V8 goes East - 14
This report from Gordon Hesketh-Jones records reaching Slovakia. (29.5.05)

Monday - again a totally painless and stress-free border crossing for Slovakia, the guards once more being curious and polite. This would turn out to be the last time that our passports were actually stamped. We entered at Kral and followed the River Seing for 10 miles before turning north into the hills to find Roznavo, as our destination was the famous Dobsinka Ice Caves, a wonderful place (according to the Tourist Office brochures) containing hundreds of stalagmites and stalactites. For 20 miles or so the road lead through a valley around a mile or so wide with many peaks on both sides of over 5,000ft with plenty of snow showing and the river again showing green with the snow melt.

Excitement of mountain roads
Once we reached Dobsina the fun really started, for the road climbed some 2000ft, dropped down a similar amount then repeated the exercise all over again. In contrast to the road we had looked for in Romania the road surface was in excellent condition as it is used all day by the huge 44tonne lorries which take the massive loads of 8 to 10 inch diameter timbers away, timber being the major part of this area's economy. The road had innumerable hairpins, often without any real bits of straight between them and there was a fair amount of sand and grit around, some from wash-down from recent heavy storms, some from road-gritting after frost and snow. This loose suface made it delightfully easy to slide the back around even with the heavy rear luggage load and these two ascents and descents were most enjoyable - but a sobering moment on the final descent was to find one of the huge log lorries on its side, police just arrinving, and the massive timbers sliding down the hill. We were waved on so could not find out if the driver survived or not. I slowed down. Another climb brought us to the Dobsinka Ice Caves and a big notice confirming that they were open daily from 15th May to 30th September - but were closed every Monday. I was not amused and will be writing to the Tourist Office.

Running repair
From our brochures we knew that if we headed North to Poprad and turned East then we would come to the Spissky area with three different castles and two forts. However as were going around Poprad there was a smell of petrol and Jennifer politely told me that she had had a perfectly good shower at the hotel that morning and there really was no need for my car to spray petrol onto her feet. Even with petrol at just 70p per litre you can't afford to waste too much but eventually I found a safe pull-off point and sure enough, the rubber pipe from the bottom of the engine bay fuel filter had split just where it joins onto the copper pipe to the carbs. I had a spare two foot length as it is such handy stuff so a new pipe was quickly made up and fitted. We carried on and the Spissky castles were most interesting but what really made Jennifer's day was finding the small walled town of Levoda - she felt an immediate bond with this place, having herself been born in the walled city of Chester.

Overnight stay at a castle
Our overnight stay was to be in the castle at Liptovsky Hradock so we had a 40mile drive west into a bright sun again in a valley, with 5000ft jagged peaks to the North and softer lower green hills to the South. The Castle was built in the 13th century and parts of it are still used, whilst the 18th century manor house forms the basis for the hotel which is still charging the equvalent of GBP36 a night for B&B. They also have an excellent restaurant but again the wine was on the sweet side.

In 1918 Czechoslovakia was formed as a sort of artificial country under the Treaty of Versailles but the two countries are totally different in culture, economy and topography so there was a perfectly amicable split into The Czech Republic and Slovakia some 10 years ago after the end of the Soviet domination, and of course both countries are now part of the EU. In fact Slovakia is not a great deal bigger than Ireland but some 70% is mountainous which is why they have the heavy dependance on the timber industry.

Ring road at Zilnia and onwards
The following day we set off towards Zilnia, a city which has a ring road as complex as the Paris Boulevard Periferique - but the Zilnia version has better signing! By now the weather had turned to rain and it was not too pleasant, but we did see the site of the huge new KIA factory. The roadside stalls were still in evidence but now to our surprise the crop was of melons.

Having passed through Zilnia we carried on down to Trencin but unfortunately came off the E50 at the Trencin exit rather than staying on the motorway to the next exit - outside France and Germany, very few of the European motorways (and maps) show exit numbers. Having had a few tense moments of sorting out just where we were, we rejoined the motorway for one more section before taking the single-carriageway road through a deep valley to the Czech Republic border - yet again a friendly smile and a wave through - but we noted trucks lined up for a mile or so waiting to be processed.

Run to Prague and the city centre traffic
The run to Prague (Praha) should have been approximately 180 miles, the first half on single-carriageway around Brno and through the hills and mountains, the second half on the new E50 motorway. The first section was going to be slow anyway with all of the heavy lorry traffic, but just West of Bucovice we ground to a full halt for nearly two hours, there had been a bad crash in the next village involving a coach, a Mercedes and a Passat, the Passat being in an extremely crumpled state. Eventually a crane removed the wreckage and we could proceed. Now we were not too far from the motorway and it was a relief to find that the Czech motorways are virtually to the same standard as UK motorways even to having the junction numbers marked properly and actually using the word "EXIT".