Graphite has been mined in this part of the Czech Republic for 100+ years, but this particular mine was only started in 1975 (the youngest mine in the territory). It ran till 2003, when it was closed due to insufficient demand for the product.
Our tour group consisted of the two of us and our guide (named Milan) who spoke English with a limited vocabulary but excellent pronunciation. It was hard to remember to speak slowly and carefully when asking questions. They provided us with all the requisite safety gear for the well-equipped miner.
We rode into the mine in small cars pulled by a battery-powered locomotive. The ride was anything but smooth -- slamming from side to side, lurching forward and back, grinding and bumping coming from the wheels. It was loud enough that I had to cover my ears for most of the trip.
Inside the mine we looked at the air powered drills, how a rock face was rigged for explosives, the power shovel used to muck out rubble, and some stalactites which are growing from the ceiling.
At one point in the tunnel you could see a 4" wide vein of graphite running through the rock. As part of the tour we were required to get a smudge of graphite on our face, so Beth dabbed some on her nose.
We thought the mine tour was one of the highlights of Cesky Krumlov, but most of the tourists preferred rafting the river for their adventuresome activity -- it was probably the second most popular tourist activity in town. Lest we miss out, we spent the afternoon on the river. We picked up a yellow plastic canoe and with a quick briefing on how to navigate the occasional dam we were off.
The river was actually quite placid -- an occasional riffle and some tricky rocks in shallow spots, but nothing too challenging. Of course, that's not to say that we weren't challenged at various times. There were several rustic restaurants serving beer along the river; beer drinking being the *most* popular tourist activity in Cesky Krumlov, the Czech Republic, and seemingly all of Europe. We tried to stop at one but ended up spinning circles along the edge of the river. After such a fine display of skill I was too embarrassed to stop, so we did another full turn (just to make it look like the other ones were intentional) and then continued down the river.
We caught up with three guys in a rubber raft who were speaking English, and when we started talking to them we found that they were from Shoreline, Washington. Small world.
We found a gentle bend in the river that was more suited to our skill level and pulled in for a short break.
When we reached the take-out point a van was waiting to haul us and two other rafts back to town.
We spent the evening planning the final week of our trip. We have Internet connectivity at this pension (a surprisingly rare occurrence), so it is a good time and place to make plans. We're going to do some hiking in Heiligenblut and Zell am See and then catch the train to Munich for our flight home. We found several potential pensions and shot off email messages asking about availability.
The track below is for our river trip down the river.
View 2009.09.22.track in a larger map
You two make a cute pair of miners! Thinking of going paragliding in Zell am See?
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