We hit the road again and talk about the blind leading the blind! Her Ladyship, fiddling around with sunglasses, reading glasses and a road map, failed to spot a crucial road sign at a crucial point in the journey. His Lordship spotted the road sign but failed to spot how crucial it was. To cut a long story short, what should have been a short journey ended up being a long one.

It’s bad enough to drive unnecessary miles, but even worse when you have a large caravan in tow. It’s worse still when those unnecessary miles are on narrow, winding, steep country roads in the depths of the Bohemian Forest (Šumava). Great fun!

Because of the unscheduled scenic route, the Oldies checked into the first campsite they could find. What a find it turned out to be. It’s great: lovely location in a quaint little village, good facilities, and it costs less than €10 a night, including electricity.

On that first evening, the Dynamic Duo didn’t feel dynamic enough to set up their kitchen, so they took themselves off to a local restaurant for dinner. Two main courses (typical Czech fare: roast pork, sauerkraut and bread dumplings) plus two beers set them back less than €10.

At these prices, I’ll never get them out of here!

We are not by the sea, not even by a lake, but at least we are by a river and we’re surrounded by hills and forests. In fact, we are in the Šumava National Park, so it’s wall-to-wall unspoilt nature. There are very few foreign tourists here which makes a pleasant change from the bustle of Ceský Krumlov. Most of the holiday-makers here seem to be local and they all seem to be carrying baskets… Ah! The penny’s dropped: it’s mushroom season.

We set out for a bike ride the other day, took a wrong turn (of course), and ended up in a forest. His Lordship soon started sniffing out mushrooms and within minutes had filled a shopping bag full of cêpes and chanterelles. Later in the afternoon, Herself dragged us into a glassworks and insisted on buying a glass bowl for her mammy (Shhh! Don’t tell the mammy, or Her Ladyship will kill me).

This meant that His Lordship had to set off on the trip home with a bag of mushrooms dangling on one side of the  handlebar of his bike, the glass bowl on the other and his precious camera equipment in his rucksack. He teetered off down the road to a chorus of ‘Careful now!’-s from Herself.

And promptly fell off.

Incredibly, the camera and glass bowl were still intact, the mushrooms were only somewhat squashed, His Lordship’s hands were only slightly scraped and his right knee was missing a smallish patch of skin. His pride was severely dented though.

All’s well that ends well. We had a grand feast of mushrooms that night.

Her Ladyship, me, and Big Chief Wounded Knee.