My walk began with a loop in the route taking me to the village of Hora Svaté Kateřiny. A village with an imposing square by the large school. However the E3 was perhaps taking me this way due to a stone lookout tower, which was closed when I passed. Even from the base of the tower there were views of the surrounding forested hills.
Most of the day was walking on good tracks through the forest of the plateau. Mainly conifers, including larch, there were also stands of silver birch, their trunks highlighted by the morning sun, and scattered rowan, beech, alder, maple and sycamore. The forest tracks were often remarkably straight, possible as there were only gentle gradients although these led to a net increase in height. My final destination today at 850 metres is a hundred metres higher than where I slept this morning. There were a few swathes of grassland, one dotted with blue harebells beside a track on which a line of rowan trees had been planted.
Two scattered settlements were on my path today, one was Lesná, where there was a tourist information centre where I bought an ice cream. Possibly I could have camped there. Much is made of the mining heritage in the area on signs and information boards but there has been no visible evidence of it from the E3.
A few lakes added variety. Beside them the leaves of the trees were turning yellow. My efforts of capturing their beauty on my camera attracted the attention of an 80 year old who asked me where I was from etc.. He took a picture of me with his wife with the trees in the background.
As I neared Hora Sv Šebestiána there was evidence of an old railway line, stone piers that would once have supported a bridge. The track was built in 1875, a connection with Germany, it was finally abandoned in 1972. Trees have now obscured where the line once ran, only the bridge supports are visible.
In the last few kilometres before Hora Sv Šebestiána the track plunged into a narrow valley, rocks outcropping each side and brook running beside me. There was a small waterfall which I did not bother to climb down to, eager to reach my destination.
At the village I first went to a place selling coffee which I combined with an oversized donut. Then I search for some food as I will be camping tomorrow night. The big stores on the main road were aimed at Germans stocking up on cheaper Czech goods. Fortunately I found a small store signed as a "Tabak" and "Drogerie" but actually a small convenience store. The owner juggled his baby, my goods and change as I paid.
I am now in my Penzion where they are cooking me dinner. "Bears Paw" is the translation of what I have eaten but it was actually pork and chicken.
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