…wasn’t as easy as I expected! If I had gone directly from the house I could have followed the river south and just veered of to Průhonice. But I decided to ‘start from the start’ and follow the ‘official’ route as much as possible.
It begins in Central Park, which isn’t central at all – it’s south-west, in Prague 13. Getting there took much longer than expected, mainly because of the heavy traffic. I reached the trailhead shortly after midday.
The Greenways info board is easy to find – it’s just under the elevated metro tube. The sun was out and although a there was a nippy breeze, temperatures of up to 22 Celsius are forecast for the week. All looking good!
A passing cyclist stopped to wish me luck and to brag that he had done the trip in four days. I’m looking at six days, taking time to smell the flowers. I’m in no rush.
While there is the info board – situated at the intersection of 4 paths – there is no indication about what direction you should take! I walked around and saw no signs or arrows to set me on my way. This dampened my hopes of humming ‘Ride of the Valkyries‘ as I set off.
No worries, I knew I needed to head towards the river, passing through the Hlubočepy district, and crossing the Berendov Bridge to Bráník. This called for a cheeky GPS check. I still got lost 😛
Eventually though I found the first sign to follow. From there is was smooth sailing until I got over the bridge. The official guide doesn’t mention Chodov, but it is well signposted from Bráník, and close to the Opatov metro station – where you need to take an elevator up to the bus station and walk back through the crowds.
A little further up, across the motorway a cycle path takes you to a sign for Průhonice and Újezd. Here’s where the signs for cycle route 11 begin to appear, some of which are marked as Greenway. Now we’re golden! Just continue to follow route 11, which is mostly busy roads. Yes, there are reckless drivers here too, but I had no scrapes.
I had read that the first two days towards Vienna would require a lot of climbing, but I still wasn’t prepared for the brutal reality. Usually, what goes up must come down, but not here! It was a lot of up! Tough going, but ultimately each hill conquered is a small achievement in itself, and the legs were holding-up fine.
The big reward came when I hit Petříkov. Between there and Týnec nad Sázavou were some long downhill sections, each several km long. Great fun!
Building-up speed did reveal a problem. The weigh distribution wasn’t great and this was causing a slight sideways oscillation in the front wheel. It needed to be solved otherwise I might end up with a broken axle. I shifted some weight to the rear panniers and everything was much more stable.
And even though I was ever-conscious about weight when planning, I still think I can shed some more. Every gram counts is the big lesson of today. The tent weighs less than a kilo, sleeping bag not much more, but it’s bulky. By far the heaviest cargo, apart from myself, is the water. Even so, two bottles are not enough. Also, I’m carrying food, and although it’s fairly light, I think I will change strategy and buy only the foods I need at the end of the day.
At about 6pm I decided to camp in the woods just outside of Týnec nad Sázavou, and pondered tomorrow’s climbs whilst wolfing down some pasta.
In total I was 4-5 hours on the bike, covering about 70 km. This includes getting to the start point and getting lost a couple of times. By now I’m really in the countryside, and I know where to go from here.
And the bike is humming now. Tomorrow I’ll have the full day to make some serious mileage. Tabor, here I come…
