June 12, 2010 - Satov to Slavonice

Estimated Mileage: 50 miles
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The maps had been consulted, the mileage checked and double checked and I had a definite Plan to get to the Polish border by the 18th, when I was slated to meet up with a friend I had met on a bike tourist mailing list.

It was a tought 6 day itinerary, with 40-70 mile days each day.  Nothing I haven't done before, just some hard riding.  Well, I forgot to account for the fact that the first 15 miles were straight through the heart of a FREAKING MOUNTAIN RANGE!!!!

Usually, on normal terrain, I go about 10-11 miles an hour when I have all my gear packed on the bike.  If the terrain is unusually hilly, I go about 8-9 miles and hours.  On the Danube, when it was completely flat, I went 12-14 miles an hour.

Well for the first three hours of this day (in 80-90 degree heat) I went 5 miles an hour.  Most of it was muddy, rocky and looked like this:

I had to walk a good portion of it, since my back tire couldn't get enough traction.  One thing that was very cool was that all of these bright green lizards were sunning themselves along the road, and it looked like the Tour de France with the roadside spectators.  But instead of French sports enthusiasts, they were 3 inch long lizards.

I was now in the midday heat, only having gone 15 miles and completely demoralized.  I got to the end of the hardcore biking and made an Executive Decision (that is, a decision that is made without consulting the Planning Commitee or the Refreshments Committee).  We weren't going to bike all the way to Poland.  A train was in order.

Once that decision had been made, my mood brightened noticeably.  I swung through the town of Vranov, and unexpectedly picturesque town with a dam for swimming and a stunning castle that overlooks it all.

That night, I stayed in a town named Slavonice, a beautiful little Renaissance town that has since been colonized by artists.  There was a powerful lightning storm that kept lighting up my room and making all of the Saturday night bar-goers say "oooooh!" about 30 feet from my pillow.  Consulting Czech Railways, I saw that the nearest train station was 25 miles away.  That was my goal.  I slept the sleep of the dead.