Cold front (or not?), a visit to friends and lots of geocaching

On last Sunday the long expected cold front arrived with lot of rain and wind. It was so utterly refreshing that I didn't mind even feeling cold. On Monday we decided to return to town via visiting our friends Tibi and Klári in the Mátra, where they were spending a week on holiday. We have seen Tibi recently when we took Callum on the river and we had a trip in Tibi's boat. However, we haven't seen Klári in many a year as she works in Dublin and does not spend too much time at home.

Tibi leading the way

After packing up and putting on warm clothing (!!!) we set off for the Mátra and arrived around 11am. To our surprise there were 4 of them as Klári's mother and brother were there with them.  It was the first time we have seen them and they turned out a couple of lovely people, just as nice as Klári herself.

The sanatorium in the woods

Before lunch Tibi and I went to get a nearby cache, which was only about 15-20 minutes away, but that was a lovely walk. The view from the top, near the cache, was spectacular over one of the biggest sanatoria in the country. Wooded hills for as long as your eye can see, lovely environment! The weather, however, was disappointing. The cool breeze didn't last long and by the time we got back the cold front had fizzled out.

Blue rose in the garden of a neaby hotel

After lunch we visited two more caches, one in a lovely little park in the nearby town, the other by a spring which was reached after about a mile's walk. Roy suffered a bit on the way back, and we didn't find the cache, but it was still a lovely outing. About 4pm we took our leave and had an uneventful, if somewhat hot, trip back into town.

The rain shelter where the cache wasn't

On Tuesday I had my appointment with my homeopath and for the first time in a long while she was pleased with my results. Most things were either still OK or improved and she had only a few minor concerns, so I was happy too. As my liver seemed a bit under strees, I am back on spoonfuls of thistle seed oil and have to also eat a minimum of two brazil nuts daily for selenium, of which I am a bit depleted.  Other than that I'm fine!!!

The Rákos stream

One bit of fun and games this week included trying to open a new fixed rate bond online, which seems OK every time, but then fails to register.  Finally I had to accept defeat, so sent the form in, albeit about 6 weeks late, by post.  We'll see what happens!!

The St. Stephen's Church in Nagybörzsöny

After my appointment I went to a service place for ASUS to see if they can repair or replace the keyboard on my travelling laptop. No luck, unfortunately, so I am now awaiting a phone call, should they have been able to locate a replacement keyboard. Such is life! Serves me right trying to kill flies with a swat on the keyboard.

A cute little old Diesel engine

On Wednesday I had a nice little hike within the city, which was fascinating. Recently somebody put out a 3 parter geocache on a patch of greenery, fairly close to houses and old, abandoned industrial plants. The length of the walk was 5km and it was rather hot, but we managed to stay mostly in the shade. It is amazing how much wild life, both flora and fauna, remains in cities.

An embarrassment of choice in hiking routes

And finally, the big event of this week was the big  geocaching hike in the Börzsöny mountains. There was a promise of yet another cold front, but this one is still to arrive, so we set off very early to avoid the worst of the heat. We went by car to a village which has a narrow gauge railway up into the hills, and having caught that to its first station, we saved about 2 miles in distance and 100m of climb.

A weird little silver coloured mushroom in the forest

There were 7 caches we were after and as the day progressed it got hotter and hotter. I reckon that this mass of hot air and no wind that has now been stuck here for about 2 months on and off, will take a very massive quantity of cold air, strong wind and low pressure to shift and until that happens, we will carry on sweating.

Saw many of these pretty butterflies

The first cache was a 3 parter, introducing the village first, followed by a climb to a top to get the co-ordinates of the box at the end.  That turned out to be situated near the mountain switchback of the railway track about 2 miles away.  Then we took off for a place up in the hills which commemorates a writer who liked to hunt snipe there, followed by a 4 parter which took us to 4 springs from the old days. The next challenge was to get to the top of the next mountain where there was a beautiful view, but the cache itself was a couple hundred yards away amongst some rocks.

One of the prettier views on the hike

We got lost en route to the next one, because we wanted to short cut and then took the wrong path.  Never mind, we turned back and had an exciting, very steep descent to another set of rocks by a stream and path.  The last cache was on the next ridge after which we returned to the car.  Parched and quite hot we fell onto the first shop we spotted and bought copious bottles of cold water.  It was so nice just to cuddle the bottles for their coolness.

Most of our hike used these rough, forestry roads

En route home we picked up one more cache by a spring, very close to another narrow gauge railway line and then off home. I stood under the shower for about half an hour to cool down and get clean. Needless to say I was in bed and in the land of nod by 9.15pm and as the cold front has still not hit, we are hiding indoors waiting for rain today. Return to the village is planned for Monday.

Lunch was taken sitting on this log, with the cache behind me