| Description: | Another warm day in store meant heading higher again, this time east of our village to the heart of Drahanska highlands. I first rode down to Rajec and then climbed ca. 900 ft to Petrovice and Sloup. I recalled the times 21 years ago when I was doing this every Sunday in the summer visiting the girlfriend that I had in Sloup. It was quite tough then, even with the extra incentive at the end. From Sloup I headed to Sosuvka on a famous steep hill, it's only 300 ft vertical but short and steep (ca. 18%). Then I was on the plateau of Drahanska highlands and rode slight up and down for a while at around 1800 ft. Right after Sosuvka a poppy field caught my eyes - poppies are grown for seeds here and there. This part also goes on the territory of Moravian Karst, so there are bunch of caves, sink holes, etc. One such sink hole is right next to the road to Lipovec. Past Lipovec is another sight - the Kojal TV transmitter, one of the big ones around that serves pretty much the whole south Moravia. Then I rode down a bit to Jedovnice, but, seeing the highway to Blansko being quite busy, I turned right to Vilemovice and down one of the carst canyons to Blansko. Part of the canyon is closed to traffic but there's still a nice old paved road. The "Skalni mlyn", or Rock Mill - the gateway to the Karst, is now a very touristy place, I haven't been there for ages so it looked very different. On the other hand, the foundry at the outskirts of Blansko where I spent working two summers during high school (and where my dad used to be the boss in the times before the bosses made shitload of money) looks pretty much the same as it did 20 years ago. I was running late so instead of stopping and checking out Blansko, I headed south on the highway to Lipuvka. It's a busy highway but it was not too bad. Same think on the "highway of death" from Lipuvka to Milonice - it was early afternoon so no rush hour so I survived. Then I just had a few more familiar climbs to finally get back to Brtov to get a delayed lunch. |
