July 20, 2016

Around Adrspach

One destination, two trips, three activities, hundreds of experiences.

The Adršpach-Teplice region is among the most popular nature locations in Czechia, and finally, I visited it last month. Twice.

The first trip into the area was a few weeks ago, at the very moment I was supposed to have surgery on my injured knee. But the doctors messed it up, and it didn't happen. Then; my chimney-climbing friends from Brno said, "hey, we'll be around, want to join us?" Heck yeah, now we are talking! So as an alternative to getting into a hospital for a scalpel session, I hitchhiked east towards the mentioned region to hang out with some good people around industrial smokestacks..

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At that time, I was happy that I could bend the knee only to get into a car; any physically demanding workout was impossible. So when others climbed some taller structures, I stayed on the ground, strolling around and having fun with picture-taking.

But since I've already learned that you can climb a smokestack with one leg only, I was able to scale some smaller ones as well.

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It was a great time; however, I haven't seen any of the local natural treasures. That changed last weekend when I went there to join a highline-meeting.

Technical note: All the following photos I made on a cellphone.
I anticipated capturing some wide-angle shots, but my only wide lens for my camera is currently being repaired. Since my phone has eq. 24mm, I opted to see what's that smartphone's chip capable of.

The area is well known because of its sandstone towers. Back during the Cretaceous, this used to be a sandy bottom of a sea. Then some millions of years happened, salt water’s gone, and the seabed eroded into appealing rock formations.

Arriving on Friday evening, all I did was catch up with friends and meet new ones in the camp.

Once up, I went to stretch on a short slackline nearby. It was the first time I stood up on it without a knee brace - a challenge, but the knee worked, and I ended up crossing it.

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After this success, I was eager to explore the rocks..

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path into the wonderland.

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This section reminded me of some canyons in Utah's Zion.

The area lives up to its fame; one could wander through and forget about time and everything. The good thing is, when you forget your food, the place is bursting with blueberries all over the ground.

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lunchtime!

Hiking further, hours flew by

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Later in the afternoon, the main area became flooded with tourists, so I moved further away to enjoy the woods rather than the crowds. Not too far is a cliff where a medieval castle used to be, which offers a sweet view of the rocks. Unlike the rest of the trails around, this was (surprisingly) with nobody around.

This was all brilliant, but it would be a shame to skip the reason for the meeting: highlines. So that’s how I spent the next day – unfortunately only as a spectator.

I can’t wait to have my knee healed, so I can join all this greatness again. It’s getting there!

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Fun stuff all day long. Thanks to all involved.

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If you liked this post, you can browse my other articles featuring slackline, or Adrspach. Alternatively, see my blog archives for more categories and topics. Thanks for reading!

Published by: Jakub Stepanovic in Stories

 

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