1. Beware of chickens crossing the road.
2. If following a sign posted "cycle route" be prepared to carry your bike on some sections and make sure you get a decent map.
3. Hills of 12 percent and greater are inevitable and frequent.
4. When it rains it pours and rains some more.
5. Cars and tractors will not slow down under any circumstance so it best to get out of the way!
I think I would have needed some serious sugar hits to get me through that forest saga without cracking big time!
ReplyDeleteThe cows would have cheered me up though:)
Thanks for another awesome installment on your adventure.
Berit and I meet these two Aussies in Dolni Dvoriste, south of Kaplice, also while cycle touring.
ReplyDeleteCzech forestry roads can be rough, steep, and muddy. Cross bikes with hybrid tires and mountain bikes are therefore better suited than touring bikes.
Regarding maps, the Cykloatlas Cesko 1:75000 [Czech Republic cycling atlas] (2008) ISBN-13 978-80-7224-626-7 is highly recommended. And a decent-sized handlebar-mounted compass can be useful.
Unlike Marcus and Miriam, we found the few Czech car drivers we encountered to be extremely considerate during our two weeks of touring.
Buying food en-route is easy. We even found fuel (Technicky Benzin) for our MSR cooker.
In short, the south-west Czech Republic is really good for remote (by European standards) cycle touring.
(maybe see you in Berlin?)