Why is it whenever we get a freecamp, no matter how out of
the way we think it is, someone always ends up coming along? For this little camp perched high on a hill
with a lonely goat herd (actually it was just a couple of deer) just out of the
town of Petrovice, it was 6am, just as we were finishing our morning
cuppa. He drove down the track,
bypassing us without a glance, although there’s no way he could have missed
seeing us.
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| View from the tent this morning |
So we just continued on and
packed up the tent, hitting the road at 6.45am.
It was undulating to hilly for the first 10 km which took us into
Kozlany where we bought our breakfast supplies.
Typically, for a small Czech village, there was the prerequisite drunk
standing outside, beer in one hand, ciggy in the other at 7.30am. Even though there was a shady seat outside
the supermarket, we pedalled on, looking for somewhere a bit more out of the
way. We found it in the form of a shaded
outdoor bench seat with table at a rest area just before Kralovice.
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| Marianske Tynice Museum |
Rested and rejuvenated we set off to see the Marianska
Tynice Museum, which is a church of the Annunciation….sounds impressive coming
from us….does it not, but we have no idea what that means or stands for and as
we told our then priest, but now, good friend, Ray Taylor, when we wanted to be
married at St Marys in New Plymouth, it’s a lovely looking building and to this
day, that remains our sentiment when it comes to churches….sorry Ray…there’s no
saving some people. Beautiful structure which is now a museum. Built in 1754.
It had been overcast up until now, however there were rain
clouds approaching from the south west, heading straight for us, so it was with
relief that we cruised down a long hill into Manetin and found some shelter as
it struck. The good news was, it didn’t last long and after shopping for lunch
we checked out the local chateau and very nice it was too.
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| The renovations have just started on this old church |
They have done some
serious renos on this building, which first began in 1961 and it has certainly
paid off. They are currently upgrading the area around the chateau and we
wonder who pays for all this because it would cost a small fortune. They are also upgrading walls, footpaths and
several other buildings in this town which will become a nice little excursion
for tourists.
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| Manetin.....a lovely little village |
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| The old chateau has been completely renovated |
At the edge of town we met …Rudi, an ageing gentleman who
tried his best to communicate the best way for us to go. Unfortunately, we
thinks Rudi had never ridden a bike before as his assurances that the route he
gave us was flat, were totally incorrect, in fact the total opposite was the
case. I can imagine Rudi sitting with beer in hand with his mates (one of which
was probably the bloke from near Beloky that we met yesterday) at the local bar
over lunch, laughing about the directions he gave these two bikepackers. Not only was it extremely hilly, but by now it
was stinking hot. Add to that the
annoying discomfort of pothole repairs over pothole repairs, which adds up to
one very bumpy ride! With all this to
cope with on top of yesterday’s efforts, we were not coping so well, but hills
don’t just go away and on we plodded…and a plod it was.
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| Typical vista from this afternoon |
Decided after about 12kms of following Rudi’s advice to take
our own route which immediately saw an improvement in the terrain and took us
through Hradek, Smilov and Radyne to Touzim, where more supplies were bought
and consumed before heading out for Utvina and Chylice. Took a marked bike path
here which took us on a gravel path following a river for about 4kms and for most
of it I was surprised that it wasn’t too bad, but it did deteriorate at the
final stretch, but by then at least this time we had come through okay. Prilezy was next in store, we were still
going up and down continuously, with 77kms under our belts, when Julia spies an
aero club, which looks like it has cabins. Goes in, finds some guys who are
there for the week training for aerobatics, who tell us that they didn’t think
the aero club members would mind if we pitched there for the night if we
slipped them a few bob. We asked if they
had showers there and yes they do! So
decision made. We set the tent up in the
shade and then went off for showers which were fantastic. We had a bit of a chat to the two guys, Klaus
and Herbert and found out that Herbert flies for Austria and came in the top ten
at this year’s world champs, whereas Klaus, who is in his 70’s, used to be
world champion. Then Herbert took his
plane out for a spin……well more like a hundred spins, stalls, walking it on
it’s tail – things we’ve never seen before and we had a grandstand seat for
free!
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| Herbert Weirather with his plane |
A few other people came and went at the bar and we said
hello to the guy from the aero club, but he couldn’t speak English. However, we offered to pay him 200 kroner
(about $14NZ) for the night, which he accepted.
I asked him if we could have a couple of beers and he sold us two 500 ml
cans for 60 kroner (30 kr each) which is pretty darn good. Especially after the two days we’ve had and
the fact that they were ice cold! So we
enjoyed those while we watched the airshow and wrote up the blog. Also said we
could charge the computer, which is an added bonus.
Could this camp get any better? Yes it could!
Austria was playing in Euro 2016 against Iceland and so Herbert invited
us to join him in the lounge to watch the first football we’ve seen all
trip. Pete was rapt as had been
scrounging scores from whatever source he could. The game finished at 8pm which gave us just
enough time to cook up our dinner, wash the dished and make a coffee before 9pm
kick-off between Belgium and Sweden.
Retired for bed about 11pm having enjoyed a lovely relaxed late afternoon
and evening.
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