Reading the brochures at the campsite, we discovered that at the other end of the railway that we had seen on Friday was a forest park with walking trails. We drove to Cierny Balog where that line terminated and a separate, short line went up the valley to the park. At Cierny Balog were the engine sheds for both lines with a large amount of rolling stock and locomotives, both steam and diesel. Any British preserved railway would have delighted to have as much – two steam locomotives, a number of diesel locomotives (both large for the long line and small for the short line), post wagon, a large variety of passenger wagons, cranes, ballast carriers, timber wagons (the original purpose of the line) etc.
We set off on the 4km journey to the park and arrived at the Vydrovo Skanzen station and park information centre. Although it was not at all clear, especially for foreign tourists, there was a small charge to enter the park, but it was well worth the money. There were four trails to choose from and we chose the one indicated as 2 hours in length. All along the trail there were information boards in Slovak and English and also forestry exhibits. These were very well presented and very substantial, including a forest warden's house, housing a museum; water powered sawmill; personnel transport lorry; cranes; portable timber cableway and even a forestry helicopter. The area is also a working forest with active forest management visible everywhere. It was a thoroughly enjoyable and informative walk and I would certainly return one day to do some of the other walks. We returned to the station and enjoyed a snack at the very good and popular buffet before returning on the train.
Having plenty of time, we plotted a different route back to the campsite passing many walk signs from Cierny Balog through the hills until we approached Tisovec. The whole of that area was very pretty and would also justify a return visit.
We had chatted to an English man and his daughter, initially rather surprised to here an English voice from a person with a Slovak car, we found out that he was working for SAB Miller (the giant brewing company) in Slovakia. Tom had suggested that we got together in the evening “around the camp fire”, which I had taken to be a metaphorical camp fire but it turned out there really was one. Initially we sat on the terrace by the house – a group of us formed and Dion, who was part of the party took our orders for beer. When it was fully dark, we moved over to the camp fire that Dion had lit and sat around on benches and tree stumps chatting, watching the fire and looking up at the stars. Tom had already said that he was in finance and I asked him whether he harboured any ambitions to be a Financial Director, “I already am” he said – he was the Finance Director of SAB Miller in Slovakia! We had a very enjoyable evening chatting in English despite the fact that most of the group were Dutch – needless to say, their English was very good. Imogen, Tom's daughter, was allowed to stay up late and played with the campsite kittens or stoked the fire. She was a really lovely girl and we didn't hear any complaints from her the whole time that we were there.
Photos: Pulling into Vydrovo Skanzen station; A portable timber cableway that allows the felled trees to be transported over the ground, thus avoiding damage to the forest floor; The camp fire group – there was no singing!
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