Suchá Belá Valley (source: Lukáš Varšík)
One of Slovakia's major tourist destinations, Slovak Paradise, re-opened this month after spring maintenance works.
This year the Hrabušice municipality, as the administrator of the local five gorges, is planning several innovations, including the purchase and installation of payment terminals at the entrance to the gorges, mayor Marcel Kacvinský told the TASR newswire.
Year-round admission
Kacvinský, as the newly elected mayor, announced plans to collect entrance fees to Slovak Paradise all year round through payment terminals.
“Currently, entry is paid in cash, but there are quite a few tourists who want to pay by card, which is a problem. We are already looking for a supplier for payment terminals, which will be located at the entrance all year round. It will either be card only or will take coins too," he said.
Meanwhile, the municipality is also planning to purchase a minibus, which would serve as a shuttle for tourists to boarding points for the gorges during the season.
"This would increase the safety of pedestrians, because the village of Hrabušice is not connected to the Podlesok area by a pedestrian path," Kacvinský said.
Providing electric bicycles for use is also reportedly being considered. "Our location is quite busy, we have a lot of cyclists here, especially after the opening of a cycle path that leads from Spišská Nová Ves and has a connection to Hrabušice," the mayor explained.
Months of repairs
In recent months, repairs have been carried out in the park's Suchá Belá gorge. Water-damaged wooden ladders have been replaced and other work has been carried out throughout the gorge. Elsewhere, a wooden ladder in Piecky Gorge was repaired.
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"A slightly larger repair was carried in the Veľký Sokol gorge, where ice probably fell from the rock overhang onto two wooden ladders and damaged them. In addition, we still need to replace one seven-meter ladder in the gorge," Kacvinský told TASR.
However, it will be some months before any more repairs can be carried out. "These places are located in inaccessible terrain, where we can only deliver wood by helicopter. However, because of the nesting of birds, we will not start this work until the autumn," he added.
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