Slovakia - Day 31: Kysak – Velky Saris

A Bridge

Breakfast and off. We had a date with a young brewery, Saris which only started brewing in May 1967 (Wikipedia).

Today was a village and road day. One could be forgiven for thinking that a sensible place to end the walk would be Kysak. The remainder of the walk seems like a bit of an add-on to get to Dukla. But the promise of Presov, Bardejov and Svidnik kept us going.

A River

In the immortal words of Magnus Magnusson, ‘I have started so I will finish’.

It almost seemed like Slovakia had ran out of forest. Hard to believe I know. We walked a long way on roads. We had taken trainers but as the holes in them expensively point out, they are not strong enough for rugged rocky terrain. But on roads they are nice.

The Path

We got to Maly Saris. There is a Little Saris (Maly Saris) and a Big Saris (Velky Saris) but no Mother Saris (Mama Saris) – maybe this explains the lack of bears. We had lunch in a bus stop. There was a poster advertising the “Kendicke Kapustove Slavnosti” – The Kendice Cabbage Celebration. A 2pm start the next day, a Miss Cabbage competition, a cabbage specialty tasting and a scheduled 4am finish. We thought about staying, we really did.

Safe

More road to Velky Saris, we looked in vain for some redeeming aspect of the day’s walk. We eventually found it in the conical stand alone hills that dot the area. Some geological experiment – cool – but that didn’t catch on. At first we saw two and wondered cheekily what they would be called. But then we saw more so left that train of thought in the gutter from whence it came.

A Tree 

Finally, we arrived in Velky Saris, but had to get the bus to Presov, so no brewery tour. NO BREWERY TOUR. Presov is pretty, in a quick stroll around town, a beer, eat and leave sort of way. A sort of place to do ‘En Passant’.

I saw the brewery through the bus window, through my tears.

The Countryside

	Day 31	Cumulative
Distance Walked	32km	692km
Meters Climbed	654m	26,814m
Walking Time	8:30	232:48
General Comment A brewery at the end of a long hot walk - heaven. We will miss the Cabbage Festival We have climbed a 6.5% of the way to the International Space Station (@413km altitude)