Explore the cave

The giant entrance portal hidden deep in the woods outside Ochoz near Brno will take you back thousands of years in time. Through it, you will enter the darkness of the tunnel-like Pekárna cave, famous for its findings of prehistoric stone and bone tools and engravings on animal bones. Turn on your headlamps and explore the dark corners, the ceilings blackened by smoke, and perhaps discover a treasure archaeologists have overlooked.

Inside the prehistoric dwelling

The most mysterious thing is the feeling that it was in this very place more than 12,000 years ago that prehistoric troops roasted the meat of hunted animals, rested on furs or created small works of art for fun. Let your imagination run wild and play prehistoric hunters with your children, carve wooden statuettes, draw wild reindeer and herds of horses, and nibble a snack in the musty gloom of an ancient dwelling.

The Pekárna cave is 64 metres deep, it is a national natural monument and is freely accessible. The sun is breaking into all its parts, making it a mysterious place safe to visit with children. In the dark corners, you can see bats or the rare moths the cousin german (protolampra sobrina). In freezing winters, the cave is transformed into a fairy-tale decoration of icicles and ice dwarfs growing out of the ground, which sometimes grow up to one metre high.

Into the labyrinth of the bear's den

From the Pekárna cave, go down the stairs to the crossroads of hiking trails and follow the green trail a short distance upstream of Říčka. You can take a break at the tourist shelter, and then take a beaten path that will take you across the main riverbed to the other side. Don't be fooled - The stream is not dry, it just flows under normal water conditions hidden in unexplored caves deep below the level of the trail.

The sinkhole where the water disappears underground is only about 300 metres upstream, and you'll even find an estavelle a short distance beyond. You've never heard that word before, have you? No wonder, because it is the name for a very rare phenomenon - A place where a stream disappears in the caves, i.e. a sinkhole, but at high water the stream flows out of the cave system - i.e. a spring.

From the aforementioned shelter, the path leads you to a climb, and at its end you will find the entrance to the cave of the Švédův stůl cave. It may be a bit smaller than the Pekárna cave, but it is still a decent 30 metres deep, which is also comfortably lit by daylight. You can have fun with the kids here with several passages out onto the plain above the cave. It's a great place to play hide and seek and chase. But now you won't be playing in an ancient human dwelling, but a den of prehistoric hyenas and bears.

How to plan a trip?

The ideal way is a direct connection from the Úzká bus stop in Brno to Hostěnice, where you can take a break on the playground with climbing frames and have a lemonade at Občerstvení U mě. The red sign will take you from there straight to the Hostěnice sinkhole. Following the route of the Údolí Říčky nature trail you will reach the Pekárna cave and the Švédský stůl cave (be careful here, it is not located directly on the trail), and when you finish exploring the caves, you can follow the blue trail through the picturesque valley of the Ochozský brook to Ochoz and then take a bus back to Brno. The total length of the route is 3.5km.

Another option is to walk upstream of Říčka along the green trail to the Hádecký pond and have something good in the local buffet during the summer. The bus stop is not far away. The total length of the route is 4 km.

The third version of the trip is a bit longer and is suitable for more fit or older children. It leads past the springs of the river Říčka to Kaprálův mill, the inn at Jelínkův mill and on to the Marian Valley in Líšeň, where public transport runs. The total length of the route is 10.5 km.