Went up to a Czechpoint

09/10-08-12

Left Wroclaw and drove through the Karkonosze or Krkonose mountains crossing the Czech Republic border at 1046 m (i.e. about 40 metres lower than Snowdon) at Przl Okraj. Drove downhill to Pec Pod Snezkou – a small ski resort. 

Obri Dul valley

Further up the Obri Dul

Walked up a very well engineered  blue marked path along the Obri Dul  valley and up to the main ridge of the Karkonsze (means giant hills) and then in a hailstorm walked along the ski trail that forms the Polish/Czech R border up to the top of Sniezka (1603m/P1202) the highest point in the Czech R.

Border trail on ridge

The mountain is very popular  and there were hundreds of people there or on their way up or down. Many of them would have used the chairlift half-way up – but not the second chair lift to the summit as it is out of action and being replaced. 

Sniezka

Polish cafe

Czech post Office

The summit has a chapel, two cafes (one Polish, one Czech) and, incongruously, a Czech post office. In my haste to get out of the rain I dashed into the Polish cafe, even though I only had Czech Crowns that I'd got before ascending, and when given change in Polish Zlotys it       meant wasted effort.

Plaque on the trigpoint

Sniezka means ‘snow –covered. So, after Snohetta in Norway, that makes this the second snow hill of the trip. Although it couldn’t have been more of a contrast.  It was more like a walk using the tourist path on that other snow hill, Snowdon.

I walked down the yellow marked path – the first section consisting of steps that were set at a distance apart that made it impossible to get into any kind of a rhythm. Resisted the temptation to use the chairlift down from Ruzova Hora and then had the green marked path to myself  through the pine trees to Pec. Typically, as is usually the case with Sod’s law, the weather cleared soon after I left the summit.

 

 

Slept nearby to Pec.

Spent a major part of the next day trying to sort out the gas bottle for the van*, so did not get round to tackling my next hill. However, did have a pleasant 20km cycle ride on the ski trails around the resort of Spindleruv Mlyn and then slept in the Autokemp campsite alongside an upper-reach of the river Labe/Elbe which further on flows through Dresden and Hamburg, amongst many other towns and cities – and is the fourth largest river in Europe.

Greatly amused the campsite owner as I used the English pronunciation of wi-fi (i.e. rhyming with fly) which she pronounced as wee-fee.

*There has been no explosion, as of yet, so my efforts worked.

Hotel Martin, Spindleruv Mlyn