Expedition Tornádo - July 2021

We took part in the DofE expedition and decided to accomplish it in southern Moravia close to Pálava National Park. In tribute to a tornado that occurred in an area we were initially supposed to go to, we named our group Expedition Tornado and have written a small diary about our adventure that you can read. We hope it will inspire you and motivate you to go foron an adventurous expedition on your own and have your own fun experience and learn new skills both for life and work.

5.7. 2021

From Mikulov to train station Pavlov

We had arrived in Mikulov and got going to the right where we found the first red touristic mark at the bus stop Mikulov U Parku. After that, we continued following the red touristic trail up until the camp Pavlov where an overnight camping fee was 130Kč/person.

We tried a nice approximately 2km long walk from the camp to Dolní Vestonice where you can find a museum (in reconstruction), bistros, restaurants, and an Italian ice cream stand. After this short trip, there is an option to come back to the camp and spend the night over there, however, it is really important to take into consideration possible changes in pricing-or more precisely come earlier and check the capacity because we didn't do it and had to sleep in the open air on a meadow.

The advantage of the camp is that there is an opportunity to swim, eat tasty food and you can even try windsurfing. We've found a beautiful spot under the willow tree so we walked to a dam to see an impressive sunset from this spot that night.

We prepared our meals the day before-toasts for lunch and pasta salad for dinner. The only thing we don't like about this day is that there was a bunch of mosquitoes-we had made a mistake by forgetting mosquito spray and also because we were too lazy to build a tent. If we had brought the bug spray with us we wouldn't have gotten so many mosquito bites.

6.7. 2021

From Pavlov to Bulhary and Paliště

We had started this day with a morning yoga session and after that, we headed to Bulhary. There were two options of the trail one was along the river, 8km long which was beautiful and the other one was an asphalt path which was 6km long. We chose the asphalt path because our backpacks were quite heavy and we had a relatively long way in the afternoon ahead of us at that time. This part was challenging although there were a lot of restaurants and wine stores. To eat something filling and rich in nutrients we made tortillas with peanut butter for lunch, we've made an amateur mistake though because we didn't make it with jelly so it was dry. We would recommend a lot of water or a jelly jar for you if you wanted to try it. What is great to try too is to talk to locals who are always nice and willing to help you. We met a sweet old lady who gave us 3kg of apricots so it was worth it and we had a nice talk. You can book a lot of different types of accommodation in Bulhary from camps to hotels. We went camping in Paliště Nejdek. We saw a pretty meadow on our way there and it would be a great place to stay with kids at. The camp is well-organized and great for summer because there is a part where you can even swim. Although the camp was cool we didn't stay there and decided to sleep on a meadow close by where we could build a fire so we cooked beans for dinner there. It was a great night however we forgot mosquito spray again so we were suffering the whole night until the sunrise came.

7.7. 2021

From Nejdek to Sedlec

Since we were super stiff we started this day with a yoga session again and we enjoyed it a lot altogether. We headed to Hraniční zámeček right after breakfast. There was a bunch of restaurants around. Since we weren't supposed to buy anything we moved on to pond Nesyt where the beach was perfect because nobody was there and we could cook our chili con carne for lunch. We even had time to take a nap but right after that, we headed to Sedlec. This way was beautiful because of the scenery of the vineyards we saw. We even encountered an ontological lookout where we were having a snack break and then we continued to Letohrádek Portz, where we saw another stunning view. We found a great spot to sleep and prepare tortellini for dinner at. This night was critical though. There was a thunderstorm occurring in the middle of the night however we were incredibly lucky to be able to hide in a wine cellar close by. We waited until it was gone and then had to dry everything up we decided to make a big fire at 3 AM and were standing around it until we dried everything out at 5 AM.

8.7. 2021

From Letohrádek to Mikulov

This was our last day and we needed to get up early even after a challenging night so we set out around 9 AM. However, the dust from the wine cellar and fire was unbearable so we decided to stop by the river to quickly wash it off and freshen us up. We relaxed a bit and then headed to Janičův vrch however, this way took us longer because some of our shoes burned up during the night around the fire so for this reason, we needed to fix them with tape and some of us were hiking even wearing their flipflops. We've found an unexpectedly gorgeous quarry after a whole so we swam there again. It was the best feeling and memory of our expedition because the water was crystal clear and we could finally cool off. After that, we made our last lunch and headed to Mikulov train station. We arrived in Prague with a delay at midnight.

Our expedition was super fun and challenging at the same time. We've tested our abilities and sampled effective teamwork. The motto of our expedition has become: we got into a crisis but most importantly we got out of the crisis. We all would definitely recommend it to everybody who wants to have a good adventurous time with friends.

Team members: Majda, Alča, Bernard, Fernando, Angela