My Bohemian life begins

August 14, 2019

Teplice - Holice

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After a couple of hours appreciating the Adršpach rocks, I decided I needed to get riding if I was going to make much progress away from the Czech border. My aim was to get out of the mountainous country around the border and pass the relatively built up area of Hradec Králove and Pardubice in the valley south of Trutnov. I had pencilled in the resort town on Seč, where I knew there was a campsite, but was reasonably easy as long as I got some kilometers in.

The day was fine with fluffy clouds, and I figured my first move was to return to last-night's campsite to fill up on water. This achieved (and the bloke wondering around the site in only his underpants avoided) I set off. After my hair-raising decent into the Adřspach valley the day before I had no intention of retracing my steps - some judicious study of the map and GPS suggested, instead, that I could continue to follow it, and the railway, to the East through Teplice, and work my way into the populated valley through Stárkov.

The route turned out to be a smooth and easy descent down the valley - I could see why the rail line followed this route now, rather than the hairy ascent of the previous day. After rejoining the main road to Police (pol-it-se?) I found the turn out to Stárkov without too much trouble, and pulled myself up into the attractive village, which was, for some reason, full of kids on a school trip.

Some birds of prey, just in the back of a private garden

If I was that goose I'd be a little nervous in there

Stárkov was kind of nice and had lots of wooden buildings

From Stárkov the climbing became more insistent, but after my leisurely start it didn't cause me too much trouble. This was the last hurrah of the foothills of the mountains at the Czech border: back towards Poland and beyond Police, they fall away in a sharp shelf (the famous Broumov cliffs, which weirdly isolates the Czech town of Broumov from the rest of the country) - but to the South they peter out in a set of rolling hills that descends to the Bohemian plain.

And descend I did - after cresting the top, I took a furious descent of 10%+, spinning down into the rolling landscape laid out before me. Felt good!

The top of the last range of hills before descending to the rolling plain, 300m or so below

The whole area is riddled with bunkers built during the tense years before the Second World War. There were German-majority pockets on the North side of Czechoslovakia as well which were part of the Sudetenland-annexation ploy. In the end, the annexation proceeded without a shot fired.

I spun down into Ĉervený Kostelec, the first large town in the populated valley. I bought a sandwich, and then proceeded to head in completely the wrong direction for a good kilometre. Picking my way back through the traffic, and not shying from consulting the GPS, I managed to pick up the minor road leading to the south. The roads were quiet again, and my only company was a local off shopping on their bike.

I wended through the lanes to the South, my average speed helped by the continuous gentle descent. The landscape dramatically opened up, with wide open vistas of farmland glowing in the now rather warm sun. I was feeling good and making good progress - despite my late start I wanted to top 50km before I stopped for lunch, which would mean somewhere beyond the small lake at Ĉeska Skalice.

Unfortunately all my photos of the rolling farmland ended up being botched (thumbs/pointed at the road) - so this is the best I have. It was nice though.

I cut through Ĉ. Skalice without seeing much, and plumped for the B road 304 to continue to take my South. My ultimate aim was a the extensive forest east of the larger cities of Pardubice and Hradec Králové - I figured this would be nicer to cross than the built-up area. But first, I had a date with lunch.

Turning off the 304 onto minor roads, I found myself crossing a further series of charming villages. As the lanes grew narrower and leafier, I crossed a bridge into the village of Ŝestajovice, and realised I could sit in its shade and eat alongside the river. The sun was hot again now, and I was ready to stop.

There are lots of old pensions dotted around these villages - I couldn't quite figure out if this was operational

I ate my lunch sitting under this bridge, like a common troll

I had plenty of Polish provisions as well as my sandwich, but I couldn't string lunch out for too long, as I had quite a way to go. I'd covered the ground pretty efficiently but travelled a distressingly short distance on my new Czech map. I pretty much wrote off trying to reach Seĉ today - it was a stretch target anyway, and I had plenty of time now. Instead I would get into the forest, and see how I felt. It would be easy to wild camp if I needed to, and if not there was a yellow camping symbol over the town of Holice on the south side of the woods.

The weather had brightened further, and the heat was now coming off the road in a heat haze. I spun through Ŝestakovice and continued south through a series of small villages and often tiny, well maintained roads. The going was straightforward and rather hypnotic. There was nobody around in in the villages, which all had very much an agricultural aspect - my only greeting were the village dogs, which would bark at me every time I stopped. Fortunately they were all safely behind fences, though some of the tiny dogs that gave me territorial attitude as I passed, it was probably as much for their own safety as my own.

Some of the roads were so small and smooth surfaced, I wasn't sure if I had strayed onto a German-style cycleway.

It was a smooth 20km, which slowly drained my energy and my water supplies. I kept a good pace, but was starting to feel the fatigue by the time I rolled into Třebechovice, the town on the edge of the forest and on the main road to H. Králove. From the outskirts, the town was an attractive collection of spires. I figured it would be a good place to stock up on supplies, as I was now convinced that I would camp nearby. OpenStreetMap agreed that there was a campsite on the outskirts of Holice - which would bring my total close to 100km, certainly enough for a day including so much sightseeing.

