Gratzen Mountaineer

The aim of the challenge is to visit 20 of the 21 selected peaks of the Novohradské hory and Novohradské podhůří during 2025. A special selection of peaks has been prepared for you by Lamin73.

Lamin73 invites you to the Novohrad Mountains

Picture one: a used Skoda 120L making its way along the mountain road from Malont to Pohorská Ves. Inside sit parents and three small children. The mother tries to motivate them for the following trip: "Have you children ever seen a forest?" The children accept the motivation quite boredly until the moment when the gravel truck pulls up to the junction to Pohorská Ves. "Let's go right here!" commands the navigator. Then the children's eyes just pop out as expected. At the crossroads in the direction of Pohorie na Šumavě there is a military GAZ and a group of PS officers with sharply loaded submachine guns standing on the road. Of course, we turned left :-). And I didn't see the Hojná Voda forest until about 10 years later...
(summer1985)

Picture two: Heat to fall. Today was the first time I could drive our lovely little gravel car. Oh yeah, I've been fiddling before the test and the papers won't be in until September after the repairs. Now I'm sneaking around on my bicycle, my parents dropped me off at the dam of Horusice Pond. I passed through Třeboň a while ago and I'm heading towards Nové Hrady. And again those eyes are rolling! On the horizon I see two dominant hills sticking straight out of the plain, I only find out that they are Vysoká and Kraví hora after a while. But the sight is etched in my heart like few things. I' ll probably never erase it!
(summer 1992)

Image 3: In my company car, I'm reconnoitering the terrain while creating a 1:10,000 base map. And lo and behold I no longer have the neighbouring sheet with me. Anyway, I've always boasted about my excellent sense of direction, so off to Leopoldov. It must be right here, left here. After almost half an hour's drive, and about 20 km of wandering under Myslivna, I arrive in an almost deserted village. The sight of the ruined church gives me the chills again. On the night of May 29, 1999, my friend Tomáš and a group of kids were passing through on a caravan, and they could think of nothing better than to spendone night in the church, which was freely accessible. A day later, the church tower collapsed and the news went around the whole country...
(summer 2001)

I could write dozens of these pictures. I won't burden you with my sentiment any more. I just wanted to give you an idea of what the mountains are like. They are rough, but beautiful. The southern part, especially the Novohradky (sorry, it's not called anything else here) are mountainous, mostly forested and, since they were all in the so-called Sudetenland, relatively sparsely populated, with very poor transport links. Operator signal failure is not uncommon here. In the south, the mountains continue into Austrian territory, where they are even a little wilder and higher. The deep forests are full of mushrooms and other delicacies towards the end of summer. Below the High, you can find the Buquoy paths made of stones. Small rockeries of various shapes are scattered throughout the woods. Here resembling a rabbit, here the head of Napoleon. There are beautiful views of the countryside and, above all, peace and quiet. In short, there is a lot of forest wildlife, but fortunately little human wildlife. The northern part is already relatively more populated and the Czech element has always been predominant here. The region is tied to folklore and tradition, especially in the Doudleb region. The beautiful folk architecture enhances this character. Numerous monuments, including those of a technical nature , fit sensitively into the countryside and do not destroy the landscape, but rather complete it. Whether it be the famous horse crossing, the Busk hammer, the castles on the Malše, the Stations of the Cross in Rimovo or a number of other small religious monuments, there is much to see and discover. Just one warning in conclusion! Exploring this landscape is addictive for emotionally weak individuals! And the likelihood of the desire to return is then considerable!
Lamin73

We Lamin73 thank you very much for the preparation and nice chat!