POST SCRIPT

So what did we achieve:

• We completed 313 km on the beautiful Vltava river in 12 paddling days and 2 rest days.
• I confirmed for myself that kayaking is a great activity for all ages and that the kayaking communities in the UK and the Czech Republic are full of helpful great fun people.
• We raised the profile of the plight of the Czech Heroes who had been members of the Royal Air Force during the Second World War only to be savagely persecuted by the communist regime after their return to Czechoslovakia.
• As at 31 December 2009 Jerry Hermansky and his accountant Guy are still negotiating with the UK Charities Commission to confirm our charitable status. Once we have this status we will receive the pledged money from those who have generously pledged their support. We are in close contact with Mrs Siskova of the Czech Ex RAF Association and we will be making a presentation to her in the New Year.

Friday 22 May

JOURNAL - DAY 14

Down to Branik at 8pm. Stan from HG Sports had very kindly lent Petra a Necky Kayak for the day so that she could accompany me on the last 9 Km to Charles Bridge. A gentle paddle which took less time than I had estimated and therefore involved us hiding near the bridge before the appointed time of arrival. A wonderful arrival organised by Jerry and his team from Interlink cs. A great thank you to them and all those who made up the welcoming committee! Stan very kindly returned the kayaks to Branik whilst I took the tram home....dressed in a dry suit! So ended the easy part of the expedition.

Thursday 21 May

JOURNAL - DAY 13

Nearly there! A very comfortable night in a campsite close to Prague. The manager is a charming former colonel who retired from the Czech armed forces in 1993. He was extremely helpful and I certainly made welcome use of the campsite's excellent hot shower. Set off early and walked round the Vrane dam. This dam was even more amusing as a swan had taken up residence at the exit slipway from the river. It was guarding its mate who was on the nest with a cygnet. After the usual huffing and puffing (from the swan) it let me past. Another dam on the outskirts of Prague required another walk however this time I was assisted by Jiri from Slovakia who was out for a bike ride. As luck would have it he is also a very keen kayaker.

Then the last push for Branik where I stored the kayak ready for the official finish on Friday.

JOURNAL - DAY 12

DAY 12:

It rained steadily and continuously from 0230 to 0830. In the morning a rather weak sun appeared which made everything a little muggy. It was good however to get clear of the sluggish expanse of Slapy although I was a touch surprised that surmounting the Slapy dam involved a 2km walk with a kayak! Then I was on the Stechovice stretch of the Vltava. A lovely, narrow, meandering river which conjured up thoughts of the logger rafts of the past.

Although it might not seem like it today, this part of the river used to belong to the most wild and dangerous but unbelievably romantic stretches of the river. Wild weirs, treacherous rocks but also a blissfull paradise of wild and untouched nature and its inhabitants. All that made what was called Svatojanske proudy (St. John's Streams) an unforgettable place.

The last raft could be seen here in 1943 during the construction of the dam at Stechovice. The fame of the rafters slowly disappeared in the 1950s when this traditional vocation died out.

Since the olden days, it is believed that it is near here the very centre of the Czech kingdom can be found. At first three wooden crosses marked the spot - in 1878 an unknown benefactor had three stone ones erected in their place. These can be still seen here to these days.

Following pictures also bear witness that this river can be and has always been a dangerous element:

Ice-flooding in 1940 destroyed the town of Stechovice and its remnants were to be seen along the river banks until May!

During the thousand-year flood in 2002 water completely overwhelmed the Slapy dam and went over the top

Fortunately unlike the trek around the Slapy dam, the dam at Stechovice ONLY involved a 300m walk. Then on to Davle and approaching the outskirts of Prague at a place called Vrane nad Vltavou. I discovered a campsite where the owner helped me get the fully loaded kayak ou of the water, across the river bank and in to his campsite. Amazing! It is called Club Lavka Skochovice.

Now only 12km to Branik tomorrow but with 2 dams to negotiate. Probably arrive between 1300 and 1400. But remember the Czech Few team will actually finish at 1100 at Charles Bridge on Friday!

JOURNAL - DAY 11

DAY 11:

Richard says:

"Still on the Slapy! It seems to go on for ever. This particular stretch meanders lazily all the way to the dam. From my camp site at KM 126 I plodded NE towards Prague eventually coming to familiar territory around Zivohost. We learned to paddle here last year and what we thought were huge expanses of water then now seem very small. As it is not the weekend the river is wonderfully empty other that the odd squadron of Sentinels.

The highlight of the day was being offered a pivo by a couple of old boys as I paddled past Nova Zivohost on my way to my planned camp site at Zivohost KM 102.

Finishing at Charles Bridge (km 50) at 1100 on Friday 22 May is immovable so I plan to paddle on Friday from Branik (KM 61) leaving at 0800 to cope with weirs etc. This means the I have 41 KM to cover in the next 3 days.

I hesitate to say this but it is not raining!"

Petra says:

"Although it might sound a bit trite, every day one can indeed learn something new. As I was browsing websites dedicated to Vltava and its sights, I found a site that once again ties this whole paddling project of the Czech Few closer to what happened in Czechoslovakia almost 7 decades ago.

