JOURNAL - DAY 3

DAY 3:

The River Vltava looks once again like a river… and a breathtaking one at that!

How did the name Vltava came about anyway? It is derived from the Old Germanic Wilth-ahwa (wild, strong water). Today's German name Moldau has – funnily enough been taken from the Czech language in the 13th century (at first as Moltaua). Talk about cultural interchange!

Above you can see Richard and the Rozmberk (Rosenberg) upon Vltava Castle that we passed during today's paddle. As with the other castles and chateaux owned by the Rosenbergs, the White Lady appears in Rožmberk castle and walks around the castle every night and announces coming events by the colour of her dress. The black clothing means something tragic, on the other hand the white colour brings good news. According to the legend she was seen last at the time of World War II when with her presence, she expressed her disagreement with the Nazi flag hanging on the tower. The inspiration for the White Lady is Perchta von Rosenberg (1429 - 1476), a daughter of Ulrich II. von Rosenberg who worried herself to death during her unhappy marriage.

In the Middle Ages, the river's most important function was for navigation. During the colonisation of the country, the need for timber for the building of towns and castles grew, this was supplied by floating it down the river. This timber came from the Vltava forests in the southern and south-western parts of our country. To use the flow of the river for rafting purposes, it was necessary to arrange safe navigation of the river, which at times caused some problems and conflicts. Later on even the transport of salt became important.

Salt was transported on the river up to the middle of the 16th century, first of all in barrels on boats, from České Budějovice or Týn nad Vltavou to Praha. If the boats were empty and not used for transportation on the lower part of the Vltava river or on the Labe, it was necessary to bring them back by being towed by horses. This was quite a demanding and lengthy process, so preference was given to the transport salt on rafts.

This part of our paddle is taking us throughout the beautiful heartland full of natural, cultural and historical sights. It surely is one of the best scenic routes with river flowing novely through the bends always offering wonderful sights, including countless stone trolls, indeed whole armies of them erected along the river, guarding the safe passage of the passing paddlers. We went through tree weirs altogether on this day and all of them were huge fun and luckily no splosh!

In the end, we gently touched land again at Branna – kilometre marker 298. Once again good nature of people shone through – river station of the boat renting company Ingetour let Richard use thein garden to camp for the night and park the car for as long as necessary. Big thanks to Ingetour folk in Lenora!

At this point we unfortunately had to say good-bye to Richard who will now be on his own again – braving the river alone for some time while we headed back to Prague. Sad moment but good news for our readers (since the first thing I am doing is trying to publish all the updates to keep you "with it").