I fell in love with the High Tatras when I was a child. At least once a year we went hiking with my family. This was when I discovered my passion for hiking. I've always been in awe of the vast maze of rocks, high mountains, unreachable summits and crystal-clear lakes. I couldn't wait for school breaks to go back.
I still visit the High Tatras at least once a year. And I try more difficult hiking trails each time. But this time it was different...
In July and August, I suffered from severe stomach inflammation and let me tell you that I have never felt this bad in my entire life. I was feeling better when we traveled to Slovakia but I lost some weight and my energy level was very low, so hiking wasn't included in our plan. But I still wanted to go to the mountains, and we booked a couple of days in a wellness hotel and enjoyed sauna, swimming pool, massages and some easy strolls in nature.
It's been my dream to take a cable car to Lomnický Peak (2634 m) but the weather didn't allow us to go there anytime we visited the High Tatras in the past. This time we were lucky. Well, almost lucky...
There are three different cable cars that you need to take if you want to get to the summit. The first cable car had some technical issues and stopped running. We could hike up the hill for about an hour to reach the second station, but it was not possible in my condition. Another solution would be to wait for a pickup truck that would bring us and dozens of other people to the second station.
We missed the first pickup as people became crazy and were pushing forward like their lives were depending on getting in the car. We managed to squeeze in the next round. When we got to the second station it started to rain but we were not losing our hopes.
Our cable car to the third station stopped running for twenty minutes. We were hanging twenty meters above ground and had no idea what was happening. There was not even a phone number that we could call for some information. Finally, we got to the third station and made it to our last cable car.
It was very small and full. I will not exaggerate when I'll say that there was no place to move. One older guy got sick and almost fainted. Luckily, there were people with some water and helped him to survive the ride.
And then we reached the clouds...
ISO 100 1/200 sec. f/8 24 mm
When we got off the cable car, we were informed that we had fifty minutes to spend outside before returning back to the cable car. This seemed to be enough to me...
Many people were disappointed with the weather but I was running from one side to another and tried to take the best shots with clouds moving very fast..
ISO 200 1/160 sec. f/8 35 mm
After half an hour we were instructed to get inside as there was a storm heading in our direction. As we were walking on a metal platform we hurried back inside.
The cable car stopped running, and we waited for better weather conditions to return back down. People were smiling and even singing so we had a good time. It took another hour before we could board the cable car again.
The ride takes eight minutes and these were one of the longest minutes in my life as I was scared that the cable car would stop running in the middle and we would be hanging there for who knows how long...
ISO 200 1/160 sec. f/8 24 mm
Here are some photos that I could take in that short time that I had...
ISO 200 1/200 sec. f/8 24 mm
The visibility was low but we enjoyed some nice light conditions...
ISO 200 1/160 sec. f/8 24 mm
These two pictures are taken with difference of ten seconds so you can see how windy it was...
ISO 200 1/160 sec. f/8 24 mm
ISO 200 1/160 sec. f/8 24 mm
ISO 200 1/125 sec. f/8 24 mm
When we finally got down to the next station we went for a walk around the lake...
ISO 200 1/125 sec. f/8 24 mm
ISO 200 1/125 sec. f/8 24 mm
There were some nice stone stacks on the way...
ISO 200 1/125 sec. f/8 24 mm
And this is how the trail looks like...
It's not very easy to balance on those rocks without twisting your ankle, so be careful and watch your step.
ISO 200 1/125 sec. f/8 24 mm
Another stone stacks...
ISO 200 1/125 sec. f/8 24 mm
And some pretty flowers at the end...
ISO 200 1/125 sec. f/8 36 mm
Before we went down to the next station, we went for lunch in a mountain restaurant. They surprisingly had a vegan meal and it was delicious!
We had to wait for another hour because of the storm as the cable car stopped running again. When we finally got to the next station, we decided to walk down the hill to the village instead of taking the pickup truck again. It was a great walk even though it was drizzling all the time. There was a hot sauna waiting for us in the hotel so we didn't mind the rain..
(Yes, it was this windy)
It was a great day even though we spent most of it either waiting for a cable car or in a cable car 😊
Thank you for reading!
Cheers!
Martina
Nice view from very high land!
Thank you!
Congratulations, Your Post Has Been Added To The Steemit Worldmap!
