We really wanted to walk and were hoping that the weather would improve today. There was no overnight rain and, although the sky was still totally overcast, it was brighter than it had been.
We drove to the nearby village of Chlum u Trebon by a circuitous route in order to enjoy the countryside and parked up on the edge. We followed a series of cycle routes (of which there are very many in the area) and circled one of the fish lakes to arrive in Chlum u Trebon for lunch just after 13:00. The restaurant was bust with locals, walkers, cyclists and fireman(!) and, once again, we had to move into the 'no smoking' room to find a table. The meal was good and excellent value but we had to take pot luck as there was no English or German translations. Choosing this way is good fun unless your choice turns out to be tripe!
We continued our walk around the edge of the lake and then on a side road back to Henrietta. Although it is very quiet now, it must be very busy in season as, on a local map posted by the side of the lake, we counted 20 campsites around that lake and its neighbour. We saw many of these, varying from ones capable of taking only a few campers to very large ones occupying long stretches of the lake shore and having large numbers of chalets. The lakes offer good fishing and bathing facilities although with the temperature at about 12°C, there wasn't anyone swimming when we were there. When we returned to Henrietta we decided to drive the very short distance to the Austrian border in the middle of the forest. There is no natural border here and it is difficult to understand how they managed to police the border during the communist era.
We thoroughly enjoyed our 5 mile walk and managed to do it all in the dry. We drove on another circuitous route back to Trebor. The roads on the outward journey had been bad, very rough and inexpertly patched but these roads were better and the route was very pretty. We passed many fishing lakes and in quite a few cases drove on narrow causeways between two lakes.
We stopped near the brewery in Trebon and bought some small kegs of beer to take home with us – we decided that our friends should have the opportunity to taste some excellent regional Czech beer.
Photos: One of the many village ponds in this area of Bohemia – this Cep pond (the small village has at least two) is a particularly fine example with a promontory complete with benches, a lovely place to sit on warmer days; This chateau at Chlum u Trebon was once owned by the Austro-Hungarian Archduke Franz Ferdinand d'Este and it was from here that he left for his fateful journey to Sarajevo in 1914; The village and church of Chlum u Trebon across the Hejtman lake; Walking into Austria – we were amused by the speed limit of 100 km/h given that, on the Austrian side, the road was a dirt track; One of the causeway roads between fish ponds.
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