The day after my last post we left the village and went into town. En route we finally managed to have the winter tyres swapped for the summer ones and arrived in good time for the theatre in the evening. The play was a one woman performance, which somehow didn't grab me, which might have had something to do with being very tired, rather than the quality of her acting.
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| The hills above Dömörkapu |
On Tuesday morning I had my doubts about going hiking, but as it has been arranged I thought I can always chicken out if I don't feel up to it. As it happens, I was absolutely fine. It is now very clear that provided I move extremely slowly with frequent rests I am fine, no matter how long the route.
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| Between Dömörkapu and Lajosforrás |
This time the length was about 12km and the climb just under 500m. It netted 5 caches and I enjoyed it tremendously. The first cache was only about half an hour from the start and it was commemorating an early pioneer who went to the Far East and never came back.
The next one had the most climb. Our route went past a famous spring, where loads of people were filling 5 litre containers with the spring water. Then came the climb up through a storm damaged, quite tatty forest to somewhere not too many people go. The cache was easy and we came off it to a saddle.
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| Nagyezerjófű - in English? |
At the saddle we turned uphill again to what used to be a rocket base with derelict silos and overgrown huts, which was quite spooky and we didn't linger. The next two caches were multis, but thankfully only with two parts. The first of them took us to the top of two mountains, connected by a path that led us to it straight away.
The second one had one part with a view and the other at another spring. From there we walked into the nearest town and had pretty good luck with a lady giving us a lift all the way to the railway station. We caught the next train and I was at home hours before Roy expected me.
On this day we were also quite close to the place where my hashing cap, that I lost 2 weeks before, might have been handed in. We did ask, but it wasn't there. On the other hand, the following day, when we went for lunch in the Jelen and asked about Stephen's cap, they have instantly produced it. Isn't that a lovely place?
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| Raoul Wallenberg statue in Pasarét |
On Wednesday, when my only plan was related to resting and trying to recover after my strenuous hike, Roy expressed an interest in going caching in town, because the weather was so nice that it would have been a shame to stay indoors all day. That was an offer I couldn't pass up, so we went. I decided to tackle two 6 parter multis, which I have been putting off for years.
Well, the first one wasn't too bad, but the second one was impossible and we were just about giving up on it, when I rang my caching partner of the day before and got the answers, so we could go home early. To be quite honest, I was very glad to abandon it, as it was getting on my nerves. We went to the Jelen for lunch which was a bit of a pain, as they still don't have a Thai chef, so the choices were a bit restricted.
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| Lovely little restored chateau in Kápolnyásnyék |
Thursday we did stay in, preparing for our holiday and packing. This holiday is in two parts: a weekend with our good friend Pityu in Monoszló, followed by a short week in Kőszeg with another set of friends called Zsuzsi and Robi.
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| Fancy big church in Székesfehérvár |
En route to Monoszló we managed to pick up 10 caches, which was great in and of itself, but the real enjoyment came from the fact that they were all hassle free and easy. Perhaps the fact that more than half of them had an actual alternative, might have had something to do with it, I suppose, but it has not diminished the enjoyment that I felt at not having to pursue neglected, non-existent little boxes in weird and inaccessible places. I may have mentioned this before, but my enjoyment of geocaching comes from the game taking me to beautiful, interesting, unusual and visit-worthy places where I might not have gone without geocaching, and not from those pesky little boxes which are often missing, broken, not there or pointless.
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| Along the Séd to the ruins of the old papermill in Sóly |
We left around 9:30 and arrived at Pityu's at a minute or two after 6pm. In between those times we visited a newly renovated chateau, an old quarry that now is a pretty little park, several parts of a biggish town on our way, a ruined old paper mill, the grave of the last highwayman in the Bakony mountains and finally a pretty spring with a little lake round it. We also popped in for a drink at a restaurant we have not yet visited in the area where Pityu lives, from which the panoramic views of the big lake and the vineyards with mountains between them were spectacular.
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| Looking down to the lake from the terrace of the restaurant |
Then today we had two different, but very enjoyable activities, the first being climbing one of the local volcanic mountains and in the afternoon/early evening we visited Pityu's vineyard and press house and had our tea there. Both were delightful, the view from both enchanting and very photogenic.
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| Glorious grey longhorn bull |
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| Panorama from near the top of Gulács |
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| A modern day dinosaur in the long grass |
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| David and Pityu en route to the top of Gulács |
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| In the vineyard |
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| One of many types of wild flowers |
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| Pityu's glorious pottery stove in his press house |
Tomorrow we leave here in the morning and journey cross-country to Kőszeg, where we will visit the town's attractions and take a few geocaching hikes into the surrounding countryside. We will be sharing an apartment with yet another couple of friends, who are traveling there directly. We will, on the other hand do some geocaching en route as well as visit an arboretum, where the rhododendrons are currently in full bloom. Assuming, of course, that it doesn't start raining, which unfortunately the forecasters have threatened us with. Let us hope they are wrong!!
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