Camila Chia59809

The objective of this article is to draw attention to some of the most preserved parts of natural marvels not easily observable anywhere in the world. Dolina (or valley) Nefcerka is one of them. An ongoing struggle of ecological activists currently takes place in order to prevent exploitation of surrounding valleys in the area of the Tatras Mountains (Slovakia), as various endeavors of wood industry companies press on government to get permission to carry away the fallen trees in the region of Koprova and Ticha valleys (affected by a windstorm), which have both a different status than other woods, as these lie in one of the most protected natural reservations in Central Europe.

Introduction

Many tourists visit Slovakia, the heart of Central Europe, even from distant overseas. One of the world's geographically youngest mountain range called the Tatras or the High Tatras (Vysoke Tatry) lies in the north of this small country. Many people use the term Tatra Mountains instead of Tatras, but in Slovak Tatry is plural. The etymology of this word is difficult to track. The Alexandrian geographer and astronomer Claudius Ptolemaios refers to this region in his geographical works as Carpaths. The word Triti or Trtri was first documented in the 10th century in a donation document of German King Henrich IV.

The High Tatras peaks are very dense and thus exceptionally attractive. In these mountains, you can make most of any touristic trips just in one day and see all the loveliness of natural scenery in the woods, around waterfalls, in the capricious weather, caves, rocks, or you can even listen to fairy-tales of a bird signing.

The history of these mountains started many million years ago within the Carpathian mountain ranges. Later, after this mass emerged from the Mesozoic ocean some 80 million years ago, the mountains started to be formed on the surface.

The Tatras can be divided to the Western Tatras, the High Tatras, and the Belianske Tatras. The Low Tatras, which is an independent range of mountains in a south direction from the above northern mass of the mountains, are not mentioned in this article. The northern Tatra mountain mass is on the border with Poland, but Slovakia has the bigger part of it. The deceased John Paul II loved going here as a priest before he became the Pope. The highest Tatras are the High Tatras, where the Gerlach Peak (Gerlachovsky stit, 2,655 meters above the sea level) is the highest point in Slovakia.

Matej Bel (1684 - 1723), a Slovak Lutheran pastor, one of the greatest scholars of the 18th century (Slovakia was under the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy's rule at that time) wrote a big work entitled Notitia Hungariae novae historico - geografica, which even crossed the borders of the then Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. The work also contained national geography of the Tatras. Thus, some famous European scholars and other important personages visited these mountains, certainly inspired also by Jean Jacque Rousseau's ideas who appealed to teleology by way of the order which can be found in nature and its gifts. Some of these were Gran Wahlenberg (a Swedish naturalist), Robert Townson (English traveler), a French geologist Baltazar Hacquet, and many others.

The High Tatras had some mining history too. The first such activities started in the 15th century. Under the government of Matej Korvin (1458 - 1490), mining tunnels were built around the Krivan Peak, but even in spite of great expectations, the results were not so good. It is hard to say whether this was because of hard-manageable and inaccessible terrain, or because of small resources of gold. Even now, these tunnels can be visited, but ecological activists and workers of the Tatras National Park consider going there to be an illegal activity. It is even very dangerous, as bears can have their dens there and if someone finds courage, the only way to go into these tunnels is to use knees and hands as the only means of transportation.

The contemporary Tatras

At the moment, the High Tatras are under the protection of TANAP, which is the Tatras National Park (institutionally recognized in 1949). The High Tatras have always had good references for various treatments of lung and breathing diseases, as the weather conditions and overall nature with unique vegetation are extraordinarily healthy if people with breathing diseases spend here a few weeks.

In 1970, the World Ski Championship took place here and from till then rather a plain and simple place an attractive tourist home with cableways and good transportation developed all over the region.

The Tatras are real mountains and many tourists underestimate this fact. The climate can change any time with serious consequences. If you go up into the hills and the sun is shining, always expect that not only hailstones, but also real rocks may fall on your head in a few minutes. Albeit rocks do not fall every day on mountain tracks, a tragedy happened recently where rocks started falling from the wall above few tourists and six of them ended up in hospital. Tourists should never forget to put a wind-jacket in their packsacks and good shoes on their feet. Health insurance is an absolute option if you plan to undertake longer tours in the hills. This also pertains to Slovaks, because no normal medical service has abilities to climb up high in the rocks to take you out of the heights if your leg got broken. We have a special service for this. Some years ago, a calamity occurred in the High Tatras, as the wind was so strong that it literally cut off many trees from surface. Some wood industry companies want to take these fallen trees out of the woods even from the most protected areas.

