The arrival of winter and lots of geocaching

Well, the caching with Feri last week was indeed postponed, due to cats and dogs falling out of the sky, but more of that later.

The windsock at the top of the Jane Goodall study route

The first happening last week was a visit by Gábor and Vera, who came to fetch and pay for their concert tickets for March and stopped for an hour or so for a chat, tea, coffee and wafers. Talking of wafers, Roy discovered a cheap but delicious variety, which was really yummy and while I am not supposed to eat stuff like that, I made a big hole in it along with the rest of them.

Roy by the windsock

We did some washing, watched TV, paid this month's credit cards and were more or less stuck indoors for several days due to the weather.  Finally, on Saturday the sun came out and I couldn't stay in for any longer. We decided to have a little drive out into the Buda hills, find a couple of caches, replace one of my lost boxes and have lunch out.

The Danube in winter

The first cache was along a newly established study route and amazingly Roy actually accompanied me all the way to the top of the hill, where the cache was. The study route was named after Jane Goodall, the naturalist and we had a really nice walk.

Low sun over the river

The next cache was not too far from the first, but I was trying to be clever and thought of another approach from the one suggested on the net, as that seemed shorter. Unfortunately, I forgot about the new railway line, which cut off most approaches from that direction and we got hopelessly lost.  Never mind, we'll go some other time.

An elegant villa in Verőce

Finally, the restaurant we wanted to go to was full, so we ended up in our usual Italian, which this time was not nearly as good as we have been used to. Lesson: pizzas and pastas are always a safe bet, anything else is a lottery.

A slightly frozen mushroom above Verőce

Sunday was a different ballgame altogether. The weather was not always as good as the day before, but the company was excellent. This was my first day caching with Wilka74, aka  András, and he turned out a fantastic companion, great patter, cheerful, considerate and very good company. He looked after me, but unobtrusively, which was very kind.

Weird tree on the floodplain

The aim of the outing was to do 3 multi-caches in Verőce, which is in a picturesque bit of the Danube bend. Once upon a time this was a very popular location for summer houses, but fell out of favour some time ago now. Notwithstanding the decrease in its popularity, I still think that with the river at the bottom and the lovely wooded hills at the top, this is a very nice place to spend your summers.

András in the Börzsöny hills

Two of the multis had 7 points each and the third one just 3. We finished a lot sooner than I thought we would, so we went and got another 3 caches - two in the hills and one down by the river. All three were very photogenic and enjoyable to get to.

Narrow gauge train in the Börzsöny hills

This week the weather turned positively arctic, so instead of rain, we now had our first fall of snow. I dread to think what it is like in Bér, probably several inches or even a foot of snow, I should think. It fell and more interestingly stayed even in town, but eventually it relented a bit. The temperatures are still below zero, even during the day, so my other plan for caching was in some danger, but finally we managed to put it together for yesterday.

The tip of Molnár Island in Csepel

This time my companion was Feri, as per the trip that was postponed from last week. He is one of the pair that occasionally join us on our away-days. We decided to finish off many of our missing caches on Csepel Island, where he lives. I travelled by local electric train to the island and he picked me up in his giant BMW tank. He also brought Mira, his 5-year old mongrel with him and she turned out an absolute gem. His master was also to my liking, he is a real gent and fun to be with.

A jetty in winter

We went to several of the little islands, which are situated around the big island and photographed some glorious winter scenes and quite a few ducks. We walked along several study routes and in the afternoon saw the building works for a brand new giant lock at the Southern end of the big island. These building works, unfortunately, stopped us getting to the cache that is at the Southern tip, but we'll do that later once the builders have gone..

"Come on then! Don't hang around!"

This week will go down in the annals as joyous, happy and fortunate discoveries of new caching friends with whom I intend to go again, provided they are willing to take me. Currently a couple of old friendships are actually in the balance and might end up finishing. I have a talent in teaming up with users, I seem to attract them and it looks like I have done that again. We'll see. Currently I am sticking to a policy of not writing or ringing either of them and see who blinks first.  If either of them does, fine, if not, that is fine too, as Roy is quite right, I should not be a fool allowing others to take advantage of me.

In the rural bit of Csepel Island

The rest of the week is busy too. Today we are going to lunch with Robert, who has had the operation on his foot and is a bit mobile again. Tomorrow we are going to lunch with Ros and Ian at the Dobrumba, where we have been a couple of times before (once with them) and where they asked if we could go again.

The Petőfi tree in Dömsöd

This weekend I am off to Veszprém to stay with Edit and there are a few caches planned to be found, should the weather oblige. Latter is very much in question and I hope it gets a bit less freezing or the trip might be in danger.

It's no good Feri! It's gone dark.

Next post next week!