For the first time on this trip so far, we woke to a hot sun
flooding in the tent door, which we’d left slightly open in the night. The beauty of this is that it makes you want
to get up and kick on with the day, rather than struggle out of your sleeping
bag, which, incidentally are all aired out.
Julia got the remaining damp clothes from the drying room and laid them
over the fence or hedge in the hot sun, just to give them a last blast before
we take off. Sat down for brekky at
7.45am after she had managed to get some milk from the owner’s wife, who speaks
no English. ‘Milk’ she says to no
response……’Milk’, making pouring gestures….still no sign of life.....’Milk’,
gesturing that she was milking a cow…..Aah ‘Milk’ says the woman and everyone’s
happy again. Cereal with cheese and
bread and a cuppa. Today is expected to
reach 28 degrees and with us sheltering for breakfast in the inside dining
area, I can believe it. It’ll be a long
draining day, so we will hope for undulating riding, rather than mountains
today on our way, for the first time, into the Czech Rep, to Cesky Krumlov.
We’ll resume transmission at a later date….
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| Jenny, Benny and Cecilia |
Had to stop for an iced coffee about 2pm because we were too
hot to continue. We had a lovely ride
from the campground after saying goodbye to Benny, Jenny and Cecilia. We left at 10am and it would have been 28C
already. However, once we got some speed
up and created a breeze, it was much more pleasant. We had quite a few hills to contend with but
luckily we had about 50% shade so even though it was not easy, it could have
been a lot worse. The roads were nice
and quiet and the road surface good.
Then came Waldkirchen. We were
aiming to turn left and head up to Thyrnau and found a sign on the outskirts of
town indicating the road we should take.
That executed seamlessly and we headed 3km downhill on a quiet road with
no traffic on – excellent! Then we
joined up with the main road. The signs
said Waldkirchen to the right and Passau to the left. No sign of Thyrnau. All we knew was we didn’t want to go to
either of these places as we’d been to both already. After perusing our maps we realised we had
been sent the way of the motorist to the main road which was very busy and we
did not want to use it. So began the
long, hot 3km uphill slog back into Waldkirchen. On the plus side we found a nice clean WC and
a shady spot to have lunch. On the down
side it took us an extra 45 mins and a lot of energy to go nowhere.
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| Waldkirchen - a beautiful little town but not big on signposting! |
Rejuvenated after lunch, we headed out of town for Freyung
and because we were on more of a main road, we made fairly good time, however,
the hills were starting to stack up by now and we had a few tests heading for a
town we had heard had Mc Donalds and so hopefully, free wifi. When we arrived
there were signs advertising the big M, but no directions to get there….work
that out! So, as we have found, ask
someone who knows. Grabbed two guys who used their GPS and told us there wasn’t
one in the place. Turns out later, it was 700 metres away, but we only believe
it when we see it now. Spotted two very
nice local ladies, who spoke English and told us to go to the café by the
church, they had free wifi. They had 30 minutes of useage, but it was by no
means free. Two iced coffees and two bits of cake and we had to take out a
second mortgage on the house. Did however get everything done that we needed
to. Energy levels renewed it was onward to new frontiers in the shape of Czech
Rep.
My wife has many qualities that I
admire and the next stint of riding showed one of the reasons that I love her
so. Heading for Phillipsreut came the biggest test of our campaign so far. A
15km climb which took us an hour and a half and passed a couple of ski fields
on the way. It was a slow steady plod and perseverance of the highest calibre.
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| The biggest climb of the trip so far, the longest day and the hottest day! We don't do things by halves! |
This did not end here….oh no no no. Crossed the border into Czech, which was an
eye opener. Lots of Germans driving to the border to buy cheap fags. We have
noticed a very high rate of smoking amongst all age groups in Germany, Austria
and now Czech. By now it was after 5pm and we’d been riding since 10am and were
starting to feel the effects. But it was to be another three hours and a lesson
in appreciating what you have at home, before we set up tent. Czech so far has
not been impressive. The people are dour and the majority of homes are unkempt.
The land, though open spaces seem plentiful, doesn’t seem to have any use. Any businesses we saw were either derelict or
in bad shape. From a totally ignorant perspective, I thought that the time
lapse between the East joining West would have seen major restructuring take
place. The funniest thing we saw was as soon as the road began to head into the
Cesky Krumlov tourist zone, huge money must have been spent on roading, because
they are the best we’ve had in Europe.
Although we are not fans of the short sharp hills that have also become
part of the landscape! Having done over
90kms so far, we’ve had enough!
Eventually reached the hamlet of Pihlov and found a
campground by the lake. The office was
unattended so we just pitched tent and made dinner before settling in for the
night. Our thoughts so far on the newly
named Czechia is that it will take more than a cheeky name-change to make your
country appear friendlier – you might want to start a “It costs nothing to
smile” campaign!
The other thing that has struck us while cooking dinner in
the dying light is the Czechs seem to have an obsession with fire. The other three families here have all lit
campfires and one guy was juggling three sticks on fire! Got to say it looked pretty cool, his
silhouette in front of the lake and the fiery flames doing circles. But if
they’re not cooking on it or throwing it in circles, then they’re inhaling it –
I would say a good 50% of people here smoke.
We were very glad to finally lay our heads down about half
ten – it had been a long day.
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| Sunset at our campground by the lake |
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