A day crossing large fields and woodland spread over hills, with a few villages on the way.
Leaving Budišov nad Budišovkou early, on a gravel road through fields, I met two dog walkers. The first dog looked at me suspiciously, the other came up for a sniff, his owner smiled and said something in Czech, so I smiled to.
Yesterday and this morning I could see a large lookout tower. I was hoping my route would take me to it. The trail plunged into woodland close to it but my GPS indicated my route left the main track by a small crucifix and shelter, avoiding this structure. A sign indicated I should stay on the gravel track to reach the tower so I made a deviation off the E3 to visit the landmark. At the observation tower I found a young couple in a sheltered area beneath it, their sleeping bags wrapped around them and their bicycles nearby. Somewhat embarrassed by their obvious demonstration of affection for each other, after a quick "Dobry Den" I climbed the many stairs to the top. It was a tall one. I could see back to Budišov and across the surrounding hills. In the other direction, the high Sudeten Mountains rose in the distance, mountains I would be climbing soon. At the tower's base there were a series of information boards, unfortunately not in English, and as the affectionate couple were very much focused on each other, blocking my access to some of the boards, I decided on a swift departure.
The first village was Dvorce with some deary appartment blocks in need of brightening up, although intermittent showers and grey skies did not show them at their best. I found a mini-market where I picked up a late breakfast and stopped to eat it in the main square. Easy walking on tarmaced and gravel roads followed as the skies gradually cleared. There was a long section beside a stream lined with mature trees of ash and maple, beyond which was a field to the left and a rising wooded slope to my right.
Later I walked beside large fields of grass and wheat. After the next two villages I followed tracks through woodland, beech and spruce, to the top of a hill where there was a red and white radio tower at the summit. From there it was downhill (steeply) to the village of Dětřichov nad Bystřici.
The shop where I was hoping to pick up a snack for lunch closed early on Saturday so I went to the "Motorest". This was set up for meals with lines of tables so there was a bit of confusion when I just wanted a lemonade and soup. Then it was 6 kilometres along a road that was in the process of being resurfaced. It was closed to vehicles although a few came along anyway and as it was the weekend, no work was being done.
Ryžovišitě, the village where I am staying tonight has had a bit of care. The appartment blocks have been painted in attractive squares of pastel green and grey. My accommodation was in a village house, there was no sign outside but I confirmed from the picture on booking.com which one it was. The lady was very apologetic for no particular reason, and struggling to say a few things in English until she managed to master Google Translate. I offered her Google Translate on my phone but she persevered with hers.
Dinner was roasted knee, as I ordered. Rather a lot of fat but the pork went well with the horseradish sauce, dill pickles and "garlic" bread which had herbs instead of garlic. Raw garlic and onions were provided but I decided against them. Dessert was bramborové šišky, I did a Google Search on it. A bit like gnocchi in shape it is made of potato, flour and egg mix, cooked, drizzled with melted butter and dusted with poppy seeds and icing sugar. Tastes better than it sounds.
I ate my dinner at a table outside. Typical of many other village houses things in the yard were a little higgeldy-piggeldy. Old abandoned appliances were visible and the house extension was a bit makeshift. For this I liked it as I was sitting at a typical Czech village house eating local food, I travel to enjoy different things and hotels can be rather similar. A couple were making use of the sauna. They came out in their towels, large, pink and shiny with a beer in their hands. Was this the beer sauna I wondered?
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