Another eventful week (and a bit)

Our 5-day stay in Bér went past in a whizz. We concentrated on tidying and mowing the garden, pruning roses and generally catching up with the happenings of the previous 5 weeks. First shock was that we found the shutters open in the Bunkhouse, as well as a couple of windows open in both the Bunkhouse and the Kottege. Apparently, Anna thought that it would be nice to air the buildings and didn't realise that so far from her place that would not be safe. She said she would turn up with the money, but we pre-empted her by having lunch at the Mill on Sunday and she could hand it over then.

The Guesthouses at the Mill

The new table and benches by the rocks

We gave Irénke a small present for her trouble over the errant alarm and then found out that finally, after we last talked on the phone, the alarm started up again. However, they then rang the alarm man on the telephone number I gave them and he guided them through what to push in the control unit to disconnect the battery. Obviously, he agreed with Roy, who also thought that the trouble was caused by a dying battery. No more alarms since and I don't think we will bother ever again as we don't intend to use that alarm again.

On Monday we drove to Palotás, primarily to shop at the supermarket for food and the hardware shop for screws and things.  We wrapped that trip up with a lunch at the Sandos, one of only a few restaurants in the area. Tuesday we spent at home, but Wednesday I felt I had to go and recheck those caches of mine that went out many months ago, whether they are still there and also to install alternative virtual passwords as well.

Here the box was in its place

Out of the 4 caches we visited, 2 were missing. One for absolutely sure, as even the fallen tree trunk I put the box in was missing, the other probably, but by that time Roy was very hungry and tired, so I gave up looking for it after about a quarter of an hour. We replaced both and put out small screwed on keyfobs with the passwords on, just in case it happens again. In the case of the missing box in the tree trunk, I think that fell foul of people scavenging for logs to burn, the second one was probably taken by a boar, as I saw lots of wallows in the area.

The Rózsakert in Bercel

This day was rounded up at another restaurant, this time in Bercel, where not only the food, but the service was good. Last time we were there, the service was decidedly slow. Thankfully, it was a lot better this time. Their chef must be very talented, as he made me a gorgous bone soup, which I needed desperately after all that walking, followed by a beautiful piece of trout. In a village in the back of beyond, you don't expect such excellent cooking, but this place is ace.

Roy enjoying his gypsy roast

An old thatched shed near one of the springs

My glorious trout at Bercel

And then on Thursday we came back into town. En route we did three caches: one to place and two to find. The one we placed was a new method of hiding it for us. We dug a small hole in the ground under a walnut tree, whose branches nearly reached the ground, thus hiding it well. We then put the box into a piece of sewer pipe (brand new, of course!) and fitted that into the hole, complete with box.  It had its own lid and then we put a piece of concrete on top of it to totally camouflage it. Hopefully that should also last for a while, although I am not sure, as I have just had a phone call saying that one of my caches in Slovakia is gone again.  Let's hope it is there, just the guy looking for it was a bit of an idiot.

The other two caches were really close to the main road we usually take, one at a spring, the other by a weird sylvan spring in a bit of a hollow, on the side of an embankment. I nearly twisted my ankle hanging on there, I don't think these caches by this cocky young man with the caching name of sokoto5 are any good really. He has only so far found less than 200 caches and still thinks he knows it all. Takes no advice from experienced cachers and therefore finding his boxes is very rarely pleasant. I think I will stop looking for his boxes in future.

The poster of the Polish Film Festival

We also visited Decathlon, a sportwear shop, where we looked at folding bikes. I don't think I liked the one they had and will probably stick with the one in the bike shop in the apartment block where we are. In the late afternoon I had a cinema ticket, bought by Bozsa in the Urania cinema. There is a festival of Polish film, and being Polish herself, Bozsa was keen to go.  She brought Árpi as well, so we had a good time together.  The film was interesting and a bit sad, about three young men and the story of their friendship in the Second Word War. The Festival goes on until mid-December and there are several exceptional films on offer. This is the link to its program:
https://urania-nf.hu/esemenyek/1261/2018/09/13/fuggetlenul-lengyel-tortenelmi-filmsorozat

Waymarking on my Sunday hike

On Friday, Ian came round with my post, phone and camera. I was a very happy bunny indeed, although I then had to go to the phone shop to have the SIM cards exchanged again and to sort any problems. Initially everything was OK, but soon after I left the shop I realised that data traffic did not work on the phone. It was too late to do anything about it then, because I had to go to the dentist.

