Hořidla to the Labe

A 29.8 km point-to-point hike from Horní Řepčice over the Hořidla lookout and Sovice hill down to Roudnice nad Labem.

This walk leaves the České středohoří by the back door: from the last wooded hills above Úštěk it descends gradually into the open Polabí plain, trading summits for lookouts, ruins and field horizons, and ends on the Elbe. It is easy going throughout — the interest is in the small landmarks strung along the way.

From the Horní Řepčice stop the route runs south through Chotiněves to the Hořidla lookout tower, whose platform sorts the whole day for you: the hills you are leaving behind to the north, Říp and the plain ahead. A little further on, in the fields between Encovany and Hrušovany, stands the ruined chapel at Prachová — the “old church” of this walk’s memory, marking a village the Hussite wars erased. Encovany and the villages of the Polepy parish follow, farm country with the hills shrinking behind you.

The last landmark is Sovice above Vetlá: a short out-and-back climb onto the lone hill people call the little Říp, settled on and off for six thousand years. From its top the finish is in sight, and the remaining kilometres run flat through Zavadilka into Roudnice nad Labem and its railway station.