Last night's camp = rainy but excellent. Last night's trail cam = fox.
It was surprisingly cool first thing this morning, the overnight rains had really taken the heat out of the atmosphere.
We had originally intended to have a spin on the bikes before today's drive, but found ourselves in rare agreement to defer given the pretty moody breakfast-time weather.
And so, we set forth with the drive and did our best to assimilate what we were seeing as we bumbled along. Today's roads were mainly pretty similar to yesterday afternoon's in as much as they were relatively straight, rolling, and passed through altogether very agreeable countryside, as well as many-a-bucolic village complete with pavé streets. We also came upon some at-first-terrifying roundabout art (pic).
Though a little less wooded and rather more arable, today's general landscapes have once again been very pleasing and nature friendly. We've consistently noticed huge tracts of set-aside in arable fields and - even in cities, towns and villages - land at the side of roads and footways often takes the form of species-rich meadow. Credit to the Czechs for giving a nod to nature in this way.
Lunch was a relaxed affair overlooking meadows and fruit trees and gave up sightings of black kites, loads of red-backed shrike and a rather surprising juvenile hawfinch.
Post lunch, one low bridge and two extremely substantial road closures significantly hampered progress but we did eventually reach the approximate area we'd aimed for and stared to look for a stopover spot. This proved difficult as we'd inadvertently ended up in a corner of the country dominated by vineyards and (local) tourism. Fair to say land here is at a premium and well guarded.
It took a (tired) spin out on the bike to find anything suitable, but the quest paid dividends. We're at the resultant coordinates shown, next to a field of sunflowers set amongst wider woodland, and overlooking a distant (extremely rare in Czechia) lake. The evening atop the cab has been sublime with bee-eaters busy bee-eating over the sunflower field, whilst beyond we've both spotted / heard golden oriole, hawfinch and turtle dove. That's one melodious and pretty rare suite of bird call / song to experience at any one time.
As a bonus, thanks to the lake, common terns and good numbers of not-unexpected waterbirds have added to the growing species list.
It was such an absorbing and compelling place that Emma lasted a full 45 minutes before giving in to the voices and then having to get changed and go for a run.
Post composed at 22:30 on Tuesday 29th July from our intended overnighting spot N 48.93247°, E 17.05484° / http://maps.google.com/maps?q=loc:48.93247%2C17.05484