The Valley Nefcerka - A Time Travel To The Glacial Age?

The High Tatras is the national park and, as a consequence of this, some activities are not permitted. Going to certain areas is prohibited too. The Valley Nefcerka is one of them and let me just give more details why this is so.

The valley's name was presumably derived from the Neftzer family lineage, which took care of the royal property between the years 1695 - 1762. This valley lies above the lower situated and neighboring Koprova valley; it is under the Krivan Peak; the route to the Valley Nefcerka is not visible. It is the most protected reservation in Slovakia and it has wild nature unique in all Europe. It formally does not have a touristic access. As it has been conserved this way for a quite long time, there are unknown species of flora and fauna not observable anywhere in the world. The valley starts with woods, then follow dwarf pines; the final relish is the first and the biggest dark blue mountain lake with the water of a magnificent look. The valley then goes up closer to the sky where other two lakes can be found, and then it ends with the ridge of the Furkotsky Peaks accessible with a little pain from behind a different valley (the Furkotska Valley, with mountain lakes carrying the name of the above-mentioned Swedish naturalist - Wahlenberg's lakes). In the Valley Nefcerka, there is the Nefcerka Waterfall, one of the highest waterfalls in the Tatras.

Nefcerka can be seen from the Krivan Peak, which is freely accessible for tourists (some 4 hours from Strbske pleso - a ski center): http://www.summitpost.org/image/270225/154957/valley-nefcerka.html

From among animals living in such concealed places like I describe here, we can mention the eagle, Eurasian lynx, marmot, but also many others such as viper, chamois, bear Among the very special ones is Branchinecta paludosa (a creature from the class of primitive water crustaceans). This is a water creature that has one special attribute - it does not live anywhere in the world except Greenland, Siberia, Scandinavia, i. e., the far north. Then we can travel thousands of miles from the arctic regions and we suddenly find it here in the High Tatras. This ice relict lives only in two High Tatras lakes and one of them is said to be the higher Furkotske lake (pleso) in the Furkotska Valley - a neighbor of Nefcerka.

Of the flora, we can point out one interesting plant too. It is Erysimum wahlenbergii, which was discovered by the above-mentioned Swedish scholar and which also carries his name. This plant grows up to the length of one meter and it has yellow flowers like wild radish. This kind of the plant class has not been found anywhere in the world.

Conclusion

I remember visiting the Valley Nefcerka with my father in 1968. It has been one of the most vivid experiences I have ever had, as the Soviet army entered aggressively our country (Czechoslovakia at that time) exactly on that day in August. As we were coming back, we listened to the radio. Even at that time, no cars were allowed to push their wheels to the Koprova and Ticha Valley. Now too, the access to the Valley Nefcerka is not given to anybody except for special purposes (scientific ones, etc.).

Is the heavy machinery allowed to go just as near as the Valley Nefcerka to cut off and take away the fallen trees only because it yields profit? The noise these machines produce is to the nature's ears the same what the heavy artillery to human ears. Yet, we have a law that if someone destroys a nest of a protected bird he or she is sentenced to prison. Can the heavy machines come here, scare the animals, or even destroy birds' nests built in the area of the fallen trees? The Valley Ticha, which is neighboring with Valley Koprova, has its website and you can see pictures of these machines here: http://www.ticha.sk/zhrnutie.htm

If anybody would like to visit Slovakia, it is a good idea to start with Slovak websites. There is much more than the Valley Nefcerka in the High Tatras. Quite a famous Slovak artist, Julius Koller, installed a UFO Gallery on one of the High Tatras' mountains. The Ganek Peak is inaccessible to all but expert climbers. The idea with the UFO Gallery and the stars being attached to climbers' eyes helps to find a new dimension.

There is quite a good website for finding an accommodation within a wide spectrum of hotels and various cheaper places in villages even near or in the High Tatras. If someone would like to visit the Tatras or just Slovakia, this Slovak website would help: http://www.prenocuj.sk/. It has a good database of accommodation offers in Slovakia. In Slovak, accommodation is ubytovanie or prenocuj (sleep over night somewhere) and it is easy, if you are here, to ask people in an Internet caf about the meaning of various words that you do not understand.

The Valley Nefcerka is the most eye-catching thing I have ever seen. I remember one Frenchman, while visiting the Krivan Peak, as he said on the top of it: This is the most beautiful scenery I have ever seen in my life. My mother, a French teacher, translated this to me. I agree with him.