Hungaria Cup

After a good 2 weeks' worth of not feeling particularly well, having some dizzy spells every day, we set off to Salgótarján on Saturday, 15th August.  Amazingly I immediately started feeling better.  I never know whether it was the activity that helped or perhaps that just took my mind off it, but I was looking forward to seeing my friends and to orienteering. The accommodation that I booked looked really nice, plenty big for the 5 of us, clean and well equipped. We arrived first and picked the slightly bigger room, especially that the WiFi router was in that room. As we were all quite hungry by early evening we went and had dinner in the Kiskulacs, which was recommended by our hostess.  The food was excellent, although the waiters seemed a tad forgetful at times.

Roy with a plaited pork fillet

Day 1 W65 course with my route

The first two days were about 10 miles down the road in a forest above a cute little village with a famous rhyolite site right on the first day's map. (See the small out of bounds bit to the N of control 5!) I didn't take my cap on the run, which proved fatal as it started raining hard and in the last third of the course I couldn't see the map or even the ground at times due to wet glasses.  The major cock-up of the day was overshooting 5 and taking about 6 minutes to relocate. Otherwise I enjoyed the course, even though it was physically very hard descending into and then climbing out of all those ravines. I ended up 4th on the day, which was OK, considering the headless chicken act.

Monday's lecsó cooked by Brigitta, our friend

On day two we were a bit to the North of the village with the Finish on the village green. The course was pitiful, not even a challenge to the average 12 year old. I ended up 5th as my lack of fitness made me slow on a primarily runner's course.

Day 2 W65 course with my route

The weather seemed a bit more clement on Day 2, although the real rain came long after we all finished running and managed to almost drown those of our party who hiked up to the rhyolite. I have seen it at least three times before, so I was back at the accommodation warm and dry. That evening we didn't go out to eat as one of our friends cooked dinner for all of us.  This was really nice, because the day before they went to Slovakia to have a look at a castle and had dinner there, leaving us to our own devices, as there was nowhere to eat in town, all restaurants being either totally closed or closing by 6pm.  The lecsó was delicious and we had it with bread.

Day 3 W65 course with my route

Day 3 was the sprint event in the centre of the city of Salgótarján. I liked the course (I came 3rd!) with its switching from forest to town and back again and the fact that the rain avoided us yet again, although managed to fall on those that ran later than us.  The first drops came down just as we got in the car to get back to the accommodation.  We also made contact with our Swedish friends whom we met in Albania and they were enjoying themselves too.  This was their 7th Hungaria Cup, although due to a clash with the O Ringen next year, they might miss that one. We arranged to have dinner with them in the Kiskulacs the following day.

Kazár folk costumes at the O event on Monday

The heatwave, which was in the process of breaking with all this rain had finally broken by Wednesday on Day 4 of the competition. On the 4th and 5th days we all ended up looking like drowned rats and chaos reigned around parking and other matters too.  These were the days when we were supposed to park on the plateau, accessing it on a steep dirt lane from the village of Rónafalu. This became a quagmire, so we took the local football pitch over and walked to the start. I, unfortunately, reacted to the sudden change in pressure caused by the torrential rain and ended up really unwell for most of the day. Thankfully, I recovered by the following day and managed to get round on Thursday, albeit rather slowly. On the day when I was not on top form, the course was actually excellent, just in my rough state I couldn't really appreciate it. The climb from 2 to 3 nearly finished me off, but I persevered and finished it. I actually came 4th, which was quite a feat in the conditions both meteorologically and healthwise speaking.

Day 4 W65 with my route

And then we came to Day 5: up the same steep hill to the start, but this time our courses circumnavigated the plateau, with both the Start and Finish up on the plateau, and the course in the forests and semi-open areas below and round it. As it was a chasing start with my friend Ildi in 3rd place nearly 10 minutes ahead of me and the 5th placed lady 20 minutes behind me, there was no need for any great rush. I pootled round slowly and while I came only 6th on the day, I comfortably finished  4th overall.

Day 5 W65 with my route

We left the event really early, it was around midday, had a shower, packed up and paid at the accommodation, and were at home before 3pm.  Since then we have done 2 lots of washing and hung it up, unpacked everything, opened the post, picked up the fallen plums and put them in the barrel and spent the rest of the day on the computer.  I am now heading to bed as we are leaving tomorrow morning for BP, having run out of all food.