TRAVEL. HIKING. WILDFIRES.

When Life Begins in the Valley of Destruction

Hiking where wildfires once were raging

It was silent. Somewhat eerie. Walking through this area where fires had destroyed everything. But when I just listened for a moment I could hear the fungi growing. The grass was moving in the wind. And birds were singing again. They have returned and made this again their home.

Nature has returned.

Waking up to the sounds of nature, we packed up camp after a relaxed breakfast with coffee and tea. We're loving our new camping gear accessories such as pots and cups that pack up in each other and a small foldable table.

Driving further north into what is known as Bohemian Switzerland, we passed beautiful gorges, steep cliffs, flowing rivers and mountain ranges covered in thick forest.

But all of a sudden we were left with our mouths open. Entire mountains were burnt down to the ground. Nothing was left of the forest that once stood there.

"The fire raged for almost three weeks in the summer of 2022, and was declared fully extinguished on Aug. 12. It affected an area of over 1,000 hectares including some of the park’s most popular areas. The rocky forested area is in the northern part of Czechia and extends into neighboring Germany, where it is called Saxon Switzerland." — expats.cz

While certainly read and heard about the devastating fire last year, it didn’t stay in my memory or come up in my research upon this trip which is why I was taken by surprise and in shock.

We all know what wildfires do to a landscape and have seen more than once a burnt landscape at least in the news. But when you’re now driving past it seeing the destruction with your own eyes, makes the whole thing more real.

We parked the car at an almost abandoned and rundown campsite. Realizing now the trail I had in mind to hike was closed due to the fires, we decided to head out anyway and hike where the trail was open.

The beginning was calm with barely any destruction visible and trees covered in lush green foliage. But that didn’t last very long. Soon we saw countless logs lying on the ground. Burnt or not.

And this is now where another kind of destruction made this whole scene worse. Even before the fires, this national park had suffered.

A tiny creature, the bark beetle has invaded the area and destroyed most of the spruce forest which anyway wasn’t a healthy forest. No monoculture is ever healthy. And these spruce forests which gave been planted between the two wars in the previous century, suffered from the beginning with the dry climate.

While the Czeque Republic first fought against the beetle, they had recently changed its tactic leaving the beetle take down entire mountain ranges. The dead trees were left standing protecting new vegetation from the beating sun. New life could grow and a healthy mixed forest will hopefully soon appear.

Looking at the situation from that angle, the wildfires helped nature clear the sick and dead trees. While tourism will suffer for longer. Nature has already started its recovery process.

New fir trees have since grown, bundles of grass are sprouting everywhere and foxgloves are blooming across the burnt landscape. In less than a year, some kind of an undergrowth has appeared.

This was the day we didn’t look at the weather forecast and also didn’t grab our rain jackets. Of course, not long after starting the hike, the first raindrops were falling.

And as karma wants it, just as we were entering a mountain range almost entirely erased by the fire, the rainfall got stronger. We were looking for caves or some kind of an overhang by the cliffs looking for protection from above when we saw 'the survivor'.

An old beech tree that survived the wildfire like a miracle. All trees surrounding it were burnt down to the ground. But not this beech tree. She was standing tall and strong shining with her lush green foliage. And those leaves were the roof we needed.

We stood there and waited out the worst of the rain before we continued walking across the destroyed hills.

It was a very different hike. Both of us were lost in our thoughts. Seeing the destruction but not knowing if it was a set fire to get rid of the sick trees or if it was a wildfire, our imagination created its own reality.

And while thinking of and seeing the destruction, we couldn’t unsee all the new life that was sprouting everywhere. Starting with the 'fire fungus' as David called it.

An orange-shining fungus was covering large parts of the burnt soil certainly indicating this mushroom doesn’t need moist ground but grows out of ashes.

And yes, the sky was gray not helping the ambiance in these destroyed mountains or adding to it. But I couldn’t unsee all the lush green grass and new plants that were creating a brilliant contrast to the burnt logs and orange fungi.

And since we now started enjoying this different kind of landscape, we decided to take a turn left and lengthen our walk. It lead us down into the valley of destruction where a sign warned us about falling trees as the area doesn’t get cleared or checked regularly.

I got the chills imagining the heat that must have been standing here while the fire burnt every single thing in the valley. It must have been brutal. Nothing escaped.

And yet. Life returns.

We walked for a while in the valley but not long after climbing up again, the skies cleared and the sun appeared. Entering again a healthier part of the forest, our mood lifted and we walked lighter again.

Stopping on the ridge in a clearing in the forest, we decided to fly the drone and inspect the destruction from above.

While David was filming in the skies, I focused on the small joys below.

New life.

These foxgloves must enjoy the burnt soil too as they appeared everywhere.

As the sun was out and I didn’t fear my camera getting wet, I took the good piece out of my bag and took some close-up pictures of the very unique fungi growing there.

We soon arrived back at camp and made ourselves comfortable underneath a tree.

This was a very different kind of hike but we enjoyed it nevertheless. It was special walking in such a from fires devastated area and yet seeing so much new life sprouting everywhere.

It teaches us to see the positive in life. Disregarding how bad something is, nature never gives up and comes back to life. Always. And that is why we should look after her even more.

This was day 3 of our short road trip through the Czech Republic:

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