South Moravia

Mon, 30 May 2011 03:40:37 -0700

It's really nice to see that so many of you read our first blog and thanks for all of your inspiring comments!

As expected the road flattened out as we headed into the wine region of south Moravia. We cycled from Moravské Budejovicě via a perfect road through the woods heading for a water reserve to wash off the roasting hot day. Our dreams were dashed when we arrived to find filthy water followed by Jonny standing in a massive dog muck (again!!), he must be so lucky by now! With that we decided to stay at the camp-site next door and get Jonny cleaned up. We checked in and soon realised that the camp was as filthy as the muck which belonged to the rottweiler on site! They charged extra for cold, dirty, showers and the owners had the worst attitude ever experienced! We slept ok but woke to find that the door of the toilets was locked and no lazy owners to be found anywhere. We giggled over the thoughts of filthy revenge but kept our morals by simply writing a snotty letter to the owners, perfectly written by Radka.

The day improved from this point onwards as we cycled on dirt tracks with the river Dyje on one side and vineyards on the other. The day was pretty quiet but finished with an unexpected stumble upon another flooded quarry. The local kids were already enjoying the water so we joined in with some 'bomb' dives! They were really interested in our bikes and bags and gave us a round of applause when we explained our route! We spent the night there and enjoyed the improvised water-swing one last time at 7am in the morning.

Tip: You can use the keyboard arrows in the overlayer of the pictures below to move through the sequence of Jonny swinging on the rope.

South Moravia is packed with cycling paths so we joined the Prague-Vienna 'Greenways' track for the entire next day. These paths are run by local people who have a shared interest in the health of the natural environment, preserving local customs, natural heritage, and encouraging sustainable development in the communities and cities along the route. They are perfect for anyone interested in cycle holidays between Czech and Austria. Along the way you can see Towns villages, castles, ruins, wild animals etc..

Following the path brought us upon the 'Sedlec' vineyard with a small wine tasting hut selling their produce. We immediately made friends with the lady working there, Jana, when she asked us to write a little note and draw a picture in her visitors book. Moments later she arrived at our table bearing some free cheese for our indulgence, quoting, “nice people always get extra”. We stayed long enough to enjoy the great wine and a nice chat with Jana, then as we were leaving she pulled one last surprise! She asked us which wine was our favourite then ran to her little hut and ran back with a bottle of Muscat for us! She ended her kindness with 'make sure you pass through here on your way back and stay a few days with us'.

We spent the night at a camp-site in the town of Lednice, seeing as we'd been 7 days without showering! Had a long sleep and woke to our first overcast day so we lazed around the camp-site for a while, by the time we decided to leave it was 13:00pm. We packed our bags and filled the water bottles, although, whilst doing so were happily interrupted by a Czech couple named 'Maria' and 'Milan'. Moments later we were standing around their caravan with their brother (Radek) and his wife (Sonya) downing shots of Slivovice, a homemade, fruity, 52%, alcohol! We moved into their caravan when the rain hit and left 4 hours later, minus a litre of Slivovice! Their hospitality shone as they brought out biscuits, crisp, alcohol, and searched the caravan for any useful gifts they could find. We ended up with two lots of antihistamine cream (for Jonnies mosquito bites), notepads, pens and eventually some rope (for God knows what)! They couldn't have welcomed us any better.

That night we crossed the border into Slovakia during a rainstorm which left us stranded at 10:00pm at night, We found a 'seedy' looking motel, which was confirmed when the receptionist told us... 'if you hear any noises during the night, don't worry, it's only for an hour, we have some regular guests'.

So we finally started!

Tue, 24 May 2011 04:36:35 -0700

We were immediately blessed when Jonny rolled his bike out of Radka's mum's house straight into a massive dog muck. In Czech this means good luck for the future.

Our cycling began heading south from Kourim across the Czech Republic. We passed through the area of Sazava with deep forests and steep climbs centred around a picturesque river, which was very memorable for Radka as she used to spend summer camps here when growing up..

The first interest in our trip came from a four year old girl who shouted ''where are you going?' to which Radka replied ''to see the elephants!'' she kept repeating her question until her neighbour shouted ''stop being so nosy!'', peoples interest hasn't stopped since, which is very encouraging. People have been incredibly helpful to the extent of a transit van (pimped into a camper van) pulled up just at the start of a massive 6km hill climb. The driver jumped out with a massive grin on his face and said ''fancy a lift!?'', threw open the back and stuffed us and the bikes in the back. He drove us 6kms out of his way to the top of the hill and wished us good luck. We spoke briefly and found out he was 'Mirek', a hitch-hiking paraglider repaying the kindness he'd received from others.

We've camped four nights so far. We successfully started our wild camping in the forest smack bang in the middle of a huge thunderstorm, you can imagine we were a little on edge. It was like someone kept turning the lights on and off all night, and the loudest thunder we've ever heard. This was repeated on the third night when we'd found a quaint little flooded quarry and the perfect spot for camping. They say the water's warm before the storm, we've now tested this theory. The heavens opened whist we were in the water and soaked our tent as we jumped out and threw it up as fast as we could, which is pretty slow right now!

Really enjoying the scenery and wildlife of which we've seen wild deer dashing across fields and Jonny even ran over a snake today! The insects like us a lot, especially mosquitoes with Jonnys... they must love getting drunk on the rare O-rhesus negative! Ticks have been a pain in the bum, literally for Radka! Jonny kindly removed it then spent the next 10 minutes in silence.

The bikes and baggage were so heavy that we stopped at a post office on the second day to post a 10kg parcel to Radkas mum, we still haven't called her to let her know it's coming.

We're not completely happy with our leaky tent so we'll be contacting the manufacturers soon hoping to get money back and buy a new one, fingers crossed. All other equipment seems ok so far.

Yesterday we received a massive discount on a glasses case for Jonny which seemed quite appropriate considering we chose a charity for blindness.

Today we woke at 5.30am and had a great 30km morning cycle leaving the region of Vysočina which is the equivalent of the English Peak District and famous for Salami, although a little unfitting for two vegetarians. We'll keep heading south-east into Moravia, specifically the wine region, so should be a little flatter from here, or at least our legs are hoping so!