Let it Rock

Well, the weather gods shone on me today, I did not get wet once, in fact, the sun shone and pushed the temperature up to a dizzy 21 degrees, wow!
Where I am staying is about 100 mile north east of Prague, and just south of the Polish border, and the main reason I wanted to come here was because a bloke in a shop in the Lake District told me about some rock formations that are pretty strange.
The rocks are the Adrspach Rocks and they are sandstone that have been carved by the wind and water. In fact they are pretty much the same as some I saw in America on what they call the Needles Highway.
The Adrspach Rocks were known by the locals but were not known to the wider world until 1700, then, following a major fire in 1824, which apparently burnt for weeks, all the trees that had grown on and around the rocks were burnt away, exposing the beauty of the place, and exploration could take place of the labyrinth of passages between the formations.
There is now a 3.5km walk around and through the rocks, and the brochure says the walk should take about 3hrs.
Well I included the 1.5km walk around the lake below, and the whole experience took me 3hrs, still pretty slow progress.The lake really did look tranquil, and the water was so green, it had to be seen to appreciate the colour, the picture does not do it justice. It is in fact a old sand pit and the whole walk is on sand.

This formation is called The Sugar Cone and appears to be standing upside down. It is some 52 mts tall with a top diameter of 13mts but a bottom diameter of only 3mts. The whole block weighs it at about 40,000kg so I would not like to be there when it topples.

In fact, in an effort to stop it falling, people put sticks at its base to support it.

Do you think it will work?

One of the stones has a small plaque on it and a line marked across it. This shows the depth of water following torrential rain back on July 23rd in 1844. Today the stream at the base of this stone was just below the level of the footpath and was perhaps 2 inches deep. Must have been some rain that day.

This rock is called the lovers, and shows a man and a lady kissing. Which do you think is the male, and which the female, the tall thin one or the short fat one........I'm not getting involved in any discussions on this point, I will just throw it out.

Following my bit of exercise, which did, once again, involve lots and lots of steps going up, and very few coming down for some reason, I got back to the bike and just went for a spin with no destination in mind. After riding some great roads, especially the one down from the rocks which was just tight hairpin after tight hairpin, I ended up high up in the mountains surrounded by ski lifts, at what was obviously a winter resort. However, it is also very busy in summer by the looks of it, the town was heaving and the cafes were doing a roaring trade.

All the ski lifts seemed to be open and were taking mountain cyclists and walker up to the higher levels above town.

It was the time for me to use the gps in order to get back to Hostinne, it was at this point that I noticed that the GPS mount has gone very slack and it appears that the rubber mount going into the headstock may have persihed so I had to make some running repairs until I get home and can order a new one. I love cable ties, a superb invention that have got me out of many a sticky situation.

Tomorrow I am off to Prague for 3 nights via the Church of Bones at Kutna Hora, but that can wait till tomorrow.