Vltava Line:

Even to these days you can come across the remains of a fortification system that was supposed to help the Czechoslovak army defend their country in 1938. You can run across them mainly near the borders but also in Prague and other places. Today they are lonesome ferroconcrete monsters, mostly covered by moss, sometimes scrawled by sprayers.
They remind us of very meaningful and grievous events from the Czechoslovak history. Today only few fans are informed about the reasons which caused a construction of one of the most perfect fortification systems in the world during the thirties of the 20th century and their story of devotedness.
Adolf Hitler had won the elections in Germany in 1933. The young Czechoslovakia had to secure its borders against a surprise German attack. There were two concepts how to do it. The first one - to build a large mobile army, and the second one - to build border fortresses. The first one had a big disadvantage. Czechoslovakia was too small to build a mobile army powerful enough to stop the substantially bigger German army. However the second one had its disadvantages as well. Had the fort line been broken, there would not have been enough strength to prevent the enemy units from entering Czechoslovakia. The second concept won in the end, because of the idea that fortresses could have stopped the enemy as long as the Czechoslovak allied forces (French and British ones) entered the war with an attack against Germany from the west.
In fact the Czech engineers were influenced by the French Maginot Line (the Maginot Line was a system of French border fortresses being built from the early thirties to the beginning of the WWII), so some first types of the Czechoslovak fortresses looked much like the French ones. There were two main types of the fortification lines - the light one and the heavy one.

Plan of Czechoslovak fortification in the september 1938:

In blue one cas see where the fortification copied the Vltava River

Vltava Line was comprising of light forts: in the short period between April 30, 1938 and September 30, 1938 there were 333 of them built (their construction had to cease with the Munich Agreement signed on September 30, 1938). After the whole country was occupied by the Nazi Germany in March 1939, these forts were destroyed since the occupying powers were concerned they could be used by the rebelling population against them.

Demolition of the forts by Vltava in 1939

A few of the forts survived the demolitions in 1939 - one of them can be seen during low water conditions in the Slapy water reservoir (of course, the dam was not yet built in 1938 therefore the surviving remnants of the Vltava line are nowadays under the water)."

JOURNAL - DAY 10

DAY 10:

Petra returned to Prague today. 

Richard is on his own again pushing for Prague and therefore once again the narrative is getting a bit more concise than when she sticks around and then lets her imagination run free writing the blog!

Richard writes:

"I left the Velky Vir campsite after a very good break and I left the car under the eyes of Tomas, the top class chef who is relaxing as the manager of one the camp restaurants. Orlik dam was full of boats and naked sailors." 

(no exaggeration...yachts of people going full-monty left Richard moderately surprised, his voice on the phone later in the evening clearly indicated that) 

"The break had done me a lot of good and I was very quickly at the dam itself. For the uninitiated it is not obvious to see where the crossing point is, however I eventually took move over after a 3 way conversation with Petra.

They use a large blue cage on a venicular on the right hand side of the dam. It appears to operate from 0800 to 1700 daily. It was a painless operation and I was very quickly on my way to the Kamyk dam (yet another water reservoir the Vltava Cascade consists of). 

Again the crossing point is on the right side of the dam but this time they use a lock system, again painless. I was heading for a campsite at Permon but this seems to be no longer in operation so I paddled on to km 126 where I am camping wild. 

A good run of 27.8 km. From 1230 to 2130. A quick supper, write the blog and sleep. It is interesting that the water here is covered in a horrible slime and it appears oily and black... Not pleasant. 

I look forward to moving further up the Slapy dam tomorrow."

JOURNAL - DAY 9

DAY 9:

Slept until 1000! Compared to the busy Friday, Saturday was to be the day of rest and sightseeing. We (Richard, Steve and Petra) had a lovely breakfast a la carte at Tomas' pub - ham and eggs (in Czech "hemenex") and freshly baked buns!

After that Steve left for Prague and the Czech Few team went to explore the lovely surrounding countryside from a different perspective unusual for us - ie. from the land. As Orlik was the closest point of interest, we decided it would be nice to explore it more (for a brief historical overview see the blog from the previous day).

As was mentioned before this castle belongs (once again since 1992) to the Schwarzenbergs. The head of the family Karel Schwarzenberg was until last month the Czech Minister of Foreign Affairs (previously also a Chancellor under President Vaclav Havel). 

Schwarzenberg family crest: Nothing But Law!

In one of the first rooms of the guided tour one can see the Schwarzenberg family tree - and right there one can find a very interesting detail: the family is related to the Stauffenbergs. Does not ring the bell? Maybe a little hint: Valkyrie. 

Yes, it is the selfsame family that produced Claus Philipp Maria Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg, a German army officer and aristocrat who was one of the leading members of the failed 20 July plot of 1944 to kill German dictator Adolf Hitler and remove the Nazi arty from power in WWII Germany. Along with Henning von Tresckow and Hans Oster, he was one of the central figures of the German Resistance movement within the Wehrmacht.

So there we were, paddling for the Czech Few, admiring the historical sights and suddenly we were reminded how things are unbelievably interconnected. 

Richard also discovered that after a week in the boat, his legs are more sea-worthy than land-ready. Therefore we decided to take the day in relaxed way, return to the camp, cook some gnocchi on the gas stove and get ready for the last stretch of the way to Prague.

As Richard was complaining of his drysuit not being as dry as it was supposed to be, Petra spent ages submersing it in the water to find the leak... only when she was properly wet and completely convinced there was no possibility the thing could be leaking, she discovered the whole time she was inspecting the wrong leg! There you go... university-educated person. In the end, a minuscule hole was found and patched. 

All was repacked and ready to go to push for the last 104 kilometers to Prague.