Hello guys. It is me again and just yesterday I made another trip to Slovakia mountains. As it was Sunday, I was little bit afraid that it will be full of people. But slovak mountains surprised me once again – we (me and mom) met just 6 people during the whole trip. So let me tell you a little bit about it.
It all started at 9 am
It was Sunday morning and I just woke up. Previous day we planned with mom to go somewhere on Sunday. But we did not know where. I was thinking about the gorge where I went alone – if it is not your first time on my blog, you probably read about the place :
https://supertrampdiaryblog.wordpress.com/2019/08/24/beckov-castle-and-gorge-in-haluzice/
The only problem were bus connections to this place. So we gave up and on Sunday morning when I woke up, I though we will spend whole day at home. But .. but .. I opened my laptop and clicked on maps.google.com. I moved to city Zilina and was searching what to see in this region (we visited it already on bike – but this time I was thinking about some hiking activities). I remembered that I wanted to visit the lookout tower over Terchova. But as we were there on bikes, we didn’t go up.
So decision was made – Lookout tower in Terchova and what else ? There is also a statue of national hero called Janosik – ok, we might go to see it also. And what else ? This was still just about 2 or 3 km. And then I found it. National reservation called Gorges. This looked really impressive and was just about 7 km long. I was decided to go there!
On the way to Terchova
We got on first train from Puchov to Zilina and than bus to Terchova. All the way it took about 2 hours to get there. At 1 pm we started our hike. First stop was the lookout tower. I have to say this one is one of my favorites – the view is good (I saw better before but still this one was perfect). But the construction of the lookout tower is really amazing. I simply loved it.
From lookout tower we moved to the steel statue of Janosik. View from the statue and the statue itself was also really impressive. But .. we were already thinking about out next and final part of the journey – Gorges!
Climbing up to Gorges
We arrived under Gorges and started to climb up. Tourist path was really nice made – somebody spent here many hours by creating all the stairs up. Before I move on in my story – I have to tell you that if you are not real hiker be careful. This path is really steep and it might be hard for you to go up and down – you can make it of course but be careful about the time. We started today bit late as the autumn is coming so weather is more stable and also the forecast said no clouds or rain today. Anyway, always start your journeys early in the morning.
We were climbing and climbing every single stair on the path and woods looked amazing. But we were still waiting for some amazing views. And soon we got them. What do you think ?
As we were following the blue mark on trees, which was showing us the direction of the path, we arrived to first crossroad. There we had 2 possibilities where to go – yellow marked trail or blue one. As we wanted to get back to Terchova we chose the blue one.
By the way, to get up here it took us about 1 hour (also as we did some stops to enjoy views and took some photos). From here the signs on crossroad said it is 1 more our back to Terchova. So we started to climb down – and in some parts it was real climbing!
On the way back to Terchova
We were sure it will be really steep also on the other side – and we were right. The stairs were still there but in some parts we had to use just some steel ropes which were connected to the rocks over us. It was fun – but we had to be careful as under us were some meters of just fresh air. Somehow we did it and we got into the forest from where it was already just few more meters to the field which brought us to second crossroad which said – 25 more minutes to Terchova.
After about 15 minutes we arrived to Terchova and we finally had chance to buy some food, water and of course some good cold beer! We needed it! This was one of the shortest hikes we ever had but also one of the steepest! But we really loved it. I did not write a lot about it (I think) but I think images are more important than thousands words.
I hope you enjoyed reading this post and I hope it also made you feel like you want to visit this place in Slovakia. Here are some more useful information for travelers, who decide to visit this area :
- use http://www.cp.sk to check connections from Zilina or other city to Terchova, centrum. You can find trains and buses there and also price of tickets for each part of the journey.
- use Booking code – https://www.booking.com/s/34_6/9a484ff9 for a discount in this area
- use mapy.cz or Google maps to search for spots in the area (I really recommend to use http://www.mapy.cz)
- bring good shoes, hiking sticks and food + water!
- take some photos but do not forget to enjoy views also through you own eyes!
Your Marek Supertramp!
Supertramp Diary 