Unfortunately the main street of Třebechovice didn't quite live up to the approach. It was slightly grim and traffic blown, and the Konzum was amazingly poorly stocked. I picked up some (inferior) fruit juice, crisps and chocolate. I was amused by the sight of two school kids on the main road, one of which was playing the timeless game of "hit your mate" while the other, bigger kid grinned hilariously.

The outskirts of Třebechovice. It looks very attractive coming in from the north!

Various ruined (ecclesiastical?) buildings

My plan resolved, I pulled myself out the town and onto the B road 298 heading into the woods. While it might've been possible take a more clever route on the forestry trails, I was tired and didn't want to mess around too much. The road was rather fast, but traffic was very light and I had no problems with passing cars. As usual, the psychology of being on a more major road also made me speed up, despite my fatigue, and I soon covered 7km or so to the village of Bělečko, where a minor road would cut towards Holice.

The minor road was very quiet, and silently lead through dense forest. To my amazement after a few kilometres, I started to see signs indicating good cycle trails heading to the south. I thankfully peeled off them - glad to get some trail riding through the woods (which would also lend itself to finding wild camping spots if need be), but not particularly keen on trying to blaze my own trail given the lateness of the hour.

There is another hare in this picture, cunningly hidden by my terrible camerawork

Image not found :( — I really like this about the forests in Poland and Czech Republic: instead of the perimeters being fenced, they fence in small areas which are being re-grown. Keeps reasonable access while making clear which bit of the forest is fragile.

The trail turned out to be excellent: easy-going, sandy and serene. As I meandered through the woods, I started to see isolated wooden huts and chalets, which were evidently summer houses. As I got to the edge of the forest, I was relieved to see a "camping" sign. In this case the GPS was quite unnecessary!

I turned the corner, and was much relieved to see the charming entrance to autocamp Hlubóky. From here, it all looks rather efficient and well-attended...

Hlubóky was indeed charming - but as I pulled up to the entrance, it was clear there was nobody around, and it wasn't particularly clear it was open. The site was spread around a small lake, with chalets, amusingly tiny barrel-like cabins, and bits of woodland.

I made a cautious circumnavigation, riding my bike slowly through the woodland and round the site. The place wasn't deserted - there was one other woman and her young son, obviously preparing to sleep in the back of a van, and a set of young people who appeared to be setting up a tent nearby. There was a restaurant-bar, which - though having no customers - seemed to actually be open. But there wasn't really any evidence of anyone running the place.

I was far past the point of having any compunction in setting up a tent in a possibly closed campground, so wheeled my bike to the lake and took my time rehydrating while watching the glowing sky slowly dimming over the lake. With the old water slide and the peaceful atmosphere, it was really rather idyllic. I felt like I'd fallen through a rift in time and was somewhere back behind the Berlin wall.

The disused water slide and lake at Autocamp Hlubóky. I love the vibe at these sorts of places.

Strange barrel-cabins. I couldn't see any of them in use!

The rest of the campground. Clearly people stayed here: but where was anyone in charge?

I set up my tent in the woods, behind the chalets which clearly were deserted. I deliberately went as far from the young people as I could. As you can (blurily) see, there's nothing here that indicates it shouldn't be an extremely quiet spot...

After I got the tent up, I figured I should try and have a shower. I pottered over to the shower block, and was pleasantly surprised to find it open. I had no idea how functional it would be - it was dark, and the lights didn't work. The water did, however, and there was warm water from the taps. Using a bike light as a torch, I explored deeper into the block, and found the showers. They ran off a machine that took coins - I slotted a few Kroner into the ancient system, and to my amazement it lit up - even more amazing, the (now pitch black) shower it was connected to did dispense warm water. I had a good, if slightly awkward shower, juggling my light to see.

With the abandonment, the Pripyat-style amusements and the machines functioning long after their human counterparts had left, I was getting something of a post-apocalyptic Fallout-vibe from the place. Not that I minded - it was strangely serene.

After this I wandered over to the bar-restaurant to see if it was indeed open. There were actually one or two couples there, playing cards and drinking, and I found there was a little window where I could get an excellent and cheap pint of Czech beer. Even though it was clear nobody spoke English, and my Czech was pretty primitive, I was warmed by how little fuss there was getting a drink and how friendly they were. I sat and watched the sunset with my drink and book, and one of the couples said hello - realising I spoke no Czech, they kindly wished me a good evening.

Watching the sun go down over the waterslide

After a while the bar closed up, and the young girls running it went down to the lake and - to my amazement - got out a small boat. I realised now they were the ones I thought I'd seen set up the tent - in fact it was a cord for practising tightrope walking. The couples went, and left the campsite- they clearly only came for the view. It was a strangely peaceful place.

I retired to me tent and cooked myself up some gnocchi, which I ate with cheese and chilli. I was tired and contented now, and went to bed without too much delay. All the chalets were dark and there was no noise other than insects round the lake. Sadly, this serenity wasn't to last...

Today's ride: 93 km (58 miles)
Total: 464 km (288 miles)

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