We spent 10 days camping beside Lake Lipno, situated in the wooded hills in the southwest corner of Bohemia, a few kilometres from Austria and Bavaria. I can't recall ever having stayed in one location for that length of time previously. It is a lovely, peaceful spot, but that's not really why we stayed so long.
The Met Office 'Ten Day Trend' - their in-depth medium range forecast that they put out on YouTube every Tuesday afternoon - predicted the day we arrived in Pilsen that a severe heat wave would develop centred on the borders of France and Germany with temperatures forecast to reach the low forties. The UK on it's western fringe and the Czech Republic to the east were expected to heat up too, but a few degrees cooler than in the Rhine valley. The forecast has been spot on, however the hottest air is now beginning to spread eastwards.
We figured the area around Lake Lipno would be cooler because it's wooded, near water and a couple of hundred metres higher than the Vitava valley around Prague and Ceske Krumlov.
Under blue skies and in perfectly calm weather it is very beautiful here, dreamlike almost, the lake like a constantly changing mirror. Magritte clouds at midday...
... long magical twilights in the days leading up to the solstice.
The hottest it got was the upper thirties, we carry big cotton throws that we can hang from the awning to create shade.
During the hottest part of of the the only thing you can do is huddle in the shadows.
Nights were more challenging, a couple of them hovered around the low twenties making for an uncomfortable snooze. Mostly though the temperature dropped towards the mid-teens - staying beside a lake in wooded hill country was a good move, I think.
We weren't rendered entirely comatose. In the morning and the evening I managed to get out on my paddleboard. The conditions were perfect.
The best moment came on our final evening when two swifts decided it would be fun to buzz the paddleboarder, swooping low, almost touching the mirror-still water a couple of metres in front of me.
We split our time between two campsites
Camping Olšina
We stayed here four nights, then decided we needed a change of view and moved to a different site. Then we concluded that Camping Olšina was one of the loveliest sites we've stayed on so we went back to spend our final three nights in the Czech Republic there.
It's difficult to say just why we loved the place. It's a simple no frills lakeside site. It seems to be family run, the staff were attentive without being intrusive, the facilities simple, but clean and well maintained.
As well as paddling about and swimming in the lake you can cycle along a track by the shore to the nearby village of Černá v Pošumaví. There's little to see, but it had a café and the coffee cherry and chocolate cake were excellent.
From here there's a dedicated cycle way across the dam but after then the waymarked route follows minor roads, the temperature was edging up into the low thirties, we decided to head back.
Though it's called Lake Lipno, as the dam indicates it's actually a very big reservoir. Work on the dam began in 1952; it was the first major public infrastructure project undertaken by the recently established communist government and it included hydro-electric power generation as well as water storage. The woods that surround the lake are partially natural - a beautiful mix of broad leafed trees, and pines; the latter, I suspect, were planted for timber.
Camping Lipno Modřín
The second site we stayed on was at the southeast end of the lake near the main dam. It was a bigger and more organised place than Camping Olšina with chalets and Yurts as well as pitches. It specialised in accommodating groups of teenagers and provided outdoor activities for them - mountain biking, water sports and volleyball. Generally Czech teenagers looked very sporty and seemed amazingly sensible, easy going and confident. Though the place never got rowdy it was vibrant and busy. After three days we missed the tranquility of the previous.
The nearby village of Lipno nad Vltavou is a purpose built winter sports centre. The small harbour is lined with purpose built holiday apartments with a ski chalet vibe. The hills behind the place are marked out with toboggan runs and cross& country ski runs.
There is clearly an attempt to make the place more of an all year resort with a lake steamer service in the summer season and what looks like a recently built marina. The toboggan runs now are repurposed as scooter tracks and a big wooden tower had been built with treetop walkways as a visitor attraction.
The bike track running along the lake shore from here to Frymburk was more our thing. It's was metalled the whole way and mostly level.
Much of the 7km track runs through broad leafed woodlands, very beautiful, but the roots bulging through the tarmac created unexpected hazards, particularly in the more shaded sections. Wearing sunglasses made this worse.
Frymburk is an attractive lakeside village, it obviously predates the creation of the reservoir and is more low key than the purpose built resort of Lipno nad Vltavou.
Picnic spots have been created along the way. The one nearest Frymburk had an information board with a picture of the lake in winter. It was frozen solid and featured a skate track. A truck was parked on it so the ice must have been very thick. Standing there with temperatures in the mid thirties this seemed unimaginable.
After three days we felt we had exhausted the delights of this part of the lake. The resort aspect of Lipno nad Vltavou was not to our taste and the campsite was less shaded than the previous one, not good with the forecast predicting temperatures reaching the high thirties.
We decided to head for another campsite by the lake a kilometre or so from the town of Horni Plana. When we got there it looked crowded and the pitches unshaded. So we doubled back and booked for three more days in Camping Olšina. The guy on reception was very pleased that we preferred his site to the others around the lake. He should be proud of the site, the staff are very attentive, the facilities are spotless and the pitches well tended, without destroying the place's 'lost in nature' ambience.
It joins the shortlist of special places we have stayed, maybe a dozen or so of them out of the hundreds of sites and aires we have used over the past 12 years.
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