Down the Old River to Třeboň

A dead-flat 25.7 km through the Třeboň pond country — the Stará a Nová řeka reserve, the stone bridges of Stará Hlína, a beer in Nová Hlína, and Třeboň to finish.

Ten metres of climbing in twenty-six kilometres — this is walking as the Třeboň basin does it, on dykes and sandy forest roads between water. Come in autumn: the oaks turn, mist hangs over the ponds in the morning, and the region is at its photogenic best.

From Majdalena station the route follows the Lužnice north into the Stará a Nová řeka reserve, where Krčín split the river four hundred years ago; the path keeps to the dykes among meanders and floodplain forest, past the keeper’s house at Novořecká bašta. Beyond Vitmanov it swings west around the top of the Rožmberk system to Stará Hlína and its two Schwarzenberg stone bridges — the long 1799 inundation bridge is the best built thing on the route.

Nová Hlína, a short way on, is the beer stop; from there the final kilometres follow the causeways between the Hlína ponds and arrive in Třeboň through the old town gate. Trains and buses run from the town; the spa, the square and the Regent brewery will absorb whatever daylight you have left.