Nature was cleaned on the northern side of the Low Tatras in the picturesque settlement of Magurka despite bad weather and the event participants could enjoy an interesting programme.
The “Priatelia Magurky” (Friends of Magurka) civic organisation and the village of Partizánska Ľupča organised the “Cleaning nature – Magurka, the Low Tatras” event last Saturday (6th October 2019). The aim was to liquidate an old illegal dump site near the former Rüsseger mining adit. More than 40 volunteers of all age groups including families with kids helped clean in spite of bad weather and rain. There were people from the Banská Bystrica district, from the area of Poprad, Nitra, Zlín and other Czech towns who like this area of the Liptov region.
The cleaning event began in front of the Magurka cottage, the event partner and sponsor, at 9:00 in the morning. Then the volunteers set out for the old dump site. People say that it was created in the 1960s and the waste came from the old cottage. Quite a big amount was piled up in the course of time, several layers of it, so the volunteers had to literally dig for it in the ground. There were mainly glass and metal pieces, bottles, cans, pots, ceramics, porcelain, linoleum, even an iron and cables. Bags filled with waste were transported across muddy terrain to a big container by using wheelbarrows.
The cleaning event was combined with a varied weekend programme. On Friday evening, Professor Martin Chovan had a lecture about “The history of mining and gold extraction at Magurka”. On Sunday morning, visitors could walk along the former mining road, listen to the amateur commentary of Miroslav Meluš, the chief of the “Priatelia Magurky” organisation and keeper of the Magurka cottage and have a look at the remains of old mining structures – the so called bašovňa where ores were washed, the Kilian adit, its heap, mining water piping and the Ritterstein adit.
Miroslav Meluš summarised the cleaning event as follows: “I am personally very satisfied because we filled almost a whole waste container on Saturday. Due to bad weather and the huge amount of waste, we could not liquidate the dump site completely but our activity will continue in future, also thanks to the support of volunteers that we feel.”
In addition to this, the “Priatelia Magurky” civic organisation plans another project in cooperation with Professor Martin Chovan – a mining educational trail that will introduce the history of this magical area. The trail should be opened in 2020.