Praděd 04.50

The slightest hint of pink through the hotel window and I was up and dressed and out of the building with my camera, alone until a young couple emerged with their phone for a romantic thirty minutes watching the sunrise.

It wasn’t perfect due to the layers of cloud, but still awesome to be out in the cool mountain air with different shades of colour on the mountains below and a small bird chirruping it’s good morning to the sun.

Then it was back to bed for a few hours until breakfast. It was funny to be walking back down Praděd Mountain as the first tourists of the day came upwards from the first bus of the day.

Once at the bottom road, we turned our steps to Ovčárna where we left Tomáš, who was suffering with a heavy cold and sore throat. Markéta was Chief Scout for our walk up to the Witches’ Stones, of which we learned at the Witches’ exhibition earlier in the week. You are not allowed to go to the Stones, Petrova Kameny as they are in the reservation, but we were close enough to get photos with them and Padrěd Mountain in the frame. We continued along the trail, stopping to speak with a Ranger en route to Vysoká Hole. He was most interested to hear that we were from England and we exchanged some conversation before continuing to our destination.

As we turned back to Ovčárna, the promised rain began to fall so we went back down the mountain to meet with Tomáš and have a cuppa before catching the bus back down to the carpark. Everyone is now relaxing before we say our goodbyes to Sarka and Josef and drive to Sumperk to stay at the apartment of Tomáš and Markéta for one night, then Tony and I will catch the train back to Prague in the morning. What a fabulous time we have had here in Moravia with much laughter, conversation and hiking in the stunning Jeseniky Mountains. Thank you to all our Czech friends for throwing open your doors and making us so welcome xx