The soft scenery of the Greater (Veľká) Fatra (source: Jana Liptáková)
Back in the office on Monday morning after a four-day hike in the Veľká (Greater) Fatra mountain range, I unexpectedly found myself missing the eight-kilo backpack I had lugged around for the trip.
It wasn’t just a bag that carried everything I needed in it for the trip, for me it had become a symbol of, even if this sounds like a cliché, serenity, of making a break from civilisation, of nature in all its beauty and glory.
The idea of backpacking across the ridge of the Greater Fatra belonged to a friend of mine, Renáta Petríková. Her main goal was to climb the range’s 1,532-metre Ploská hill and, at the same time, escape for a few nights from civilisation.
