Camping for 75p!

Having bought a walking map of the Sumava National Park, we located a municipal campsite to try first, in the vicinity of Mount Boubin. When we got there we were greeted by a jolly old man suited in short trousers and a hat complete with feather requesting 30 Krone (about 75p) to camp in his little car park. The ‘facilities’ consisted of a tap, a bin and a few huts covering deep pits (some deeper than others, the deeper the better I found) but for 75p you could hardly complain. We ended up staying there 2 nights, albeit a rather cold, damp experience as both nights we were able to make our breath condense on the windows. In a rather lucky window between storm fronts we managed to climb Mt Boubin at 1362m. If you had the energy for a little more, a wooden tower on top took you up above tree line to appreciate amazing views of the forest stretching out in every direction. We spent much of the time trying to catch glimpses of the black woodpecker we could hear, but seldom see for long enough to get a good view. The woods were also full of ring ouzels who were happy to pose for photos so we could identify them later. Our main impression of the area was that of a heavy presence of a large scale logging industry. The valleys were often filled with the sound of distant chain saws, and every few hundred meters along the track, piles of logs lay stacked and sorted waiting to be collected by the huge tractors rumbling through the forest. While patches of the landscape looked more like a scene of devastation rather than national park, it was clear that new trees were also being planted and protected. We didn’t manage to see any deer as we’d hoped, but most of the houses we passed in the area were adorned with antlers, so we knew they must be in there somewhere, they’d perhaps just learnt wisely to keep a safe distance away from humans.