The majority of the Czechs we met love being outside, biking & hiking and simply enjoying the outdoors, their gardens and their countrysides.  It is only perfect then that English Camp sets aside one day as Hike Day.  For the Strakonice camp, the Hike is a 6km hike straight up to a lookout point and then a 6km hike back down to a Rope Course.

The hike started at 9:30am and the way up was simply beautiful.

The rolling countryside turned into woods and we were hiking straight up a hill.  Some of the students were trying to do the entire hike walking backwards but when some got to this steep section they switched to face forward.  By this point everyone hiking kept asking "How much further?" (or maybe it was just me?  :)!) but it seemed to keep going and going. 

Now, at the end of the hike there is a lookout tower and at the lookout tower there is ice cream for sale.  Max simply couldn't wait any longer for ice cream so at this, the steepest point of the hike, he took off running.  I then took off running after him, thinking he'd get ahead of the whole hike and not know where to go.  I chased him and we ran straight uphill forever!  Well, maybe for just a kilometer, but it was going up and it seemed like forever!

By the time we finally reached the end of our 6km hike, we were at the lookout tower where it went from beautiful and sunny to rain in a heartbeat.  We ate our sack lunch & ice cream (which had mystery meat in the sandwich) and then we started the hike down.  1.5km down the hill we came to a little village, where we ran into Jozef who kindly offered Miriam (and I) a ride back to camp.  Miriam had been a super trooper hiking 7.5 km thus far but you could tell she was exhausted, not complaining but absolutely exhausted from working so hard.  (She was a zombie once she sat down in Jozef's car.)  At this point too, we drove with Jozef to go and rescue some camp hikers who missed a turn along the hike and ended up over 2 villages away from where they were suppossed to be.  Yikes!  Thank God for cellphones!  Our boys and Josh continued on down the hill with the rest of the students and then participated in the ropes couse.

The Rope Course was put on by what is normally a weekend/week long Adventure Camp based out of Prague.  The guy who runs the camp, David, also incorporates deep theological discussions into his camp.  When the hike & rope course were all over, around 5pm, David held an optional theological discussion time (in Czech only) at Benesova Hora.  All but 1 of my students went and they all said it was a great time and David really approached topics very intelligently and thought provokingly.  His talk also lead into some amazing discussions for us which was so great!

The more I learned about the Czech culture through the students at camp, the more perfect it is that they have this kind of day during English Camp.  When we had stopped in Leah's city, on a Saturday, it was like a ghost town.  Everyone leaves their cities and go to the countryside on the weekends to be outside doing something, anything.  I think Hike Day refreshed us as much as it did the students!

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