Author link: http://steemitworldmap.com?author=delishtreats
Post link: http://steemitworldmap.com?post=unforgettable-day-in-the-mountains
Want to have your post on the map too?
oooh, never had the opportunity to visit Tatra; but heard so many good stories, as well as seeing pictures. :)
Oh no, that link doesn't work for me. Try again :)
When you ever get back to Europe you should definitely visit Tatras :)
What a thrilling but amazing adventure you have at the mountain @delishtreats, was it the best time to visit the mountain? Anyway.. what we expect when we're at that high? It will be suspicious without clouds and wind, right😉
Happy to read your other adventure story at the mountain and stay healthy too
Well, it was not the best time to visit the mountains but the only time that we could make so we had to do some compromises :) But it was still good enough. I've been to many mountains (even higher) when there were no clouds and wind, so it is possible :)
Thank you for stopping by and for your comment my dear!
You have been curated by @hafizullah on behalf of Inner Blocks: a community encouraging first hand content, with each individual living their best life, and being responsible for their own well being. #innerblocks Check it out at @innerblocks for the latest information and community updates, or to show your support via delegation.
Thank you for your support!
Congratulations @delishtreats! You have completed the following achievement on the Steem blockchain and have been rewarded with new badge(s) :
You can view your badges on your Steem Board and compare to others on the Steem Ranking
If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word
STOPVote for @Steemitboard as a witness to get one more award and increased upvotes!
Now that's a day to never forget in life wow
Exactly! Thank you for stopping by! :)
Hiya, @LivingUKTaiwan here, just swinging by to let you know that this post made into our Top 3 in Daily Travel Digest #628.
Your post has been manually curated by the @steemitworldmap team. If you like what we're doing, please drop by to check out all the rest of today's great posts and consider upvoting and supporting us.
Ani bych nepoznal, že to nejsou Alpy :) Nádhera!!!
Ze? Tiez som necakala, ze to bude tak super :)
Seeing mist like this over mountains always warms my heart!
Mine too! :) I don't understand why people can become so upset when the sun is not shining. It's much nicer when there are some clouds around :)
Congratulations! Your high-quality travel content was selected by @travelfeed curator @for91days and earned you a reward, in form of an upvote and a resteem. Your work really stands out! Your article now has a chance to get featured under the appropriate daily topic on our TravelFeed blog.
Thank you for being part of the TravelFeed community!
Did you know that you get larger upvotes when posting through TravelFeed.io? That is not all, we are also giving away a ticket to Steemfest to one lucky TravelFeed user. Make sure to read the announcement and opt in! Also, thanks to the travel writing contest by @invisusmundi you can now earn up to 100 STEEM on top of the post rewards when posting through our new platform TravelFeed.io! Read the contest announcement for more information on how to participate.
We are continuously working on improving TravelFeed, recently we introduced EasySignUp and EasyLogin, our first step to make TravelFeed ready for mass adoption.
Learn more about TravelFeed by clicking on the banner above and join our community on Discord.
Thank you so much for your support!
It's our pleasure!
wonderful place!
It indeed is! :) Thank you for stopping by!
It is great to have you back in my feed with beautiful pictures, places and stories. What great rocky mountains and you were so high!
Thank you for your kind words dear Sara. There are many more rocks that I expected. I thought to see more grass but it was all rocks! It can get even higher ;)
Beautiful Martina... So glad to have you back :D :D :D
Hi Dave, my laptop broke down and I lost all data and even my discord is different. Can you please send me your discord ID as I'd like you to ask you something? Thanks a lot :)
Hey Martina, sorry to hear about that... My discord name is davemccoy#2479 the same as steemit... I'll be around most of the day tomorrow!
Thank you Dave! Doing my best ;)
Congratulations, your post was discovered and featured by @OCD in its daily compilation #414!
If you give @ocd a follow – you can find other Gems!
Check our website for the whitelist, queue and delegation info. Join our Discord channel to be part of our community
We also have a witness. You can vote for @ocd-witness with SteemConnect or on Steemit Witnesses to help support other undervalued authors!
Thank you so much for your support!
This post has been manually curated by PhotoStream: The Photography Tribe!
Thank you for your kind support!
