Before we go any further, if you have been wanting to
comment on our blog and been unable to do so, please try now as I have changed
one of the settings – thanks!
There is not much to say about our sleep last night, as we
got virtually none. Things began alright. Went to bed around 10.30pm after
having a beer at the camp bar, where there were a few rowdies, but nothing
much. We’d finally decided on a site, close to the road and just across from
the beach, thinking that all the noise would be coming from the far end of the
camp where we had checked out earlier. Not bad thinking, however totally wrong.
That is because, the people who create the noise still had to go outside the
camp, probably into the local town, 10 km away and then come back at 2.30am in
a group of about fifty, stand…and I kid you not, right outside our tent,
talking at full volume, shouting, laughing, singing etc. Now on occasion whilst
touring, it has been known for me to have a word with one or two guys who have
done the same. Common sense prevailed in this instance and it was a case of having
to listen to these yobs for an hour before they disappeared. Talk about aggravating.
Because we couldn’t pitch the tent where we wanted, we also
had to take the full brunt of the early morning sun and so there was no
lingering trying to catch up on lost zzzz’s when that sun starts to make a
sauna out of your tent. So we packed up
quickly and quietly and were out of that camp by 6.45am. We stopped a little bit down the road where
we had our first swim to cool ourselves down before we started. Pete couldn’t find his boardshorts though so
just strutted down to the water beside me like he was wearing a pair – a pair
of white ones I might add as he has quite the tan lines at the moment!
With our new map yesterday came a change of plan to our
route. We had thought we would take a
more or less direct line through Teplice to Decin, then to Dresden. However, our new map revealed contour lines
and also some vast empty spaces with no small roads in the direction we had
originally planned. We assumed the empty
spaces must be quarries, but we really have no idea. This limited the amount of small roads open
to us as most of the roads seemed big, so we chose instead to venture further
south where it looked a lot flatter and there was a cycle route basically
following the River Ohri. Our thighs are
aching and looking forward to some flatter roads for awhile.
 |
| Zatec town square |
We had a great start with flat, smooth roads into Zatec
where we immediately came upon our preferred supermarket (thank you to our
sponsors!), Kaufland, where we were able to get all our goodies for
breakfast. Then only five minutes up the
road, we found a lovely shady seat in a park where we ate our breakfast. After brekkie we went for a look around Zatec
which is nice old town with some buildings renovated and others waiting their
turn. We didn’t dilly-dally too long
however because of the heat and soon we were on our way to Louny, where we were
sure we’d feel right at home. We stuck
to the main road as it was not too busy, had a good surface and was reasonably
fast riding so we could keep a breeze going, albeit a warm one.
 |
| Louny old town gate waits to swallow us up |
On the edge of town we stopped at a garage for a cold coke
and a Bounty to share, then cycled into Tourist Info to see if we could find
out where the nearest campgrounds were.
We struck gold with the Tourist lady who gave us a great map showing campgrounds,
the nearest of which was about 40km away, and she also told us where we could
swim in the river. So after negotiating
our way out of Louny where once again the bike route signs sent us down a bumpy
farm track rather than an actual road, we cooled our tempers with a deliciously
cold swim about half an hour up the road.
The river was brown and murky, but we were desperate and it was just
what the doctor ordered.
 |
| The river may have been murky but the dragonflies were spectacular |
Kept the energy levels up with a couple of apricots but
didn’t feel like anything else…..it was just too hot to eat.
 |
| Pete takes a break in the shade at the castle in Libochovice |
We stopped at Libochovice for a look at their
castle and an ice-cream in the shade before grabbing our groceries for dinner
and heading for the campground. The
temperature today would have to have been about 36C we reckon and you could
feel the heat coming off the road to increase the intensity. It really was like cycling in an oven, so
when we saw some kids swimming in a murky pool in the town of Chotesov, we
jumped in and joined them.
 |
| Libochovice Castle |
However,
after the river, this was disappointingly warm, so we just dunked ourselves and
continued on in wet clothes to cool us down.
Looking back, I can’t believe we went in there – man it was disgusting!
After that we were heading for the campground at Doksany ….
on undulating terrain, but good roads and we could see the storm clouds
building to the north. This time we were
hoping they would catch us! So we
stopped at a supermarket to pick up a couple of cold beers (the Czech beer is
beautiful – even I’m choosing it over a shandy or a wine!) and the storm caught
us. This crazy wind came out of nowhere
and just blew hundreds of leaves off the trees and blasted them horizontally
across the front of the shop. We thought
wow, we better get to this camp which was only a km up the road, but it was a
bit of a struggle with that wind.
Luckily, the wind subsided as quickly as it got there and in five
minutes it was all over.
Arrived safely at camp to see a group of four Czech men who
were out cycle touring for a week that we had seen when we stopped for our
ice-cream. They invited us for a beer
after our showers (both of us had cold ones by choice) but we already had our
beers which we enjoyed while blogging in the kitchen and powering up the
computer. Had quite a lot to do tonight
on the computer with backing up and deleting photos, wages, checking emails
etc. So we had our dinner in the kitchen
as hardly anybody came in and by now it had started raining.
One lady who did come in offered us each a piece of weiner
schnitzel, which we gratefully accepted.
It had stopped raining so Pete went and set the tent up while I
continued with the computer and then had our coffee and pastry as we looked at
today’s photos, retiring to the tent about 10.30pm. As we lay down on our sleeping mats, we
noticed constant flashes and wondered if it was lightning. Poked our heads out of the tent and sure
enough, it was, although no accompanying thunder and no rain….yet. We had thought of our problem with our leaky
tent and devised a new system to deal with it – some people may call it a black
rubbish bag, but we called it our stormcover.
Of course we had come up with the idea while pondering things in general
as you do on your bike, but we hadn’t actually got round to making it yet as
there were always too many other things to do in camp, like drink beer and
coffee and blog or catch up with friends and family. So there we were, nearly 11pm with a head
torch and my miniature sewing scissors, quickly cutting the bag down the sides
so we could then drape it over the top of the tent, tying it to the guy ropes
with a spare shoelace and two of our bike bungees, hoping we weren’t getting
bitten alive. Back into the tent not a
minute to soon. The storm moved right
over top of us and down came the rain by the bucketful. The thunder was well and truly in residence
now and clapped so hard it felt like it shook the ground. Gradually it moved away but the rain
stayed. A brief head torch inspection
showed the stormcover was working – we can’t believe it wasn’t ripped to pieces
at the height of the storm – so we snuggled down to sleep.
No comments:
Post a Comment