We were lucky enough to enjoy another splendidly peaceful overnighting spot last night and - as a bonus - caught a very good fox sighting on the trail cam.
After only about an hour's drive from the camp we found ourselves over the Czech border and back at the Soos trails.
We were last at this awesome spot back in 2013 and really enjoyed it then, so it seemed a nonsense to pass it by this time as our natural chosen route down to Moldova took us pretty close by, anyway.
The area really does convey a sense of being utterly arcane and is borne out of an improbably long and equally improbable series of random geological and biological factors. Unless, of course, it eventually turns out it was, after all, simply part of the week's work of that famous sky-dwelling bearded bloke.
It's landscapes and sulphurous bubbling-mud geothermal features are well worth witnessing in their own right; so the list of interesting species we saw in addition today was a real bonus. This list included: common crane, grasshopper warbler, giant snails (spp unknown), lizards (spp unknown), scarce swallowtail butterfly, turtle dove, black kite, coypu and black-tailed skimmer dragonflies.
The site also hosts a museum and eateries etc, as well as a working narrow-gauge railway that originally served some peat works. The short rail trips looked fun and we were initially sorely tempted. Only the limited number of undersized carriages and the unlimited number of oversized tourists spilling out of them eventually put us off.
Post Soos, we did another couple of hours east through very pretty and sparsely populated Czech countryside. It's been slow going, though. The area comprises endless steep hills served by extremely twisty, narrow roads that - in places - are poorly surfaced. The truck earned it's keep.
By about 4.00pm I was driver-fatigued and ready to call it a day so foraged around a bit and after a short while came up with the coordinates shown. There are lots of dirt tracks accessible from here and I had a steady run to check some of them out. They may even serve well for a spin out on the bikes tomorrow morning... if we're feeling up for it.
Post composed at 22:20 on Sunday 27th July from our intended overnighting spot N 49.98132°, E 13.28780° / http://maps.google.com/maps?q=loc:49.98132%2C13.28780