One of many glorious meadows in the mountains

This was the appointment when my dentist was supposed to fix the porcelain inlay into one of my back teeth, but as she was clearing out the temporary filling, she realised that there was some decay in the next tooth. This was the ideal opportunity, with most of the other tooth not there, to get to it and do the filling.  So I ended up more than an hour in the chair again. Honestly, I think the real agony is not the drilling, injections and other stuff, but the jaw ache one gets from keeping one's mouth wide open for over an hour.

An ancient oak tree by a picnic spot

After coughing up the balance of the inlay plus the cost of the filling, I tore off to the phone shop again, where the clever little chap fixed the data traffic problem in a jiffy. The API settings were incorrect or incomplete, I can't now remember which, but I was just so happy, I didn't care. Apparently, these settings are sent out automatically to all those phones that one's service provider recognises, but WileyFox is not one of those, so it had to be done manually. I could have kissed the fella, but I controlled myself and left with profuse thanks and a promise of buying my next phone from him.

A view down to the river through the trees

Saturday was not particularly eventful, we had a fellow geocacher call for the Event bucket, which I still had ever since my birthday hike and in the afternoon we had a big 4-way family chat on Skype with Alex and Meaghan. And finally on Sunday, having waited for my friends to say yay or ney, (one said ney with the others saying nothing), I went on a long hike in the Visegrád Mountains on my own.

Dilapidated missile silos near one of my caches

I had to visit 8 places: five of them were single caches, two of them were a 2-parter multi and another one a part of a large multi, other parts of which I hope to collect over the next few months. The weather was fantastic, mild and sunny with a slight breeze, the traffic was not too bad on the buses, so I started my hike from the highest village in those mountains about 8:30am.

Lovely bunch of autumn crocuses

The first two were quite easy, the third was an abandoned Russian rocket base on top of a mountain a long way off and once there the jungle that had grown up since it was abandoned was not easy to get through. Unfortunately, that one was not there. I had to jump through lots of hoops before the owner gave me the password. I don't think it was where it was supposed to be, although my arms were not long enough to reach it if somebody pushed it a long way in.

Signs of active forestry works everywhere

After this cache I had to descent on a really steep, windswept bit of forest onto the correct path. That descent gave my right thigh a serious bit of pain, which is still with me. To have a rest and my sandwiches I found a really nice big meadow with a bench under a wild pear tree. Once I finished I carried on and found the place where my next cache was. Unfortunately, the coordinates were way out and the terrain positively lethal, so I turned back. Since then I found out that I must have stood right next to the place where the cache was, but due to the inexact coordinates I was thinking that it was another 15 metres below me,  so I stopped risking my neck on the very steep, dangerus, rocky slope and therefore I missed it. Eventually, I managed to get the password from somebody, but I wish the coordinates were correct, because I like to find the box and stamp and write in the logbook.

One of many panoramic views to die for

After this cache came a really long and arduous descent again, but this time on uncleared and unmarked forest paths, that finally got me out onto a road about a mile off my route. Here I had a bit of luck and a nice young couple gave me a lift to the location of my next cache.  This was in the Bertényi Miklós Arboretum, which was lovely. Very well kept, nicely signposted and the cache itself was in the side of a ravine, which was exciting.

I took this hanging on a rock

After this one I had another rest by the bar in the Arboretum, where I bought two more bottles of water and ate my last banana. The walk down to the road by the river to catch my bus was about 5 more kilometres whichever way I went, so I decided to go East and take in another cache which had two parts.  Unfortunately this one was also missing. I found where it should have been, but the box was on the ground about 10 metres away. It had some little toys in it, but no logbook and therefore, no password. The cache owner didn't pick up, but finally I managed to talk to the club president, who looked up the password for me, so I could replace the box. I did that and then hightailed it down off the mountain to the bus stop.

The Arboretum map

The trip home was uneventful, although due to traffic disruption, the last leg had to be done by taxi. It cost me about £17 from Szentendre to the flat, which was a very reasonable price. I would not have been at home before midnight, had I not flagged that taxi down. I am glad I did.

A cairn in the middle of a ravine

Today I was hardly mobile. The lactic acid is very slow dispersing from my right thigh, but I still managed to hobble to our favourite local restaurant for lunch. In the late afternoon my friend Eva came by with my complementary T-shirt from the Hungaria Cup that I did all the English translation and correspondence for. We chatted for a while and then she went to her doctor's.

Visegrád Castle from my last cache

The meadow full of crocuses where I photographed the castle from

Tomorrow is another rest day, as Wednesday is another caching day with Mariann, my good friend.  Thursday we are going home, via the garage where Dusty is having his third yearly service.