The geocaching Easter

Last Tuesday was concluded by a theatre visit, which was excellent. János Arany, one of the greatest XIXth century Hungarian poets, was the subject of a one man show, given by András Bálint, reciting many beautiful poems by him, 4 of his famous ballads, many letters he wrote or received and other documents relevant to his life. I teamed up with Jutka and we both enjoyed ourselves a great deal.

András Bálint

As my allergy attacks had really taken a lot out of me, the following two days were spent mostly at home, trying to rest and recuperate. There were quite a few trips and hikes planned for the 4 day Easter holiday and I wanted to be in tip top form.

Jutka by one of the springs

On Good Friday I finally managed to go geocaching in the Visegrád Mountains and pick up 6 geocahes at the same time.  Both Zsuzsi and Jutka were supposed to be coming, but Zsuzsi was a bit unwell, so it was just the two of us. We got going quite early and managed to leave the car at the end of the hike, catch the bus back to its beginning and start climbing. The distance was only 8km, but the height climb was in the region of 450 metres, very steep both up and down.

The view from the top

The first three caches were quite close to each other and all three was roughly at the level before the very steep stuff started. They were all next to springs, which made it quite pretty and cool.  The weather was a bit changeable, but stayed dry.

The Calvinist church in Leányfalu

The fourth cache was on top of the mountain, quite close to the fantastic lookout point on the very top. The panorama and opportunity to take marvellous pictures was much used and we had our sandwiches there as well. This was followed by a horrendously steep descent, which was a bit hairy, but fun. The last cache was also by a spring, after which we took about an hour to get back to the car.

A pretty little chapel in the puszta

As it was only about 2pm, we decided to drive to a nearby village and do a multi-parter cache there. That was quite interesting too, except the car was a bit coughing from the 3 point turns on 45 degree gradients. It is in these situations when I can't trust the TomTom, because occasionally it does go awry. However, we should have believed it, because later, when we did find the last part we were looking for, we realised that there was one place where we were only a few hundred yards from it with the car.

A wild hare, also in the puszta

On Saturday Roy and I went caching, this time by car and we visited a few interesting places about an hour's drive from town. We also  found a nice restaurant where he had lamb and I had catfish. Both were delicious. The tally for that day was 5 caches.

Roy finishing his sweet

Saturday was probaby the highlight of the weekend, as we visited Bozsa and Árpi, our very good friends in Csobánka, a picturesque village about 40 minutes from town. Árpi promised me some time ago to accompany me to some of the caves in the area where there are geocaches as well. In the first cave, we had to climb up through a tight funnel into a larger, but tilted, damp and slippery chamber to get to the cache.  I have nearly chickened out at the end, but perservered and with Árpi's encouragement made it all the way. Everybody thought I was the bees knees, I was just glad to get out of that cave alive. We also got the cache, so that was OK.

In the canyon on little bridges

Then we walked a few kilometres down that mountain, across on the ridge to the second cave, which was not nearly as dangerous, but still needed co-operation from all three of us, with one (Árpi)  climbing high for the cache, the second (me) climbing to just beneath him to take the cache for noting the password, and the third (Bozsa) holding the light at the bottom, illuminating the side of the cave, so that we could see what we were doing. We got that cache as well, so the tally for that day was 2.

The view from the top of the canyon wall

Afterwards we were treated to a marvellous dinner at a great restaurant in the next village and went home extremely happy.  The only downside of the day was that silly me left the camera on the table at Bozsa's house, so there are no pictures of the cave or the glorious view from the first mountain we climbed.

Wild cherry blossom in the forest

Finally, yesterday was yet another caching hike, but this time with just Zsuzsi. We went back to the same area where Bozsa and Árpi live and picked up 3 caches with a hike of about 11km. The first was in a canyon, the second by a holy well and the third just in a damp area of forest way up in the heart of the Pilis Mountains.

The Holy Well with pilgrims

Needless to say that I am now nursing my back, knees and a few other parts, which have been creaking from all this hiking, and then I'll have to pack and leave for the South where we are off to a spa town for the medicinal waters and for some more geocaching. Next post in about a week, as usual!