Hello, everybody!

Today, I present to you the first ,serious“ () part of Czech republic journals serie. This time, the topic is ,, Geography and nature.“
Well, lets look at Czech mountines, rivers, lowlands, and nature, today with many pictures!


Mountains

It is quite interesting, that almost all parts of national Czech boundary are copiing the line of mountains, as you can see on this picture - [link] The highest Czech peak is called Sněžka ([link]), it is 1602 metres high and is located in the oldest Czech National park - Krkonoše. A nice curiosity is, that there is a boundary with Poland on the middle of peak, so you can be in two countries at the same time

Krkonoše (on the North - [link]) are very favourite place by tourists and sportsmen, for it is ideal place for tours and skiing, but also for admiring nature beauties. There are some gentians ([link]), rare birds ([link]) and low trees called dwarf pines. On the top of the Czech highest mountains, nothing can grow due to strong wind and cold climate. Krkonoše became a national park in 1963.

České Švýcarsko (on the North too, [link]) is the youngest national park in the Czech republic, founded in 2000. There are wonderful and magical rock ,,monuments“ ([link] [link]) with the most famous place called ,,Pravčická brána“ ([link]). In this park, you can find ,,Kamenice“ ([link]), the only Czech river with salmons ([link]). This kind of fish became extinct in the first decades of last century, but now they are returnig to Kamenice. České Švýcarsko is a home for more interesting animals, such as: falcon, [link] or lynx.

Krušné hory (on the west [link]) are very damaged by acid rains and the heavy industry, but the situation is getting better and better, for more trees can be seen there. But some years ago, the mountains looked deadly, like this - [link]

Šumava (on the South [link]) is absolutely wonderful place, whose nature strongly evokes Canada ([link]). Many of parts of this current national park (founded in 1991) were ,,well protected“ for decades due to ,,iron curtain“, system of fences and armed guards, which prevented Czech people to escape from non-democratic Czechoslovakia to Germany. So there were many zones, where nobody could come, for he would be shot. After the fall of communism in 1989, tourists had a chance to discover this piece of almost absolutely untouched nature, where they could find for example natural lakes and peat ponds with carnivorous plants ([link]). Šumava used to be a home for wolves, but they all were killed many years ago, unfortunately. But it is still possible to see very protected lynx ([link]) there.

Vysočina is a highland (in the middle of the country [link]), which is favourite by tourists too, and there are many very nice places ([link]). I love going there especially in Autumn, when all the trees are coloured… there are also clear rivers with trouts ([link]).

Jeseniky and Beskydy (on the East [link]) are very unique in the Czech republic, for the fact they are home of some big mammals, which you can not find in another parts of the country. In Beskydy, you can see izard ([link]), lynx ([link]), but, what is the most important, it is also home for brown bears ([link]) and… wolves ([link])! There is a pack of probably eleven wolves in the Czech republic. Yes, pretty low number, but some years ago, no wolf was in our country. There are returnig slowly, which I find absolutely great!


Lowlands

Well, I am gonna speak only about lowlands of South Moravia (Jižní Morava – on the South East [link]), where I live It is a region of wine ([link]), chalky white rocks and really unique environments. There is the very famous ,,Moravian karst“ area with one of the deepist chasmes in Central Europe. This 138,4 m deep chasm is called ,,Macocha“ (Eeeehhhhh…. Well, it means ,, Step-mother“ ) due to a legend about woman, who wanted to kill her little son-in–law by throwing him down. But the boy survived, because he did not fall to the bottom and somebody helped him… (Macocha and Moravian karst: [link] [link] [link]).

There is also very unique biotope, which is located only here in South Maravia, I think – a steppe ([link]). This region is simply one of the warmest in the Czech republic, so you can see rare animals such as mantis ([link]), European green lizard and so on. Heath ([link]) is a typical plant here.
On South Moravia you can see Palava hills ([link] [link]), another nature reservation with unique steppe biotops.

And the green-coloured area of the South Moravia ([link]) is Podyjí, the last of four Czech national parks. This one was founded in 1991 and its nature was protected by ,,iron courtain“ as Sumava. In Podyji, there are many mammals (rare otter, many species of bats) and bird species.

Another animals typical for Czech nature: red fox (of course! ), deer, roeback, wild pigs, hedgehog, squirrel, swan and so on…
Forests cover 1/3 of Czech area.



Waters


I think you must be pretty tired, so only few sentences The longest Czech river is Vltava, which goes through our capital Prague and flows into river Labe, which is known as ,,Elbe”( [link]) in Germany and which flows into North sea.
One curiosity – Vltava inspired one of the greates Czech artist, Bedřich Smetana for composing a symphonic poem ,,Vltava“. I love it, it is wonderful. You can ,,hear“ the life of the river – on the beginning, it is only a little stream, jumping through stones, it is getting stronger and stronger… and in the end, it is a mighty river, full of energy. Do not hesitate to listen it here - [link] - I think you can probably know it!
There are are many ponds on the South Bohemia, where carps are kept.

Do you have any question? Really do not hesitate to aks!


Thank you for your attention!


Next topic: Czech history.