That was quite an adventure Martina! The High Tatras are beautiful and remind me of Fagaras mountains here in Romania (2544 m our highest peak). Hope you feel better now, I've heard pickles do good for the stomach.
One day I have to visit Fagaras. I have heard a lot about them but never managed to get there. Do you have many bears too? We have so many in Slovakia that it's becoming a little dangerous to go hiking nowadays...
I feel well now, thank you. I hope so as I have enough of them to eat :)
Thank you Dan!
What a terrific journey!! High Tatras looks absolutely stunning! Now I think I should finally visit them during a warm season.
I was surprised about such a weather, as I remember that September and October are likely the best month to hike because the weather conditions are more continuous, when it rans - it rains for a few days, and the same with sun.
I was in High Tatras once in my life, it was in the end of December, and we took Tatra Electric Railway. As I remember, landscape was different.
Anyway, thank you so much for exciting reading and for my new travel idea! ;)
You should definitely visit High Tatras! It's not so far away from you and it is worth it.
I'm not so sure about the weather because from my experience it can change there very quickly. It's even worse than in the Alps. Anytime I go there I can see that it's changing every 15 minutes. It's very strange.
I've never heard of Tatra Electric Railway but will check it out :) Probably you didn't go that high. There was a dense forest at the beginning of Tatras but there was a large storm some years ago (maybe 10?) and most of the forest was destroyed..
Thank you for stopping by my dear and for your kind words!
Thank YOU! It was my pleasure!
Quite right, we passed tha destroyed firest, I remember, it looks spooky. And yes, now I get it, we really didn't get very high. The final stop was a hotel and some bars or shops.
Great post. Hiking up for the views are always worth the time and energy. I hope you recovered well from your stomach trouble
Thank you for stopping by! Yes, I finally feel healthy again :)
Holy wow! What a saga! It was like the tale of the Cable Car Conundrum. I'm sorry to hear that you weren't feeling well, and after everything you went through getting to the top of those peaks, I am so pleased to see sights that you were rewarded with. Those vistas are gorgeous!
Thank you so much for sharing with us.:)
Hahaha, yeah, it wasn't the easiest day :) But it was exciting and a good story to tell :)
Thank you for your kind words!
Wow, amazing landscape! I'm in my beach mood now, but love mountains as well. Great shots!
I'm in my mountains mood but also wish I was somewhere at the seaside :) I love the sea! :)
Those are some incredibly shots. What an amazing place to hike. Thanks for sharing your experience. Happy Friday Delish.
Thank you for stopping by!
I get jealous everytime I see somebody doing post like this. I felt like I wanted to be there as well and enjoy the beauty of the place. Thanks for sharing
I'm sure that you have some nice places around you too :) If you ever get to Europe, you'll know where to go :)
Wow! Amazing mountains! Will have to remember this place for the next time I'm in that part of the world! Great photos!
Are you planning another European tour? :) There are so many places that you still need to see! :)
As always @delishtreats , the photography is a treat to view. I'm back leaving a comment days after I saw, read and voted on this days ago (don't know why I didn't leave a comment then???) Maybe I was tired?
Anyway...Those rocky peaks, cliffs and valleys remind me of a place I spent the night at many years ago in Alaska. So high above the tree line made me feel as if I'd been transported to another planet!!!
Thanks for the beautiful pics, and the memories :>) Hope all is well with you and yours.
Oh...I almost forgot... That "Approaching storm" you mention, also reminded me of one I got caught in high up in the European Alps :>) I grabbed hold of the hinge side of a door as the wind swept me off my feet and I was flapping in the air holding on for dear life :>O
I've seen more comments from you but I didn't have a chance to get back to you yet. My computer crashed on Sunday and I was struggling to get it back running. My hard drive is damaged and I lost all my data and can't recover any of those. So lots of stress recently... I even lost keys to one of my accounts... so stupid that I didn't back it up. Well, I thought I did but now I can't find it..
Hahaha, wind in the mountains can be very strong :)
Thank you for your kind words!
So sorry for your computer, and file problem @delishtreats; most of us have had similar experiences with unbacked data escaping into the void...My best wishes are with you in possibly being able to retrieve what's important to you.
Holy smokes! How high up there were you guys at the top? It looks almost like shots from the space station! lol. Amazing! Actually incredible. Great job, I love this post.