Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Slovakia -- Silver Lake Ranch -- a Dude Ranch and Rodeo Arena near Bratislava

ranch
 Photo: Ranc na Striebornom jazere web site

Take a look at "Silver Lake Ranch" -- or Ranč na Striebornom jazere -- a dude ranch and rodeo area near Galanta, in southeast Slovakia.

The web site is in Slovak, but you can get an idea of what's what by looking at the pictures. The ranch offers guest accommodations, rodeos and other horse-riding competitions, "horse therapy" and other activities.

The name, "Silver Lake," harks back to one of the bestknown Winnetou tales by Karl May, the Treasure of Silver Lake (Der Schatz im Silversee). This was the title of the first Winnetou film starring Pierre Brice, Lex Barker and Herbert Lom, release in 1962.

Here's the original German trailer:



 And here's the English trailer:



"Silver Lake City" was the name of a short-lived wild west town near Templin, north of Berlin, Germany (which currently operates as Eldorado).

4 comments:

bucko said...

Where has this blog been all my life? I'm happy to say I'll be a frequent visitor. You're covering and rediscovering a really strange (and wonderful) theme.

Ruth said...

Hi Bucko -- Welcome aboard! Looking forward to having you as a regular!

Bucko said...

Do you know where this flick was filmed? Gorgeous shots--waterfall especially.

Ruth said...

Hi Bucko -- the Karl May films were (at least in large part)filmed in Croatia. It's gorgeous scenery but actually pretty funny sometimes to see what is represented as the American West. There are fairly regular tours for fans of the film locations (inluding Plitvice Lakes which is home to famous waterfalls)