Krušovice and the Mšec Ponds

A 33 km walk through the Džbán plateau country — Krušovice and its brewery, the Kalivody toad wetlands, and the pond chain around Mšec.

The walk crosses the Džbán — the quiet plateau country of white marlstone between Rakovník and Slaný, two-thirds forest and short on crowds. It starts at the Lužná u Rakovníka station (home, incidentally, to the national railway museum and its steam locomotives — worth knowing if you have an hour before the train) and climbs gently north to Krušovice at about km 7. The brewery village earns its stop less for the beer than for the Krušovická pekárna: soups, sweets and a poured beer alongside the bread, better walking fuel than most pubs manage.

The middle of the route is the best of it. Beyond Kroučová the path enters the woods and wetlands around Kalivody, where a small nature monument protects ponds and marshes along the Bakov stream — the fire-bellied toad’s home ground, loud in spring. From Bdín the route rolls on to the pond chain around Mšec, a string of reservoirs on the Loděnice stream with dams to walk and water birds to watch, before the last easy kilometres into Nové Strašecí and its railway station south of the town.