The seventyfourth week of the pandemic

In order to get back on schedule, I decided to write this short post, as Wednesday is my original day of posting. As you may have read in the postscript of the previous post, due to Brigi's accident we were not going geocaching this week, as well as my friend Zsuzsi acquired a cold, so she cancelled as well. Unfortunately, we had two more developments, one of which is quite serious, the other not so much. 

Cute little chapel on Szentendre-island

The worrying event was a message from Feri, that he thinks he has got Covid. Since then he had a fast test, which was negative, but I have not heard the result of the PCR test yet. I am keeping my fingers crossed very tight, that the temperature and runny nose that he has are due to some other virus and/or the stress over Brigi's accident. Will let you know when I know more.

The pub near the tip of the island

 

The other piece of news was that our weekend of stay with our friends Laci and Márti had to be brought forward to this weekend, so our stay in town has now been extended to next Wednesday. Thankfully I brought all my medications with me, so no rushing back to Bér for them.

Magnificent fungus on one of the ancient trees

 

As my hopes of going geocaching with friends were dashed, Roy and I decided to have an outing to the Northern half of Szentendre-island, where we have never been before, and which had 5 caches presently. Some were pretty much drive-in, others needed a few kilometres of walk to get to.

Views out of the forest across the river to the Visegrád hills

The first one was a 2-parter hidden multi, where you had to get the coordinates of the second part at the first part. I don't like these, partly because I don't like multis at all, but mostly, because if you can't find one part, you are stuck and can't carry on. This one was OK, though, but not in an interesting or pretty part of the island at all.

Bathers on one the banks of the river

Next we went and caught a moving cache, which has to move about, instead of being hidden in one place. Moving caches have either a compulsory route, or a theme. The one we found yesterday was travelling on a compulsory route around the island and one is supposed to do it on a bike. As I don't have one, I did it using my scooter and for support, I had Roy in the car. It was fun and we moved it just over 2km up towards the top tip of the island.

Getting ready for my ride

The next three caches were all in or near the little village which is very close to the Northernmost part of the island. We started with a 3-parter multi, introducing us to the village. Part one was by a fishing lake, part two by the river and part 3 by a cute little chapel, which you reached up some stone steps with stages of the cross on either side. I liked this one, in spite of the fact it was a multi.

A memorial to the river sailers

 

Next one was the biggest walk, as there was a parking fee of £5 to drive in to the top tip of the island. And then there were compulsory car parks, all of which were still 700-800 metres from the cache. So, Roy stayed in the non-paying zone, under a large tree in the cool and had a nap, while I walked about 3km round trip to the cache and back.

The ferry boat to the other bank

This part of the island is mostly forested, with some of the trees under water when the river is up. There is a rather tatty, Soviet era campsite, which I'm told is a health hazard, but the environment is really pretty. Some of the trees are hundreds of years old, the little bits of sandy riverbank were full of swimmers and sun worshipers and generally I had a lovely walk.

Looking North to the Visegrád and Börzsöny hills

 

After this came the last cache, which was at the far end of an enormous, but very photogenic meadow. We parked near the middle of it, so I only had to walk about a half mile to the cache. It was hidden in a thick forest, infested with millions of mosquitoes. I still enjoyed the lovely quiet walk there and back, having only 4 cows in the distance for company.

 

Our inn

The weather got over 30 degrees Celsius by then, so we were both extremely thirsty, as well as hungry. The cache page on the net provided the coordinates of a recommended eatery, so we hastened to the place. It was a beautiful old inn, with a large terrace, slightly high prices, but glorious food that was well worth paying those prices for. I ate a lot of chicken, which worried me a bit, as I hardly eat meat and it is at least 30 years since I ate that much. It was the true Hungarian dish of chicken paprikash, with three pieces, but I cleared my plate it was that good. Roy had barbecued chicken wings, and his plate was even fuller than mine. Yum, yum!!

My chicken paprikash

We got home before 5pm and collapsed in front of our fans. That damn air conditioning, installation of which was scuppered by the pandemic, will have to be installed before the year is out. There is no way I am prepared to put up with these temperatures, which due to global warming, will only be going up year after year, any longer.

Roy with his chicken wings

Today we only made a short foray into the great desert-like outdoors, to get some artisan bread, get Roy's gout medicine, buy a few things at a stationers and a few litres of my oat milk. Since our return, still in the cool of the early morning, we have been eating, drinking, doing paperwork on the computer and napping. Good program, wouldn't you say? Next post next week, around Wednesday.