Dentist, GPS maps, geocaching and orienteering

Our stay in Bér didn't last long as we got back to town on Tuesday for yet another dental appointment. The dentist had the almost final version of Roy's upper teeth done and he tried it on.  We worked it out that it should be a bit smaller, as the teeth looked enormous in Roy's mouth. She also fiddled with it so that it fitted perfectly on the top. She sent it back to the lab to make the final alterations and we had to go back the following day to see if that would be the absolutely final version or not.  I am glad to report that it was, but our super cautious dentist still didn't finish.  On Wednesday she fitted the now final permanent set of teeth, but with only temporary adhesive.  She wanted Roy to wear it for a week to see if it is comfortable and if and when it was then she would fix it with the permanent adhesive.  So we had to extend our stay in town by two days so that she can fix it next Tuesday, which is tomorrow.

Day 1 W65 course with my track on it

In the meantime I had a couple of people (my nephew Andris and my friend Andor) helping me with my GPS's and on Tuesday, after the dentist, we took two of our three laptops to Andris, so he could put on the required software for the download of maps onto the GPS's. It turned out that the little cheapo one I bought on Amazon doesn't have a map function, but I don't mind that, because I can use it without it. Andor came on Wednesday and explained how to mark waymarks and mark out routes and tracks.  I took copious notes, which currently I can't find, but I am sure they will turn up.  This must be one of those silly cases of having put it in a very safe place, so it doesn't get lost and then forgot where.

Day 2 W65 course which I missed

On Thursday I finally changed my mobile contract to one that will give me more free call time and half a gig more data per month.  It is barely more expensive and hopefully should now be enough for everything I need.  That was done on the phone, but next week they will courier a new contract to me which I have to sign and send back.

One of the Dabas manor houses

And then came Friday when we went down to the South for the weekend's orienteering event, geocaching on the way.  We actually managed to visit 8 caches, of which we did find 7.  When I logged them on our return yesterday I found that the one we couldn't find was about 50 metres from the place the co-ordinates pointed at. No wonder we couldn't find it.  Some other orienteers took over an hour digging up half the forest to find it and they posted the correct co-ordinates, which differed from the published ones about 12 N and 26 E.  That is about 50 metres, which is a bit too far to look for a rootstock in a forest. And in which direction should one go? We gave up and that was that. I wonder why people can't take even half way decent bearings with an electronic gadget like a GPS?

Dabas Church

The previous caches were absolutely lovely. The first being in Dabas, a delightful little town full of cute 18th and 19th century manor houses and other pretty buildings. That was our only multi, which was good as we don't really like them.  This was quite painless, especially that there was a virtual version of the end box and we chose to do that in preference to digging about in some scrappy forest outside town.

The Pusztavacs tower at the country's geometric centre

Next we went to the village of Pusztavacs, which has just on its outskirts the geometrical centre of Hungary which is marked with a tower.  There were two caches there, both of which we found quite easily and we also had our lunch there under some nice trees by a bench and table.

The next four were either ruined churches, bits of church ruins, the site of churches and finally one complete lovely church which was only about 110 years old. They were all outside the village they are attached to and in each case 1 or 2 kilometres away from those villages.  The first one consisted of a single wall and thankfully there was a tarmac road leading all the way to it, so Roy was happy.

A bench, an information board and a post surrounded by humps and hollows

The next one was just the site of an old medieaval church with a carved wooden pole commemorating it with humps and hollows where the walls were.

The plan of the little church from the Arpad dynasty

Roy by the modern cross at the medieval ruin

The single remaining wall at a distance

It was the third one of these churches that Roy was a bit moaning about, as he had to drive about 2km on a very dry and deep soft sandy track to it.  The car slid all over the place and I had to stop him trying to park up on soft sand.  Had he done so we'd still be there.  Finally I found a small amount of grassy, hard(ish) edge where he parked and I started walking.  It turned out that we were only about 100 metres from the ruin.  That was a really lovely spot.

The next one was also on a sandy earth lane, but not too far from the good road and we found that on the way back we could take a tarmac road all the way back to the main road, so that wasn't too difficult.  This was the church built 110 years ago and since then I found out on the internet that the money to renovate it to look as lovely as it did came from the EU.  Like most things around here.

Kunbaracs church

Once we got to the town where we were to stay it took a while to find the hotel.  They had no sign and looked very puzzled when I queried how they expected their guests to find them then? In the evening and after a fair amount of walking and getting lost, we found a lovely old inn where the service was good and friendly and the food was even better. Roy had pork with garlic and I had some mushrooms in breadcrumbs. We were in bed quite early as a couple of hard days awaited us. Especially as they asked Roy to help as well, which he gladly agreed to.

Start 2 awaiting competitors

Roy got sent to Start 1, which was three quarters of a mile away, but after a certain amount of toing and froing they took him there by car. I was on Start 2, which was right by Assembly, so that wasn't hard.  We built our tents and other bits and bobs and then the work started. Start 2 only had the children's and Open courses with no definite start times, so we were not too stretched and later I could go out running myself.  I had a really good run, even though I am hardly in a good physical shape and ended up third.  I was 48 seconds down on the leader and 3 seconds down on my friend Ildi in second place.  The latter was really annoying as I fell over on the run-in which must have taken me more than 3 seconds, so I could have been second.  This, while annoying, was the lesser of my problems; the bigger trouble was that my fall was caused by a low tree stump on which I stubbed my toe which starting throbbing and hurting a lot. Initially I thought I might have broken it, but it turned out just a very bad bruise and compressed joint, which was extremely painful due to not only the acute injury but arthritis.

One delightful little competitor with Mummy

This, of course, caused me to withdraw from Day 2 and a chance to catch anyone up, which would have been quite easy otherwise.  I could still do my job, however, except this time I did it sitting down. In spite of the injury and missing the second day's competition, I think it was a really nice weekend.  For me the highlight was when the owner of the forest, where the competition was held, invited all the organisers and helpers to his cellar for drinks and mutton stew.  He was a lovely guy and we had a good time there.

In the wine cellar

Roy with his mutton stew

Now we are back in town, dentist tomorrow and then back to the village. I have a hike with some friends on Saturday where I will drive myself and then return there.  This time we will be able to stay in the village for over a week.  The garden needs a lot of work and planting etc., etc.