Makó, geocaching, hiking and a new phone

Our three days in Makó were delightful, albeit a bit crap vis-a-vis geocaching. On the first day, when I planned a good few caches to be found en route South, we made the mistake of taking a detour to Gyöngyös to do some food shopping at Tesco. This had taken about an hour and a half out of the day, which, of course, caused us later to be benighted too soon for finishing all the caches on the list.

Gyöngyöspata church

That was a shame, but those that we could find were very interesting and enjoyable. They included: a lovely tall-spired church that we have passed in the car a thousand times before, but never stopped to look at, an old ruinous country estate with an enormous poplar tree, a centre for the preservation of the Eastern Imperial Eagle, another big white church in another village, an interesting detached little village on the puszta and the ruin of a medieval church in yet another village. The rest on the list was left to another trip, which we will no doubt make some time in the future.

Makó Town Hall

The B&B was lovely, friendly staff, spotlessly clean and furnished with nice old furniture. The beds were very comfortable too and we had a tiny kitchenette where we could cook. Breakfast and all other meals were extra, but we prefer to bring our own anyway, so that didn't bother us. Unfortunately, the recommended Italian restaurant, Rocco's, was full to the brim, so we made a booking for the following evening and went to eat elsewhere.  That restaurant was fine, too, albeit a tiny bit empty.

Our bedroom in the B&B

The following morning we went out very early, even before breakfast, to walk around Makó and get its geocache. It is not a very large town, but has some lovely old buildings and lots of places associated with the one thing that makes Makó famous: onions. Don't laugh, Makó onions are definitely the best on the planet.  Large, hard, flavourful and last right through the winter provided they are stored properly. Even the thermal baths are called after onions, which I thought was sweet.

Downtown Makó

The rest of the day was spent travelling around the area, picking up caches as we went. I knew that being in the Great Plain, it will be flat, but was never prepared for the endless views that you get in the plains where there is nothing in your way to see all the way to the horizon. The caches visited included: a brand new arboreal walkway, which really took you up into the treetops and where the views of the forest and the river were really pretty. We saw an interesting old church, which had a bit at the back with was circular, dereliction was also on the menu, as there is one cache owner in the South, who loves showing you decaying buildings. This time he took us to a cemetery where the former landowner's family was buried and his crypt still stood.  Only just, I must admit, but it was interesting.

The tower on the aerial walkway

We also saw the memorial to the heroic defenders of the town, who in 1970 saved it from inundation by the river, then went to see remains of an old railway bridge, which was demolished after the Trianon Peace Treaty as it led into a foreign country, followed by an interesting 17th century old carved stone cross in the middle of nowhere. The next one was a cache looked after by my good friend Gyuri, and I loved it. A really sweet old chapel, unfortunately right next to a modern dual carriageway's roundabout, so the serene environment that the chapel must have existed in the middle of the puszta for hundreds of years was no longer there.  Still, its proportions were so charming that we managed to forget about the roundabout.

Little chapel in the middle of the puszta

The next cache took us to the middle of the puszta where for centuries people lived and worked in isolated small hamlets, eking out a living from the poor land and perhaps animals if they could. Most of these hamlets are now abandoned, although some of them are still lived in, but there are no longer enough people to warrant the schools, churches and other amenities to survive. One place, where we had to look for the cache had a church and a school, but the latter was totally derelict.

The near derelict crypt in the cemetery

The last two caches of the day were an old bridge and yet another old church. The day ended happily at the Italian restaurant, with Roy having calamari with his pasta and me just having garlic, olive oil and chilies on mine

The river Maros

Our third and final day started with two multis: one having 3 the other having 7 parts. Both showed us the town of Hódmezővásárhely. The three-parter took us to several brick buildings, as brick is the usual building material in the puszta due to the total lack of stone in the area. The 7-parter included lots of places in the town, including a museum dedicated to communism. Strange, I admit, but it was great.

After an enjoyable beginning, the rest of the caching was less successful. Two of them we couldn't even find the road to, the first one because they built a fast dual carriageway and blocked off the road to it, the other one because there were extensive building works in the area and all roads closed because of it. We, sort of, gave up after this, as Roy didn't want to have to drive in the pitch dark, as he had to on Day 1.

The ancient carved stone cross

Beforehand, however, we still managed a few, including another no longer existing railway bridge and a 3-parter multi that seemed to have escaped us last time we were in that town, and which didn't give itself up easily this time either. Part one was a small tablet stuck to the back of a road sign, containing the coordinates of the next part. Roy and I looked for it for ages before he spotted it up side down really hidden by other parts of the structure. After that one we took to the motorway and managed to get home just before it got dark. The total caches were 24, quite low for a  three-day trip, but we still enjoyed it and will have one more of these in a couple of weeks, that time going East again.

Lenin hanging around outside the Museum

The day after we got back I had a concert with Bozsa again and it was superb, as usual. Boris Berezovsky played Russian composers exclusively and brilliantly. Balakirev, Stravinsky, and a few others were played with such virtuosity and vehemence only a large Russian bear of a pianist, like Berezovsky, can. I was very tired, but managed to stay awake amidst all that noise.

Boris Berezovsky

Saturday brought my long planned trip up the steep and rocky mountain Naszály, with Mariann and Gabi. The weather, which was warm, sunny and brilliant over the previous weeks, suddenly turned cold and misty. The former is fine, but mist is the enemy of photographers, and unfortunately, the photos from Saturday proved that.  Still the hike itself was a great success, although not without its cock-ups. Most of which were Mariann's, but I am to blame too, as I left all the navigation to her and didn't even turn my GPS on.  That was a grave mistake, but finally everything turned out OK, so I am not complaining. However, this was a salutary lesson that when you have two GPS's on a trip they should both be on and the participants should check each other's directions frequently.

