Biking Czech Republic
14-16 July 2023, east of Tabor, 61.93km
Kemp Knížecí pond 352kč [R292]
An exhausting day. Will chat tomorrow. We are staying at a campsite abutting this pond.
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🎵Corn to the left of me
Rapeseed to the right
Here I am stuck in the middle with you...🎶
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The Czech Republic comprises 13 regions, plus Prague. Since leaving the capital, we have cycled Central Bohemia, yesterday crossing into South Bohemia, both endlessly hilly.
On our 60-plus km ride to Kemp Knížecí pond east of Tabor, we had many exhilarating, curving, curling, downhill swoops, but paid for every single one of 'em, averaging just 7kph for most of the day.
At 18h00 with still 19km to go to our planned campsite, we called to let reception know we would be arriving pretty late. They said they could give us until 20h00 so we had to pile on the pressure just when we were already tired and ready to call it quits. Luckily 14km were marginally easier than the preceding 40km, and the last 5km a very fast run on a very busy highway, thighs and hearts pumping. We arrived at 20h20, 11 hours after getting on the saddles, to find reception still open and the restaurant kitchen taking their final dinner orders. We ate our pork schnitzel and French fries on a wooden deck overlooking the "pond" (lake) alongside which the campsite runs. By the time we had eaten in all our dirt, erected the tent and showered, it was after 22h00 and we were more than ready for bed!
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Our ride was predominantly on secondary and tertiary roads running through farm and forest; on occasion on smaller, rougher segments - what comes smaller than tertiary? - on one of which I got a puncture.
While these roads are great to ride, they do tend to climb up and over obstacles or take the long way round them. Often through charming sleepy villages in hollows, with steep climbs departing them.
We were very grateful for the partially cloudy weather, the cloud-cast shadows mitigating the heat of the day.
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At campsites, those wanting electricity run an extension cord from a connection point to their camper van. Those who simply want to charge a phone or laptop, like us, must plug into the connection point or, on occasion, plug points in public bathrooms, and leave the phone there to charge. The South African in me finds this very hard to do, to abandon my contact with my world (family, friends, tenants, banking, travel info, etc) to the whims of strangers. We are learning to trust that most people are trustworthy, but it only takes one...
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I am trying to work out how to include all the essential food groups via ice-cream. Any suggestions?
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Rest day…
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A change of plans resulted in us taking two buses to and a train and bus from Český Krumlov, around 90km south of our lakeside campsite, today. Tomorrow we begin our slow ride east to Bratislava, Slovakia.
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Krumlov is arguably one of the prettiest medieval towns in Europe, built in the embrace of the Vltava river last encountered in Prague. We certainly did not alot it as much time as it deserves, though we did spend a day there in 1999. I will let my photos do the talking...
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We have been interested to see how popular tattoos are in Eastern Europe with a sizeable number of young people displaying copious artwork on their bodies. Charl's photo below is of a Thai couple...
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Back at the campsite on a hot day, I took a dip in the lake, floating in the warm water while adults and kids splashed nearby and three horses were bathed off the opposite shore.
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In Krumlov, we fell into conversation with Runette Botha, an opera singer originally from Brakpan, now resident in Germany.