24 April : We leave Prague, we like Slovakia

After our two nights in Prague we set off east, the motor way became very bumpy, it’s the concrete slabs which get misaligned by too many heavy lorries. We had a really nice camp site by a lake (Vidlak) near Opatov. The camp site is run by a Dutch couple, we were the only guests until late at night when a Slovenian camper van turned up, they had been on the same site as us in Prague and the guy greeted mike like a long lost friend, despite only having nodded previously. We had a really pleasant walk round the lake the next morning. The bird life is now distinctly eastern Europe with Black Stork, Lesser Spotted Eagle, Serin , Hoopoe to name a few, we also had a Stone Martin in the woods, a few Red Deer and Wild Boar had been digging up the ground in some places. On eastwards we went and ended up at Roznov near the Slovakian border. If the lake site was the best camp so far then this was the worst. It looked as thought it was a communist era holiday camp where commissars sent the workers who had met their quotas. It seemed not to have had much paint since. The fences were a bit too high to be comfortable, there was a dog barking somewhere and one expected searchlights on the campers at night. We were the only visitors that night, perhaps all year? There were Hawfinches in the trees so the place was not a complete write-off. It rained all night and in the morning we did not feel inspired to go for a walk so we packed up early as our washing continued to dry on a clothes line from Pyj to a nearby Hazel tree. We got to Slovakia very soon after setting off, we still have not seen a proper border post with checks etc, since we left home. But we got pulled over by the police after a few miles. Carol had to show her license, PP and vehicle papers. They were just checking - something about a break out at a camp in Roznov!! Slovakia has an attractive alpine, rustic feel about it. Lots of pine forests and meadows its beautiful with snow capped mountains (Tatra range) . The last camp site going east in our book was at Levoca which we pulled into at 1450 hours. Lovely setting in a quite side valley with pine forests and a good outlook. Nice couple running it but not much English around. We make do with a spattering of German. In both Czech and Slovakia we have seen huge arrays of solar panels - the farmers here are on to a nice little earner it seems.  (Please see the Europe page for extra photos of our trip so far).