Tichá dolina – a hidden paradise among the mountains

Tichá dolina - a hidden paradise among the mountains

As a prize in the 2nd year of Ekoworkshop, Saša took us to Ticha, Kôprová and Hlinená valley together with Erik Baláž, Slovak ecologist, activist, author of books on nature protection and former politician, for whom the whole Tatra National Park is like a second home. Normally these places are strictly off-limits to all people except park rangers
as they are under the highest level of protection, but we were given special permission by TANAP.

We started our almost 20-kilometre hike in Podbansko. First we crossed to the other side of the Bela River, where we received a short lecture on the importance of this exceptional, almost untouched by man, river. For example, we learnt that it is inhabited by the shearwater, which is an even more reliable indicator of clean water than the river crayfish. Then we continued to the Dill Valley and from there over the hills to the unique limbo forests that grow here without any human intervention. The unofficial goal of our expedition was to see bears, which unfortunately we didn’t get to see, but Erik explained that they are very abundant in this area when they have something to eat here – especially the nuts from the limbera cones and the sugar on the tops of the rowan trees – but by the time of our expedition they had already descended to the lower areas. All along the way, however, we heard the roaring of deer in the rut on all sides, there was, of course, the singing of various species of birds, and we even saw a woodpecker, which Erik revealed to us had had a bicycle helmet made from its skull. Finally, we descended through the Tichá valley back to Podbanský.

During the whole day we had the opportunity to see real wild Slovak nature and forests as they should look – different kinds of trees of different ages, which grow randomly, under them shrubs, green vegetation, mushrooms and dead trees, which are very important for the forest ecosystem, as they represent shelter and food for animals (if we really want to help our nature, it is better to kill one tree than to build a bird feeder). In addition, we learned a lot of new, interesting and useful information and what is even better and more important – it was explained and shown to us right away and in practice with real examples. I am all the more appreciative and grateful to Sasha for this exceptional opportunity.