Today we headed west from Presov to visit the so-called Slovak Paradise (Slovensky Raj). This is a national park consisting of an uplifted area roughly 10-15 miles wide with thick forests and deep gorges. After driving through a couple of snow squalls, we arrived in Podselok and turned into the large parking area. There was one other car, but at least 4 piles of broken window glass - not a good thing when you are going to leave your car with foreign plates for a few hours. We drove across the bridge to the nearby restaurant where I talked to the local cop. After some negotiation with the locals, he told us that we could park in the restaurant parking lot 'just this one time'. We decided to do the Sucha Bela gorge ('dry gorge') since it was supposed to be the most popular. We figured that there wouldn't be many people out on a cold Thursday in March, and we were right - in 3.5 hours, we saw three guys from a work crew drinking beer in the forest, otherwise nobody.
The gorge itself is quite nice, with many wooden walkways and a few long ladders.
There were some really icy spots.
We were still walking in the creek much of the time - my Merrell GoreTex boots seemed to be waterproof. It took about 2 hours (including lots of photo time) to get to the top of the gorge and another 90 minutes down. We stopped in at the restaurant for some hot Slovak food. Charles had a beer, but since the village policeman was there, I stuck to coffee. (The woman who ran the restaurant had put the cop to work changing the keg.) This area is definitely worth a return trip - I hope the weather is a bit clearer next time.
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