain storm going on. Walking back a getting completely wet, good thing it didn’t happen on a bike. We are watching TV, Green Mile is on, eating pizza and falling asleep wishing for no rain on our last day.
day four
Day Four – English Translation
Early morning alarm 6:59 AM with a beautiful day. No rain, just a nice day ahead of us. Only downside is that the rain bought cold temperatures so we’re starting with long sleeves and vests.
Place where we stayed was good but with no breakfast, so we searched for a bakery and coffees in near city of Dolný Kubín. We got little bit into our conversation and the breakfast took little bit longer. Anyway… second weather forecast check went okay, no rain, let’s go into the hills.
First section was to get over Malá Fatra, on its side so no major hills and everything should go according to a plan. But there was something that’s gonna surprise us.
We ended up at the foot of a hill that had a road totally destroyed. Rain didn’t help last night and made everything extra muddy. Plus it was steep and we had to push our bikes.
Mud was glued to our shoes and it got harder and harder to push our bikes, suddenly Janka found something interesting on the ground. A footprint! It looks like a bear footprint. I am no expert, but I think we have a bear in the area. We started to sing and talk loudly. The hills was short but I took a long time to push bikes up. Finally we reached the top, shook all the mud of our shoes and bikes and quick, let’s get out before the bear comes. I won’t lie, I was worried a little bit.
FYI – you can’t really be sure in what state the cyclepath is gonna be in Slovakia.
Descent from Malá Fatra was nice but there was couple more hills awaiting us and we were looking forward to having a beer at the end. The finish was near.
Last few hills went by fast, we even visited a point were Czech Republic, Slovakia and Poland share border–nothing speacial. From here, it’s only downhill to our final destination, train station at Mosty u Jablunkova. We had a beer there, board a train which took us back to Opava.
Four day bike ride… it was pretty nice, an interesting experience. We saw a lot of new places, things, we laughed together and experienced that nothing is impossible. Huge thanks to Janka for the route and rest of the crew for everything on this trip. I am looking forward to a next one.
the crew
Romka
Václav
Janka
Jakub (me)
