day 41 - wed 21 may - 10 km
Letovice (Rudka)
From our little garden in Louka where we have breakfast in the sun with the singing of many birds, we discuss the order of actions for today. We will first go to the town hall in Letovice, then pick up the tree bike from Skrchov, which is next to the town hall, and then on the square in front of the town hall in Letovice we will explain the map and hand out trees. Then we continued cycling about six kilometers on the route to Rudka to park the tree bike there until Friday morning. And so we did, on our break day. At the town hall, we soon meet the deputy mayor Martin Hoder, who speaks three words of English but knows how to use the translation app. He loves the project. And would like to participate, Letovice has 7,000 inhabitants, if there are no commitments. Top, we take a picture and leave for Skrchov. There we drop off another tree and a Bosk book before we start cycling. The main road we have to pass seems more dangerous than it is. Fortunately. The driving behavior of especially the trucks is unpredictable, at least it seems that way to us. We are just a small bike with a tree compared to such a big truck. In Letovice we lay out the map in front of the town hall and a little later the deputy mayor comes out with some aldermen and officials. Together we take a picture with, of course, all of us holding a tree. And we hand out more little trees to passersby until it starts to rain. We pack up the map, get an extra flashing bike light at the bike shop on the square for safety, and ride the tree bike along our marked route up and down hill to Rudka. Park the tree bike there behind a bus stop and ride along with Daan through the pleasant-looking gently rolling landscape to our detached cottage in Louka. Time for administration, food, tree care, thunderstorm, and so on. A real break day in fact!
day 43 - fri 23 may - 55 km
Letovice (Louka) - Brno (Kninicky)
Today Wijnand and Cyril are biking with us. Unfortunately, renting an extra bike didn’t work out. So Wijnand cycles instead of Sanne today. The road goes nicely downhill with occasional bits of uphill, doable even for twelve-year-old Cyril. By noon and after twenty kilometers through a beautiful and sunny landscape we get in the car to go to Tisnov, which is slightly off the line, where we will plant a tree. A contact through Wijnand. That includes the television from Tisnov. Am curious to see what they will broadcast. After planting the lime tree we ride back to the tree bike and cycle the next leg of about fifteen kilometers to Kurim. On the way, we think that we could have nicely given the hundred little trees we selected yesterday to Kurim. Wijnand calls the lady who was there and she is happy. Great, that’s a nice destination for the little trees that still need some time to recover before they can be distributed. In Kurim we drive by chance past the town hall and decide to ring the bell. Wijnand presses the bell of mayor Sukalovsky, yes he has his own bell, and a little later he is standing next to us at the tree. He is thrilled that we are stopping by and invites us for coffee. Daan and Sanne have also arrived. We go out the door with the promise that Kurim wants to join us, take pictures at the tree bike and drive on toward Brno, where we spend the night in Kninicky, about ten kilometers northwest of Brno. When we arrive at the hotel, Daan’s daughter, Cecel, is waiting for us; she has come by bus from Vienna and is cycling with us for two days. After a deserving beer, I drive back with Daan to Rudka near Letovice to pick up the E-bus and trailer we left there this morning. So towards evening with the low warm sunlight, this rolling landscape is extra beautiful, a feast to drive through. My thoughts take flight: Why is there such a big tension between what I see and what I know. I see a beautiful landscape, varied, green, rich, etc. And at the same time I know that nature is in bad shape and biodiversity is in decline. How can this go together? How does this work? And how can we pay attention to this? These are questions that concern me. Daan and Cecel sleep in the hotel, Sanne, I and also Wijnand and Cyril sleep deep in the forest, not easy to find this little forest cabin under a bright starry sky.