To avoid the busy main road out of town we walk the bikes for about a mile through fields and a wood, negotiating mole hills, huge nettles and branches felled in the recent wind. It is worth it though as we are soon on quiet farm roads again. Here is more wind damage. A good job this Silver Birch fell on the corn not the road!
JINDRICHUV HADREC was busy with traffic and road works, but the old town square was worth the effort, a little faded but still attractive.
As everywhere in mainland Europe, there are wooden huts on stilts at the edge of woods, which we understand are for hunters to shoot deer etc from. We have also seen reinforced concrete bunkers along the Czech/Austrian border section - they look post WW2 as they show no evidence of damage, so we guess they are the remnants of the old Iron Curtain defence line.
The Greenway route heads N to Prague now but we want to explore this area more so are taking a SW loop mostly through tiny villages. If they are not big enough to have a Co-op then they have a smaller Flop shop with bare essentials so we can at least get the very tasty bread. Every village also had a duck pond or a larger lake and I guess this is where the carp comes from on most menus. We camp in a field by a forest and river. The other campers have arrived by canoe. A blanket of mist in the morning wets the tent so we pack it away at the last minute when the morning sun has had time to dry it.
We join Czech tourists, many of them day riders on bikes, in the centre of the town of TREBON, and admire the cobbled square surrounded by the now familiar gabled buildings and colonnades. There is also an attractive castle complex right in the centre. It is bit too touristy with Segway or horse drawn carriage trips being touted, so not such a good experience as Telc.
The roads and villages are unbelievably quiet now, but when a vehicle does come along it is usually a speeding logging lorry or tractor. Outside one smallholding a chap with typical long grey beard and ponytail is drawing water from an old hand pump in front of his house. He stands resplendent in just his boxer shorts alongside an old tin bath. We do not wait to see whether he takes advantage of the hot weather to bathe alfresco!
The forest roads are lovely and cool, but there is enough filtered sun to allow tasty bilberries and wild raspberries to flourish on the forest floor. From the hill tops there are panoramic views of forest, arable fields and village church spires. Late pm we reach the small town of KAPLICE, which has no campsite, so we take a comfy room above a courtyard restaurant.
Miles to date 2,258
Location:TELC to KAPLICE
