A record long hike!

We've done several hikes over the years that were 16 kms (10 miles). Yesterday, we planned out a hike that we figured was about 14 kms (9 miles) but turned out to be a bit longer!

We packed a lunch, and set off about 11:30am. Miky the dog came with us!

Ruth and Miky hiking up a cycling path. 

Czech Republic has many well marked biking and hiking trails. In fact, for a cycling holiday, Czech Republic would be fantastic. You can go just about anywhere in the country using cycling paths.

Beautiful scenery along the way.

And more.

Our destination was a damn and reservoir which we thought was about 7 kms away. Turned out to be a little more than that, but it was worth it when we got there. It was a beautiful day, and just the right temperature for hiking at about 23C (73F).

The damn was built between 1905 and 1910.

The water level is actually quite low.

Miky went for a swim. Too chilly for us though!

We sat and had our lunch beside the lake. Not too many people around, although two older couples came by and went for a swim themselves. Brrr. When it was time to head back it was almost 2:30pm. The trail we took was a fairly steep path up and we had to stop and rest several times.

Heading up the trail from the lake.

We actually made a wrong turn and we walked at least a half a km, maybe more, before we realized it and turned around. However, two of the best photos of the day were taken during that wrong turn! 

Came through a field and spotted this youngster standing in a meadow of wildflowers.

Ruth and Miky. 

Okay, we'll make another attempt at posting a video. This short 15 second flick shows Miky playing with a stick. Nothing special, just testing out the system!

This was done through a youtube account. We'll see how that works, and if it works well, then we'll try and post more videos when our internet connection allows it.

Ruth and Miky and some more great scenery.

And finally we can see our village of Zasova where we are staying! But it's still about 3 kms away!

We made it back home around 5:00pm. I'm sure we wore an inch off of Miky's legs, as if they weren't short enough! But he seems no worse for wear, and although we were tired, we felt fine too. It was a great hike!

I used the mapping program at www.mapmyhike.com and figured out that we did 18.5 kms (11.5 miles), and that doesn't include our short detour of 1 km or so. Certainly our longest one day hike ever that we can remember. And one of the best!

It's a rainy overcast day today. Good day for resting. We'll spend most of it indoors, hopefully it will clear up enough this afternoon to get a short walk in. We've been really lucky with the weather so far, so we can't complain. Should be clear again tomorrow!

Blanka has offered to let us stay until Tuesday morning, and I think we'll take her up on that! Then, we are headed into Slovakia. Still trying to set up our accommodation, so I'll spend some time on that today.