Mezní Louka to Děčín: Day 174

I spent so long this morning at the largest sandstone rock arch in Europe that I had to hurry to reach Děčín in the afternoon.

The E3 runs through the mountains from Mezní Louka to the Pravčická brána natural arch. Unfortunately Mapy.com, the National Park Website and the maps on information boards informed me that this section of the path was closed. Unable to ignore these multiple sources I picked an alternative route to the south of the mountains.

The cause of the closure was an extensive forest fire in 2022. My diverted route went through part of the burnt zone and I could still smell the smoke even though the fire was four years earlier. On a wooden boardwalk there were a sequence of large photos showing how nature had recovered after the fire. First fungi appeared, then liverworts and mosses. Birds fed on the insects that were enjoying eating the wood of the burnt trees. Ferns followed and then many birch saplings that were growing around me in abundance.

To reach the natural arch I joined a column of people walking up from the road. As I started I heard a group of people speaking English for the first time since I started my current walk. They were a group of Americans and Canadians who had just been dropped off by their tour bus. There seemed to be many nationalities climbing the track to the arch, it was one of those sites that all the tourists go to. Some were struggling as it was a lengthy climb ending with multiple flights of steps.

The sandstone arch was impressive, although no more so than little visited (limestone) arches in Serbia or the numerous natural arches and bridges in Utah (although here there were more trees). Beside the arch was a restaurant where I took a coffee and cake outside to eat under the arch. After I followed the crowds climbing up to a higher viewing point. Then I had to retrace my steps all the way down to the road, beside which I continued on to Hřensko.

Hřensko village is in a scenic position at the base of a gorge. A curious mixture, there were older buildings; hotels, restaurants, and a church, mixed in with a long street market selling, among other things,  branded clothes (I did wonder if "The North Face" company had anything to do with the clothes bearing their logo) and places advertising "free" shopping. As the German border was close by, I assume that "free" meant that the German visitors did not have to pay duty on the cigarettes and alcohol they bought. 

While enjoying a langos, smoothered with tomato sauce and grated cheese, at a snack bar (the furthest west I had seen langos sold), I realised I still had a long way to go. One sign said 19.5 kilometres then next stated 20! Consequently I hurried down the pavement beside the River Elbe (called the Labe in Czechia). Despite being a long way from where it discharges into the North Sea the river was already wide. Forests grew on the steep valley sides that enclosed the river, and not much else.

After following the road, that ran beside the water for a while, I came to where the E3 turns off it. There was another path closure. A banner across the trail stated there was a danger of death. Not wishing to die yet, I followed a green waymarked trail that ran parallel to the river, a little higher up the valley side than the road. A few kilometres later it turned and climb up the steep side of the wide gorge cut by the Elbe. Tracking back and fore it gained height, passing between huge outcrops of sandstone. At the top there was a viewpoint where a couple were taking pictures of each other with the river and its sylvan valley in the background. 

Back on the official E3, currently waymarked in red, I continued as quickly as I was able. My blister on my left heel holding me back a little. Much of the track took a straight line through woodland, before diverting to offer me a few more viewpoints located on the top of rock outcrops and allowing one to see up and down the river. Eventually  from one of these I could see Děčin, my destination for the night. It took me a few more hours to actually reach it. 

My campsite is a little south if Děčin's centre. On the way I passed buildings built at various times in the last two hundred years. The older ones with more decoration, while more modern apartments used simple areas of paint to add interest. My day's trek finished with a riverside walk on a path reserved for people and bikes, passing beneath the Chateau of Děčin. 

Dinner was at an "bufet" where you sat outside beside an old, half timbered building with missing render and geraniums in window boxes. Candles in jars were placed on the tables as it became dark. Might have been romantic if my wife was with me.

Studeny to Mezní Louka: Day 173

A more tiring day than I expected among the rocks of Little Switzerland. 

I wandered through the village of Studeny while it was still asleep. A blister on my left heel was making me walk in an awkward fashion, as putting weight on the heel was painful. I knew that gradually I would forget it, and the change in surroundings as I entered the long valley section after Studeny certainly put my attention elsewhere. 

I found myself in a steep-sided valley called Pavlino údolí. Each side of me were either precipitous forested slopes or sandstone cliffs and towers. Owing to the depth of the gorge, it was in dark shadow, the morning sun unable to reach it. My route crossed the lively little river on metal bridges a few times, from which I watched the water, black, except where it broke into a white foam over rocks. At the end of the valley, some of the water was diverted to what was once a mill. Groups of trees had fallen down the valley sides in mass collapses and signs warned that due to falling trees you walked here at your own risk. If such large trees fell on you, your remaining life would be rather short. In some places the path was cut into the sandstone outcrops, a hint of what would come later.

Jetřichovice was at the end of the valley. The village had several penzions, hotels and snack bars. They sadly all looked closed, or disrupted by resurfacing work on the road. So I was delighted to see as I left the village a little snack bar open. When I bought my coffee and cake the owner spoke to me in German and seemed to expect Euros from me rather than Czech Koruna. Presumably because a lot of the visitors are from nearby Germany. However, it made me wonder whether, with the free movement of people within the European Union, German speakers were moving back into the area after being expelled after the Second World War. 

The climbing then began. For the next 10 kilometres or so the trail wound around towers of sandstone that pierced the forested hills of the area. All the ups and downs were hard work. Steps and railings were created in many places to assist in uphill struggles or to aid a descent. In addition there were three viewpoints I climbed up to. Two were on platforms attached to the top of rock towers with many steps required to reach them. Some stairs and ladders passed through gaps in slabs of rock, one of these gaps was a tight fit for me and my rucksack and I felt fortunate not to loose or damage anything on the rough rock. The coarse sandstone, more of a gritstone, was eroded by the elements, developing holes and exposing layers.

As I approached Mezni Louka I faced a choice of routes. At first I followed the road that had been my route for the last kilometre or so, as I saw no sign to the contrary. These single track tarmac roads that the E3 occasionally uses in Czechia have few or no cars, they are reserved for cyclists and hikers. After a few hundred metres I checked my GPS device and realised that I had left the E3 route I had saved there. Consequently I retraced my steps and took a less obvious track. After a few hundred metres I began to have doubts, there being no red waymarks visible. I pulled out my phone and checked Mapy.com. The App had the E3 going down the tarmac roadway so I again retraced my steps. On doing so I spotted two red waymarks facing me, that would have been invisible approaching from the other direction. Then back at the junction I spotted more red waymarks on the route down the tarmaced road. So two routes had red waymarks! I stuck to the tarmac if only because it was easier.

Now at my hotel I have been plotting the next few days.