Suffolk - WHAT TO DO

"Tara" is our lovely 300 year old log house that we have been carefully renovating for the past three years.

Well it is almost ready now (Jan 2008) and we will be accepting guests for summer 2008.

The house is made entirely of wood and has been renovated completely in the traditional way even to the 'hand made' wooden roof shingles

'Tara' is situated in the middle of the Beskedy Mountain Nature Reserve in the Czech Republic close to the massive Sance reservoir lake and within view of the Slovak and Polish borders in the NE of the Czech Republic.

The Summer view of Tara before we renovated

The view from nearly the top of Tara meadow

This is the forest lane to Tara just below our meadow - no one who does not live in the nature reserve can drive along these lanes.

Sance lake, we are about as far away as the highland in the centre but more over to the right.

Tara 20.1.8, the snow is just going and then we oil the wood and paint the windows.

Dont worry - Lots more photos below this text !!

Brno Airport (Ryan Air) is about 2.2 hrs away and Ostrava Airport (Czech Airlines) about 45 mins.

We have organised a great taxi and car hire system for guests, whereby guests can be taxied straight from the airport to the house and on the way (25 mins from the house) pick up the hire cars even out of office hours, which can then follow the taxi into the Nature Reserve - the car hire for a medium to large saloon is approx £11.5 per day.

The house is ideal for 4 adults and 4 children, it has 5 spacious to extremely spacious bedrooms.

The main room downstairs has a wonderful old-fashioned farmers oven which incorporates a bread oven and hotplate and has stairs up to the top of it where you can lie down on the sheepskins and sleep if you want.

The kitchen has 6 electric hobs plates and an oven as well as an original old fashioned wood burning stove with a big hotplate and oven.

There is a TV lounge room downstairs and a 42 foot verandah which can be opeend up in Summer to enjoy the amazing views over the Nature reserve to the Slovakian mountains opposite.

There is also a spacious shower washroom with underfloor heating and a washing machine and dryer for guests.

The water is supplied by automatic pump from our own spring and there is a lovely BBQ out house being built in the orchard with fabulous views.

The house stands in its own meadow of about 20 acres, all around is wonderful forest and the views from the verandah look straight across the valley and left and right for about 12 miles - there is no house, light, telegraph pole, road or sign of civilisation at all - it is a wonderful forest nature reserve where only those people actually living in it can travel to by car, everyone else has to walk, so very few cars and no tourist feel to the place.

But... not completely cut off ! The house was the focus of a tiny community of farmers and there are about 6 houses, mostly ancient within a short walk and there is a mountain top ski resort (again very untouristy) about a 45 minute walk along the forest ways and here there is also a pretty collection of old houses and a very nice walkers bar / restaurant.

As you can see from the photos most of the work has been done, we are just waiting a couple of weeks for the snow to go and we can finish off the work like painting windows and oiling the roof.

We would be offering the house to guests for 2 week slots running from Saturdays.

Please enquire from our homepage enquiry button at www.grove-cottages.co.uk or more details or if you wish to book. You may also call me (Mark) or Millie in office hours on 01787 211 115

This is an absolutely fabulous place for those who want enjoy nature and style, we are putting together a 'What to Do' web site specially for 'Tara'.

'Tara' sleeps 8 and costs £850 per week.

I will be adding to this page with new photos as they happen.

The photos:

This is Jan 2008 and the Snow is going.

This is the view from a bedroom window, that is Slovakia in the distance and everything you see is inside the Nature Reserve and there are no signes of man anywhere - day or night.

This is the back door, we are just starting to put in some handrails for the steps down to the meadow.

This is the bottom meadow, where the BBQ house will be built amongst the apple trees, the spring and small ponds are to the left.

In the background at the top of the meadow is where the cart track to the mountain lodge restaurant bar is.

This is the view from the Verandah, we have designed it so that the upper wooden panels can be removed and the windows swing up so that in summer it can be completely open - even the wood panels behind the love heart uprights comes away.

One of the 2 large double bedrooms upstairs and there is a third single bedroom like this as well - downstairs there are 3 bedrooms one large twin, one double and a single.

Our meadow, we sometimes let the local farmer use it forhis cows for 3 weeks, it helps the meadow and him.

One of the 3 bedrroms in the roof, 2 are doubles like this, the other one has a 4 poster bed and one is a single

There is a large dining table for 8 facing the old fashioned wood burning heating system for the house which you can also cook on and bake cakes in and even sleep on top of, we have discreetly added a state of the art electric central heating system for the whole house, but it is good to know that if we ever have to resort to survival tactics we will never ever be cold !

Here you can see the stairs leading up to the top of the oven where you can snuggle down into the sheep skins for a snooze if the bedroom is just too far away.

There will be some more sofa seating and there is in addition another lovely room where people can play games or watch TV.

In the right of the picture is a nice big table for the children to map out expeditions and make drawings of what they saw today.

A view in January from another bedroom window.

The view from the bedroom window up our own private lane.

This is The massive Sance resevoir, we are about 10 minutes away, up in the forest, as you see this photo was taken in late September which is usually a very good weather month.

There are lovely cyleways,

How would you like to open you bedroom window onto this !!

I took this photo 21st Jan 2008

For more information contact Mark at www.grove-cottages.co.uk - mark@grove-cottages.co.uk or telephone 0044 1787 211 115 International or 01787 211 115 within the UK.

This is the end of the 45 min walk to the top of the mountain behind Tara.

you can just see the ski lift pole just behind the wooden fence and this was taken from the welcome restaurant outside beeer garden.

... and those are the Tatra mountains in the far distance.

This is the forest lane just before Tara's meadow.

You pass by here when you walk to the top of the mountain from Tara.

This is the lovely wooden church at the museum village of Skanzen

Check out the link for more information on these wonderful places. There are 3 really beautiful parts to this living museum, the wooden town, the valley of the water mills and up the hill the farming community, the houses are here are keft alive with people using them in the original way, it is a truly fascinating view of history and there are guides for everything in English as well. Oh and some very excellent cafes and restaurants again all in the old style.

www.vmp.cz/english/default.htm

This is the interior of wonderful Victorian mountain top fresh air Spar of Pustevny:

http://www.vmp.cz/english/pustevny-eng.htm

http://www.pustevny.czech-mountains.eu

You can reach the mountain top group of Victorian buildings by ski lift all summer and walk down from there. This amazing restaurant does great cakes and tea and the walk up to the statue to Radegast the Pagan God of beer which is just a 25 minute walk up the mountain - luckily enough the restaurant does also serve beer for when you come back down !

This is one of the lovely old wooden houses around Sance lake just down the valley 10 minutes from us.

This is one of our friends house in the next valley

Sance

Sance: We are just above the right fork of the lake.

Looking down form near the top of Tara's meadow, Tara is on the right and the Slovakian boarder is the mountain ridge opposite. Can you see any houses apart from us ?

Our Spring

Cows sheltering at the bottom of our meadow.

One of the Nature Reserve lanes around Sance where everyone who doesnt live here has to walk or cycle

Zuzi walking to Lisa Hora which is the high point of the Beskedy Mountains and a good days walk if you start early.

Lisa Hora with its radio station in the distance

Tara in the summer, this is how it looked when we bought it , we have reclad the walls with hand made wooden shingle shingles and we had to remake the whole roof which had rotted away. only took us 3 years !!

The barn infront on the right is still the same and is used as a hay barn.