#12: [28-Jun-17]

#11: [02-Nov-14]

#10: [09-Sep-14]

#9: [21-Dec-13]

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#6: [12-Jun-11]

#5: [14-Nov-09]

#4: [23-Sep-06]

#3: [08-Aug-06]

#1: [08-Jun-01]

26-Sep-2004 -- Having just completed N49 E15, we set off to visit N49 E16 over the border in the Czech Republic. This would be my first fisit there since the early 1980's when it was still Czechoslovakia and I had transitted through from Germany to Poland.

In those days it was necessary to obtain a transit visa, including appropriate stamps in my passport (and the payment of a not insubstantial fee) before being allowed to enter the country. In those days the process of getting into the country often lasted 2-3 hours. Not so this time. No visas were necessary and we were in within 2 minutes.

Driving through what were mainly small towns and villages, I felt transformed back to the 1980's and the mad drives across the country always in the early hours of the morning when there was practically no traffic. I remember once driving through Prague, getting lost and finally picking up the Exx transit route (whatever it was) again only to realize after a few minutes that I was heading back the way I had come.

No problems this time, Paul driving and I navigating we found the road between Strelice and Jevisovice that leads right past the CP.

We parked the car just off the road, collected our gear and made for the CP towards the left of the farm like building. At about 140 metres we came to an inpenetrable wall of bushes and trees so we doubled back to the right of the farm building, round the back and straight to the CP.

Without our detour to the left it would have taken 3 minutes. The CP was situated at the side of a small meadow close to a small stream. A few minutes photographing and our first Czech CP was completed. We could not better 5 metres accuracy, perhaps because of the leaves on the trees.

The short walk back to the car enabled us to have a close look at the farmhouse and small lake situated beside it. From the signs we could see it is possible to fish here but saw no one doing so at the time. A short while after we were heading back to Vienna for an uneventful if stressful drive (I had to be in Vienna at 14:30 - and we had lost a lot of time walking round in circles at N49 E15).

On the way back we speculated on how to get Paul up to N47 E13. After a lot of thinking and discussion I decided only a miracle would do it ;-)