The first interruption to our ideal campsite, occurred at
9pm. We think it was someone who had the same idea we did and wanted a good
vantage point at which to photograph the amazing sunset. But upon seeing our little green tent, they
discreetly backed down the road and went off on their merry way. At 10.55pm, whilst Julia slept soundly, a car
turned up the driveway, we heard a door slam and not too long after, they took
off again. We suspect they’d jumped out
for a wee. No worries from then on and we both enjoyed a good night’s sleep.
Woke early to rain disrupting our beautiful outlook,
although it was only drizzle, which came and went for much of the morning. Not
enough to don gear for but it kept you wondering. A ride downhill to begin
things, always our favourite way and we were heading for a larger town in the
shape of Uherske Hradiste.
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| Uherske Hradiske |
Needed to get some Czech Krona. This was a nice town
and because we were there early, I used the cash passport to get just enough to
get by. After some tourist shots we visited a large Tesco, where we picked up
breakfast and I used a change bureau to change some euros. Breakfast was
situated in a lovely park by a band rotunda, watching a grandfather looking
after his grandson, with all the love and patience in the world. There was a piano locked to the band rotunda
and Julia busted out the one and only tune she knows, but it sounded nice in
the still morning air.
Onwards and the riding this morning was great. Julia had put
a fantastic course together, with very little traffic and beautiful scenery.
The drivers on any of these roads still have serious issues with speed however
and a list of expletives came gushing out every time they came too close. They
won’t sit behind and wait….they just go, whether there’s something coming or
not and that something could be a logging truck…makes no difference.
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| Typical czech houses in the villages we are passing through |
On through Vcelary, heading for Napajedla,
where we picked up the river all the way to Kromeriz, our ultimate destination
for the day. This river ride was totally relaxing as we watched fishermen on
the banks, kids racing dragon boats and a variety of birdlife.
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| Most bigger towns have some tenement blocks as well which are usually brightly painted. |
Arriving in Kromeriz around 3pm and came upon
a camp Julia had been talking about by the lake. All looked good until we went
to enquire about the facilities and price.
There were eight guys all gathered around a table, having a few drinks
and a good feed. When we asked about
camping, they pointed to some old dude in the corner who was not participating
in the festivities and maybe that was because of his complete lack of
personality. Or maybe he was pissed off
about being excluded and not prepared to waste any niceties on us. So we didn’t waste any on him as we knew
there was another campground in town.
So on the way through town we spied Tourist Info and went to
ask for more exact directions to the other campground. A five minute ride brought us to the camp
gates, but there was no sign of anyone, owners included. The whole place looked
run down and shut down. So first things
first, we had lunch. Then we went back
into town to use the free wifi and see if there were any other camps in the
vicinity – there weren’t. So while Ju
uploaded the blog, I went back into Tourist Info to see if they could phone the
camp owner for us. That was way too hard
so instead she gave me instructions on how to contact the camp owner and where
he lived – God knows if he spoke English.
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| Kromeriz Town Square where they were setting up for a party |
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| Riding through the Chateau Gardens, looking for the toilet - found the sign shortly after this saying "No cycling" |
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| Saw this sign as I was coming out of the church, wearing my tank top and shorts and my cycling helmet, eating my ice-cream.......good job we left Rufus at home and don't have a cellphone here! |
So we got shopping for tonight’s dinner and then headed to
the camp owners place. Spoke to a guy
who we think said to go down to the camp and he’d be there shortly. But really he could have said “Clear off
would ya – I’m about to have a barbecue and can’t be bothered with this shit.”
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| St John the Baptist church on right |
So we cycled back down to the decrepit campground and waited
hopefully for him to show up. After
about ten minutes a man on a racing bike came by and asked if he could
help. He phoned the camp owner for us
and after speaking to him said we were supposed to go back up to his place and
get the key. We thanked the man very
much for his help and introduced ourselves.
His name was Peter, (from here on in we shall refer to him as Saint
Peter to avoid any confusion), and he said he had a Bed and Breakfast if we
wanted to do that instead. We explained
we were travelling for a long time and so therefore on a tight budget and he
said we could camp on his lawn and he would give us a good price. We asked what that would be and he said 100
kroner which is about $8 (the crappy camp wanted to charge us 160
kroner!). Sold to the man in the
lycra! So we followed him about 400
metres to his place and he showed us where we could pitch the tent. Then while we showered and set up the tent,
he went off for his intended bike ride.
He returned an hour later with beers for all of us and we sat and had a
beer and a chat. Turns out he doesn’t
live at this house but owns it and rents it out to fourteen people!
Chatted for about an hour and then we made our dinner and he
left us to it. Our opinions of the Czech
people are certainly different from the ones we encountered in the Cesky
Krumlov area and St Peter is the cream of the crop as far as we’re concerned.
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