The eightieth week of the pandemic

As the last post was very late, I will make this one a day early to catch up to more or less my schedule. There is really only one event to report on and that was on Sunday. To save work, I will paste here the report from Facebook, where I posted lots and lots of photos. If you already saw them there, tough! If not, enjoy!

Group photo at the start

 

The target in the middle of the Danube

 

This Sunday I had a brilliant trip out to Zebegény, a small town on the banks of the Danube river. It was a 75-minute drive from home, but well worth it as a friend of mine organised a trip to a geocache which can’t be reached on land. The geocache was placed on an uninhabited tiny island about 400 yards from the mainland. She talked with the canoe hiring place by the ferry dock in Zebegény and after a small amount of negotiation we hired a 5-person canoe. 

First boat crew getting ready

Launched, now they are getting in.

 

There was 12 of us, 4 guys, 6 women and 2 kids. The weather was around 20 degrees Celsius with a bit of a breeze which occasionally got stronger. The first boat took 3 guys, 1 woman and the boy across. There were some conflicting instructions from the boat hire people, but amazingly the crossing was quick, efficient and no bother.

In the middle of the river, heading for the island

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I went across in the second boat, and thankfully one of the others took some photos, so that I can prove that I went across to the island too. There were some in our group that finally chickened out, but most of us went across. Obviously, while paddling furiously, you cannot take photos, especially of yourself, which was ashame, as I took much better, zoomed in pictures of the first boat and its occupants, while I cannot be seen in action in Anett's photos. Never mind! You hopefully can recognise the woman with the red baseball cap, that's me.

Landed on the island and disembarking

 

The cache was quite easily found, as I was mostly worried, not about the dangers of a big river, like others, but mostly having to go into the jungle for it. We walked up, after docking on the spit, on the other side, away from the town bank, which was considerably colder than the sheltered Eastern side, due to the fierce wind. Still, it was lovely to see that tiny island in its raw natural state and I can imagine going there in the high heat of summer to cool down. 

First boat arrives on land

Second boat leaving with me second from bow

 

The cache was quite close to the water, but high enough not to be engulfed by the regular flooding on the Danube. The return trip was even more straightforward, we got back in a jiffy. I am eternally grateful for Mariann for organising the outing and will remember it as one of the highlights of this year’s geocaching.

View from the island

Ancient, gnarled tree on the island

 

After the canoeing I ended up with a really nice new friend by the name of Zsolt, and the two of us went geocaching in the area and collected 4 more caches. The weather stayed really nice and sunny and we managed to finish the 4-parter multicache in Zebegény itself, followed by a study route, which was a bit overgrown, then an interesting baroque Calvary and finally a lovely floodplain cache near the confluence of the rivers Danube and Ipoly. 

Zsolt at the Danube/Ipoly confluence

Autumn crocus

I also finished a long multi, whose last point was near the car park, s o the total tally of caches found for the day ended up at six. En route home I filled up with petrol and did a bit of food shopping in SPAR. All in all an excellent day, memorable for sure.