Sleeping at the top of the World!

Well not quite at the top of the World, but at the top of the Moravian Mountains. This was the first day of our second two day hike in the Jeseniky Mountains. We drove a long way around the range, pausing in Sobotin to show Tony the stunning chateau where Marketa and Tomas were married in 2017 and at which I was honoured to be Britská Matky.

The car was parked up outside the very pretty ski and spa resort of Karlova Studanski with its wooden buildings and grand spa hotels. We enjoyed scrumptious cakes and coffee in a cake shop and then set out on the Barborka Trail, winding upwards through a heavily forested valley, criss-crossing the pretty stream with many small falls, bridges and wooden steps, and an abundance of wildflowers.

We emerged from the trail and paused to take breath before joining the road busy with cyclists, hikers and scooters leading around the hill up to our destination, the communications tower on the top of Praděd Mountain where Markéta and Tomáš had booked us in for the night.

Praděd Is in the nature reservation so you are not allowed to stray off the main road and designated tracks. As the day wore on and we were relaxing in our rooms, the tourists who had walked up from the bus stop at Ovčarna and the scooters who were heading down, grew less and less until, just before sunset, all was quiet on the mountain top. We took a walk around the communications tower, which is also home to the restaurant and hotel, and I took some photos of the sunset before retiring to bed and trying to make sense of a Czech comedy movie on the tv! A great hike in good company!