Tag Archives: Photos

Corsica 2012 – TMM: “Bonifatu –> Tuarelli”

By Ondra OK1CLD | Published: August 12, 2012

According to itinerary on http://corsica.forhikers.com/mare-monti-nord, stage from Bonifatu to Tuarelli was supposed to be longest a probably most difficult of all stages we wanted to pass, which is why we decided to wake up a little earlier than the day before, at 6 a.m. Washing up, having breakfast and packing up all our stuff took us cca. hour and a half and at 7:35 we set out for the track.

Start Finish Distance Max. elevation Min. elevation Track record
Bonifatu Tuarelli 17.8 km 1200 m 100 m GPX file

Weather wasn’t very good, sky was overcast and it was raining a little bit, but we didn’t mind – in fact I quite liked it, since at the beginning of today’s stage we had to climb to 1200 meters ASL and the rain was quite refreshing. The ascent was very nice, through a beautiful Bonifatu forest. After about kilometer and half (and cca. 200 elevation meters gained), we came to the ruins of chalet of Prince Pierre Bonaparte (nephew of Napoleon Bonaparte, as I learnt at home on the internet).

Me on Bocca Bonassa

Me on Bocca Bonassa

We had a short break at the ruins and then continued in our ascent. It was quite a long one and at least for me quite exhausting (yeah, I wasn’t exactly trained and in shape), but after 2 hours, when we finally got to the highest point (not only of today’s stage, but of the whole Tra Mare e Monti!), we were rewarded more than enough. Read More (+ elevation diagram, waypoints, photos) »

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Corsica 2012 – TMM: “Calenzana -> Bonifatu”

By Ondra OK1CLD | Published: August 4, 2012

In a previous blog post I started describing my summer holiday to Corsica. I wrote about me and my friend’s journey to Calenzana, starting point of Tra Mare e Monti long-distance track. Now I’d like to tell you about the first stage of our hike.

On 22nd July we woke up at about 7 o’clock. To my surprise, our tent was the last one on the camping place – all the other ones were gone! As it turned out, all other hikers from camp were heading to GR20 and set out very early to avoid sun and heat.

Start Finish Distance Max. elevation Min. elevation Track record
Calenzana Bonifatu 15.1 km (incl. 2 km detour!) 575 m 218 m GPX file

We were much slower and left quite late, around half past eight. The first stage of Tra Mare e Monti, at the beginning common with GR20 route, led us through Calenzana village and up the hill. The ascent was quite pleasant, not very steep.

Calenzana (from GR20 and Tra Mare e Monti)

Calenzana (from GR20 and Tra Mare e Monti)

Read More (+ elevation diagram, waypoints, photos) »

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Corsica 2012 – To Calenzana

By Ondra OK1CLD | Published: August 4, 2012

During last two weeks I managed to fulfill my promise I mentioned on this blog a year ago – to go for a hike to Tra Mare e Monti, one of Corsican long-distance hiking trails. I liked my trip a lot and during the next few days I’d like to describe it here…

I set out for the holiday on 19th July, a day after my Bachelor’s graduation. This time, the journey to Corsica was a little more complicated than before, because for the 1st time I was using a public transport instead of car for such a long trip.

The journey begins (Choceň railway station)

The journey begins (Choceň railway station)

I left my hometown Choceň in the evening and went by train to Brno (ticket price – 155 CZK), center of Moravia and 2nd largest city of the Czech Republic. There I met Lukáš (from Slovakia),  a friend of mine and a college dormitory roommate, who agreed to go to the trip with me.

Read More (+ waypoints, photos) »

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500 QSL cards ready to go…

By Ondra OK1CLD | Published: March 18, 2012

Tomorrow I’m sending package of five hundred QSL cards to the Czech Radio Club QSL Bureau…

Package of QSL cards

Package of QSL cards

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Happy and Prosperous New Year 2012!

By Ondra OK1CLD | Published: December 30, 2011
PF 2012 de OK1CLD

PF 2012 de OK1CLD

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Cycling trip Choceň – Seč and back (Day 2: “lowlands”)

By Ondra OK1CLD | Published: November 3, 2011

After long break, I finally have time to finish the story of my two day long cycling trip to Seč and back. I’m sorry it took me so long, but I’ve had a lot of things to do lately, since the school semester started…

When I woke up at about half past six in the morning, it was raining… Luckily it didn’t last long and so 90 minutes later I had everything packed and was leaving Seč by road nr. 337, leading to the north-west to Třemošnice.

