For the last seven days of walking I have been crossing lower hills between the Carpathian Mountains and the Sudeten (or Sudetes) Mountains. Today I climbed into the Sudetes.
First there was a gentle walk mainly on roads among houses. Janovice "castle" was beside the route. On the outside this large mansion looked in need of renovation (brickwork at the side badly needed repointing and rerendering) although reviews said the inside was impressive. As it was closed today I could not confirm this.
After a timber yard and sawmill smelling of fresh cut wood, I began climbing through a forest of spruce trees. I was glad of a change from the deciduous woodlands I had recently been hiking through (although the conifers were interspersed with occasional red berried rowan, beech and birch). Fortunately the gradient was not great and I gained height on the single track road without tiring. It ended at Alfrédova Chata, which serves drinks and snacks at certain times. Today it was marked Zavřeno (Closed).
From there a steep uphill path ran beneath a rusting ski tow which will never work again as trees have grown under it! The path, stoney with numerous ants, continued upwards through the trees, finally breaking into open grassland and reddening blueberry bushes at Jelení Studánka, at 1300 metres. Studánka means a spring, one was flowing there at good rate and at the nearby small stone hut you could possibly bed down for the night.
From Jelení Studánka the path followed the ridge. Angular blocks of schist tried to trip me, forcing me to focus on the ground ahead of me despite the surrounding vistas. To my right, beyond tree covered slopes I could see farmland and patches of woodland with villages, indistinct in the haze. On my left there were more mountains, challenges for the days ahead. Compared with my trip so far there were many more people about, walking in groups, as couples and on their own; brightly coloured spots moving over the straw coloured slopes.
The path crawled over the gentle swellings in the ridge until eventually I could see the slender white tower on top of Mount Praděd. My hotel was in the forested pass below. Increasingly there were signs forbidding entry to the right and left of the path, enforced by fences in places, apparently to protect delicate plants. Steel pylons of ski tows did jar with this desire to preserve the natural environment.
My path started to descend rapidly. I was meeting red faced people trying to work there way up, breathing heavily, men's bellies bulging. They came from a group of hotels beside the road, packed with cars and a touring coach.
My hotel was a little higher up so I stopped at a "bufet" for a soft drink and a piece of home made blueberry cake. After a final climb I am now at the hotel eating dinner, wondering what the procedure is for paying for my dinner buffet.
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