Elephants on Sázava
Although this has been long scheduled trip, very few of us really believed it will really happen and big thanks goes to Veronika for great organization although she did not attend. The idea was to combine team building and fun with some fresh air, sun, water and C2H5OH diluted in all sorts of liquids. Since Jarda and David already had experience with this sort of activity they decided that river Sazava would suit us the best and since no one complained the destination was set to Cercany – Tynec nad Sazavou – Pikovice: some 30 km, easily manageable in two days. The less tough of us refused with thanks EO sponsored sleeping in tents and preferred comfort of shower, bed, and breakfast in any nearest hotel despite facing (jelaous) jeers from the rest.
It was Friday night we all eventually gathered in Cercany camp and very soon we have fallen deep into meaningful conversations such as what happens with water in space (it boils). Since Friday night offered spectacular view on ISS space station flyover we had great opportunity to compare our smartphone apps specially designed to watch ISS (iPhone wins).
Saturday morning our trip begun and we were at the mercy of furious river… well in fact it was not furious at all. Actually I would not be able to tell which direction it flowed. Therefore our progress was not as fast as we hoped; however this was “compensated” by many unscheduled pauses as our bodies not used to manual labor struggled to get us moving at reasonable speed. At least we managed to ride down some weirs that were not meant to be ridden, and the weather was good although forecasts promised rain. Unfortunately the forecasts were fulfilled after lunch and everyone who read Veronicas instructions carefully had great opportunity to test waterproofness of their raincoats. We arrived to Tynec late afternoon and those that decided to camp made their best to improve friendship with those that booked hotel. After good dinner Arnost decided to entertain us by breaching nearby garden with a big “Beware of the dog“ sign placed on the entrance, getting lost for several minutes, suddenly appearing from a hedge and couple of painful accidents when climbing over the fence (the dog never appeared).
Sunday morning was sunny again as we headed towards end of our journey. Now the river was much faster and since water level was low it was also more challenging. One wouldn’t believe how rocks hidden just below water level can be insidious and mess with narrow construction of the boat. We also had to pass much more weirs and I’m proud to say we have ridden all of them without single knocking over. After long and difficult journey we finally managed to arrive at Pikovice, return boats, catch train to Prague and decided not to be involved in physically demanding activities for a while. P.S. we are organizing bike trip sometime in autumn. Everybody is welcomed to join!