Gabi and Mariann, my companions on the hike

There were only 4 caches on the list on Saturday, and the distance of the hike was a measly 5 miles. Still, it was an exhausting trip due to the prevalence of rock and the steepness of the terrain. We climbed 500 metres in the course of those 5 miles, which add up to more that 6% climb, which is gruelling, especially for 3 old girls of our vintage. Having said that, we all trudged on, albeit slowly, and finished it all rather triumphantly.

Miner'á memorial

The first cache was at a memorial to miners who died in a mining disaster 48 years ago. This cache was close to our starting point, but the next one was a different kettle of fish. It had 4 parts, showing us 4 different lookout points on the mountain, but only the first point's coordinates were given.  At the first three points we had to look for old plastic bottles hidden with the coordinates of the next point in them. I usually hate these type of caches, because inevitably, not all little bottles are in place and once you can't find one, you are stuck.

All paths were thickly covered by fallen leaves

To prevent us running into such problems, Mariann got a caching friend give her all the coordinates in advance, in exchange for a promise of looking up all the bottles to confirm they are still in place. As it happens, her cock-up was of major proportions, because at one point when she should have looked at the coordinates and carried on in a Northerly direction, she assumed that the last two parts are on our return trip South and failed to correct the direction. She didn't realise this until we were more than a kilometre in the wrong direction, but more about this later.

Gabi and Mariann on the top

After part 1 of the multi, we carried on to the top of the mountain, where another cache awaited us. That climb was pretty gruelling, but the top looked quite fascinating.  An old concrete tower was there, probably as a lookout point, but it wasn't open. It could have also been a geodesic point for mapping, but these are no longer in use due to satellite mapping having taken over. It was after this one that we turned the wrong way, looking for not only the next points on the multi, but the second point of another multi, our 4th cache.

The Danube in the distance

Once it was clear what we had done, Mariann rang the guy who gave her the coordinates, pleaded senile decay for the mistake and the nice man at the other end of the phone gave her the password. Phew, we all went, as Gabi and I insisted that we refuse to climb back up and I am sure we would have been adamant, even if our helpful friend refused to hand over the password. The last two places we went to were a couple of abandoned quarries, which were lovely. Nature had taken over since quarrying stopped, but the stone was still visible to photograph.

Moss and dead leaves

After this we descended on steep and rocky paths, which was painful on the knees and in a small sylvan detour, we also ended up pretending to be on a roller coaster as the path crossed several deep gullies. Once back at the car I managed to get Mariann and Gabi to their train and got home in time for a lovely jacket potato dinner.

One of the many disused quarries on the mountain

Sunday contained further drama. We got up at 5am, so that we could leave at 6.30am to visit our friends by the Balaton nice and early, when the phone rang and he told us that he fell down the stairs in the night and they are packing up and coming back to town to take him to Accident and Emergency pronto. I feel terribly for him as it sounded as if he did some serious damage to one of his shoulders, but on the other hand, neither Roy nor I were too upset at having a rest at home instead of driving hundreds of kilometres in one day. Obviously, this place, where we would have gone, is cursed.  This is the second time we are missing it, the first one having been in January when we couldn't go due to my going down with the dreaded Aussie flu. Third time lucky, says a Hungarian proverb, I hope it is right!

High temperatures in November confused nature all round

Today I have several chores in town, most of which are seriously overdue.  The first and most important is to get a new telephone. I found a very good deal advertised on the net, but there appear no dual SIM phones included in the offer, so I might have to keep going until I find one. I will also have to buy my 2019 diary, as there are already several things I should have put into one in the last month or so. This should be followed by a visit to my organic health food shop, where I usually get my vitamins, as I have been out of B Max for nearly a week. No peace for the wicked, as you can see, but I'll post again, hopefully, in about a week or so.

Picturesque large tree by the path

PS: I have got a new phone for nothing. Let me tell you how I came by this good fortune! I looked up the current packages that were available on the three major networks: Telenor, T-com and Vodafone. They were much of a muchness both in terms of conditions, facilities and price.  Except for one thing: T-com had dual SIM phones, but Telenor didn't. I didn't want to believe that, as nowadays very few manufacturers, if any, make anything but dual phones as far as I knew.  So I went into the Telenor shop and enquired. Apparently they did have dual SIM phones, but the guy behind the counter assured me that it would be no use to me as both SIM slots only worked with Telenor SIM cards. That sounded stupid, but I sort of accepted it and resigned to carrying two phones again, as all my old phones still worked, so one could be for the other SIM card. Then he looked at my contract and suggested that if I was prepared to go one up to the next level of contract (£6 a month extra) I could have 4 times the data and he would give me a free phone. It's no wonder that I went for that immediately. Even if the other SIM card didn't work in the second slot, it was still a very good deal. However, as I was finally leaving, the guy ran after us and whispered: Do try the other SIM card in the second slot, as it MIGHT work with the other SIM card!

My lovely new Samsung Galaxy J6

After coming home to lunch and hanging up the washing, I then went to that lovely chap who has so far been so fantastic and helpful to me all through my telephone troubles and who, unfortunately, only repairs and sells second hand phones, so I couldn't put my business with him. This time I asked him to put in the two SIM cards and activate the phone for me, just in case I do something stupid in the process. He was great, very helpful, as usual and I nearly gave him a kiss, I was so happy. I controlled myself and just blew him a kiss and he smiled sweetly. All things come to a happy end if you persevere and have a positive attitude!!! :)