Gold Qualifying Adventurous Journey

Distance: 74 km

Elevation gain: 3500m

Elevation loss: 3300m

Walking time: 32+ hours

So the adventurous journey is 4 days, right? 

Nope. We started on Day 0, walking from Pribylina to the top of Rackova Dolina where we were staying.

Day 1

Now for the actual start of the journey. As the picture on the left shows, in the morning we still have enough energy to be silly. But that’s before 1050 m of elevation gain in under 4 hours - at least according to the map.   

The view was definitely worth it. As was the chamois and its young that were waiting for us at the top.

Day 2

After another 3 hour climb we reached a cold mist-covered saddle; teamwork always helps. Eventually the clouds cleared and we were able to appreciate the beauty of the mountains around us.

Naturally it then decided that it would be a good idea to start raining - and not just a little bit!. Although it was picturesque, walking down the side of a mountain in a stream with rain pounding on your back isn't fun.

Later we could appreciate the warmth of a cup of tea.

Day 3

We started the day walking uphill, surprise surprise! But again the view we had at lunchtime was more than worth the effort, as was the ridge walk we reached on our way down from the top. We liked it so much we made a short detour to a tarn which we dipped our feet into. 

But that wasn't the end. We had another peak to climb and another ridge to walk down. This time though we were assisted by chains as we admired the limestone scenery.

Day 4

After walking until after dark and making major adjustments to our route for the final day, we were finally ready to start. We were going to walk all the way to the train station, but that was fine. We could sleep on the train.

To keep ourselves going on the asphalt roads we decided that it would be a good idea to set up an ‘a cappella’ group. Time flies when you are “having fun”.

The weather made walking through the sleepy villages very interesting.

And finally we were done - real food!!!

Throughout the journey we overcame various challenges and grew closer as a group as we really had to work together to finish. 

We decided on the train, after swearing we’d never do anything remotely similar again, that we definitely woulddo something remotely similar again!

Alzbeta, Ellie, Nadine, Veronika and Ms. Pallova