This weekend I had a meeting with my friends from the university. It took place in
Štiavnické vrchy at lake of
Počúvadlo in Slovakia.
I left
Zlín (my home) on Friday at 19:40 and went towards to
Trenčín and further to our place. Traveling was pleasant, it was evening already, but still shiny and low traffic. I was listening to Nightswish on my audio and enjoyed driving in all ways (I love it if I'm not in a hurry, isn't hot and I'm driving alone). Road passes mountains on the borders of Slovakia, there was fog in the valleys and pleasant cool.
I reached
Bánovce nad Bebravou without problems. Here I switched on my na'vi-gation (HRH) (it is Nokia with Ovi map software) and continued my travel. Suddenly after a few turns in one village I reached fields. I was very surprised, but it was already dark and I didn't know where exactly I am. So I used this field road, although I had to drive carefully as it was full of pot-holes.
Luckily I got the normal road again, but I wasn't sure if I'm going the right way. However there were no other problems until
Žarnovica. It is quite near of my destination, so I followed navigation without doubts. I entered another village and turned side road. It lead to the forest and there was closed turn-buckle over it. Ooops, something goes wrong! I checked my 15 years old paper map (not too detailed) and really, there wasn't any usable road.
Ok, let's go back and try another one. I found such road and was able to move along. In the center of next village navigation said to turn right, that road was quite narrow and steep up. I checked map again - all was Ok, so I continued up to the top. Here was another village and signpost showing futher road into the forest, which was even narrower, quite broken and steep down. I went there about kilometer, but I couldn't believe that it is correct direction, even navigation showed nothing.
I returned back and trie to go straight, but ended up in cottage area and navigation pointed me into forest. I wasn't happy at all and completely confused up. Finally I tried first road again while thinking of stop here and wait until the morning. However Eywa was smiling at me and I reached standard road again in a few kilometers. I felt I'm almost where I need, but I was quite tired, there was many double turns and nausea was touching me. On the navigation I've seens lakes near me, but I didn't see anything in the night. Finally I reached our pension a few minutes before 23:30 completely out of power.
All my friends were there and fall down launching where I told them my story. I've picked up the worst road.... They oferred me plum brandy and I added myself to the amusement. We were talking about everything and nothing and went to bed very late.
On Saturday I got up at 8:30. Most of friend were at the lake, as Grizly is fisher and he was angling. He caught many small fishes and threw them back to the lake, but he was also able to catch big pike few minutes before my arrival. He threw it back too, so I could see it only on photo. Weather was sunny and beatiful.
After breakfast we did a walk around the lake. There was a hotel at opposite shore and typical Slovak reastaurant. It was a mini zoo at the hotel with ponny, white donkey, roe-buck, small pigs and some poultry. I regret that my daughters aren't here too, they'd like it very much.
Then we awaited our last friends while drinking beer and talking. They arrived after eleven o'clock and at the noon we started "trek" to the peak of
Sitno (1009 meters high). Footpath lead through the forest, what was excelent because of sun. It took less than hour to reach the top. We met many tourists here. There's lookout tower at the peak with small buffet.
Here we had a long break. Grizly is also geocacher, so he found a
cache here. We descended at about 15:00 and had a lunch. I played biliar with Laco, my best friend. I won, but by his mistake - he put black orb into hole too early. Later was time for a sport - we played football. Result was quite good - about 14:11 (I don't remember exactly) and I was member of winning team. But I was hit two times into chin.
At evening Grizly tried to angling again, but not very succesfully. Next to our pension was a small restaurant with live country music, he had a good time there.
On Sunday I went to Sitno peak again with Martin at 6 am, as day before he was lazy to go with us. After our return we had breakfast and then was time to say goodbye.
I went back the same way. A few friends wanted to see that road, so we made convoy. Road was completely different during the day. Everything was clear and no problem. Very interesting to compare same places in the day and night.
As way continued, friends were disconnecting - we always blowed the horn and behind the
Bánovce I was alone. Goodbye my friends and see you next time!
Some pictures from this meeting
are here