Start Finish Distance Max. elevation Min. elevation Total ascent
Seč Choceň 95.8 km 542.3 m 208.4 m 2051 m
Elevation diagram - from Seč to Choceň around Pardubice

Elevation diagram - from Seč to Choceň around Pardubice

However, I left the road few hundred meters before the town and went to the village of Podhradí instead, to see ruins of Lichnice/Lichtenburg castle. Then I continued to the north to Míčov located on the top of the hill at about 530 m ASL. It was my last bigger ascent, because from here, landscape quickly descends down to the lowlands of the river Labe/Elbe – which is where I was heading. Read More (photos and rest of the story) »

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Cycling trip Choceň – Seč and back (Day 1: “highlands”)

By Ondra OK1CLD | Published: September 17, 2011

My college semester starts next week and, to have a nice end of “holidays”, I decided to go for one last cycling trip. I’ve never gone to a (cycling) trip longer than one day and this seemed as a nice opportunity to try it.

On Monday evening I packed a tent, sleeping bag, some clothes (and all other things necessary for two days’ long trip) and loaded it on my bike – wanted to be ready and able to set out early on the next day.

Start Finish Distance Max. elevation Min. elevation Total ascent
Choceň Seč 122.2 km 758.6 m 280.4 m 2051 m
Elevation diagram - from Choceň to Seč via Žďárské vrchy

Elevation diagram - from Choceň to Seč via Žďárské vrchy

On Tuesday I left my home at 7 o’clock and headed to the south-east. The first 50 kilometers were almost the same as during my trip to Znojmo – I went via Litomyšl and Polička to Jimramov. The only difference was that while on the first time I went from Polička to Jimramov along the valley of Bílý potok brook, on the second time I used a little shorter, but much more exhausting way via village Korouhev, during which I had to climb to more than 645 m ASL! Read More (photos and rest of the story) »

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Corsica 2011 – Lac de Nino (21st July)

By Ondra OK1CLD | Published: September 11, 2011

For our second (and last) day in Niolo, we had planned a trip to Lac de Nino – one of five most famous Corsican lakes.

Start/finish Main POI Distance Max. elevation Min. elevation Track record
Maison Forestière de Poppaghia Lac de Nino 10 km 1762 m 1061 m GPX file

The track begins at Maison Forestière de Poppaghia (1061 m ASL), few kilometers down under Col de Verghio mountain pass. The hike is very well-known and so we met a lot of people there. It surprised me that most of them were French – usually tourists in Corsican mountains are mainly Germans, Czechs, Austrians and Slovenians.

Lac de Nino from Bocca â Stazzona

Lac de Nino from Bocca â Stazzona

We set out from the parking place at 9:22 and set out to the south along the marked trail to Lac de Nino. At first it ascended quite gently through the beautiful pine forest of Valdu Niellu (“Black Forest” in English???); however, this changed after about 3 kilometers, when we came out of the forest near “Bergerie de Colga” (1412 m ASL). Read More (+ elevation diagram, waypoints, photos) »

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Corsica 2011 – Viru valley (20th July)

By Ondra OK1CLD | Published: September 11, 2011

Well, after a short cycling break I’ll return back to writing about Corsica. Weather wasn’t very good on our first day in Niolo. It was quite cold (approximately 13°C), very windy and it was raining. Despite that, we set out to a trip to Viru valley – a track from Klaus Wolfsperger’s guidebook.

Start/finish Main POI Distance Max. elevation Min. elevation Track record
Parking near Calasima Bergeries de Ballone 11 km 1442 m 1056 m GPX file

The hike starts near Calasima – which is, according to the aforementioned guidebook, highest-located Corsican village. We left our car at ten to eleven on a small parking space on the road to Viru valley – it is very easy to found: the tarmac road from Calasima changes here to the unpaved, gravel one.

Viru valley

Viru valley

Main target of our trip were "Bergeries de Ballone", that are located on famous GR20 route near Viru brook. At first we went to the west along the gravel road. After about 1.5 kilometers, it changed into a narrow forest path and gradually turned to the north-north-west. Even though the track was quite well marked, we still had some problems with orientation and I was quite happy to have my GPS with me. Read More (+ elevation diagram, waypoints, photos) »

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Cycling trip to Zemská brána and Deštné

By Ondra OK1CLD | Published: September 5, 2011

The weather was very nice on Saturday and that’s why I decided to go for a little longer cycling trip. I wanted to see Zemská brána (literally “Land’s Gate” in English), beautiful natural reservation on Czech-Polish border.

Main POIs Distance Max. elevation Min. elevation Total ascent
Zemská brána, Šerlich, Deštné 137 km 1013 m 272 m 1720 m
Elevation diagram - to Šerlich and back

Elevation diagram - to Šerlich and back

I set out from Choceň at 7:40 a.m. and went along the river Tichá Orlice (“Silent Eagle”) via Ústí nad Orlicí to Letohrad. There are nice and comfortable cycling tracks (route nr. 4061 Choceň – Ústí nad Orlicí and route nr. 4048 Ústí n. O. – Letohrad), so after less than two hours I got to Letohrad. Read More (photos and rest of the story) »

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