The 75th Birthday Bash

Saturday's birthday party, had about 40-45 visitors, all geocachers. The program was twofold, in the morning we went on a hike, while in the afternoon we planted two trees. Both activities are enjoyed by many of us, but they also come with two geocaches, one for the hike and the other for planting trees. In and around Bér another 4 caches awaited the keen players, so unless you have already had them, 6 points could be gained on Saturday. Obviously, those that have stayed over, could go off and look for other nearby ones on the Sunday, so we were all really excited, waiting for the weekend. 

En route to the first cache - an old wine  cellar

 

The stuck competitor in the Mud Bath Festival

We got going a tad late, but the atmosphere was chatty, happy and looking forward to it. The only negative aspect of the day was in the weather forecast. We could expect 33-34 degrees Celsius top temperatures, which did make the hike a bit challenging. On the other side we could count as a positive that we ran into the actual competition of the Mud bath Festival, which turned out to be fascinating, if not too environment friendly. 

 

Gyuri and Kajla at St. Mary's spring

On the descent back to Bér

Those of us living in Bér are well aware of this event, which appears around mid-July every year, but for me this was the first time I saw it close up. We had to walk in thick liquid mud around a competitor that got stuck. Thankfully, we finally managed to find the cache we were looking for, just a hundred or so yards ahead and no longer in the middle of an ATV competition. 

Above the ATV's at one of the caches

On top of the the andesite outcrop

Crossing one of the big meadows in 35 Celsius

 

We also had to walk through their campsite en route to the next cache, where a couple of people have decided that they had enough and returned to base. The rest of us trundled on, descending then ascending both sides of a valley. Just before the last big climb 3 more people departed to return to the village, but the rest, still around 35 of us, carried on to the end. 

A lovely turkey oak hides the group

 

At the top we found the world famous andesite columns, from the top of which the views were absolutely breath taking. We somehow managed to squeeze everybody on top of it for a memorable group photo. Our return to base was done along the ridge, followed by a very jungle-like forest walk back to the back gate of our long garden. 

Zsuzska helping herself to some gulyas

 

3 cachers by the barn.  It was shady.

Once back at the house everybody fell on the cauldron goulash, which disappeared extremely quickly. For afters we ate the gloriously sweet aromatic and enormous watermelon that my friend Edit brought as a birthday present. Finally, we rounded off the birthday food with the birthday cake, which also disappeared pretty sharpish. 

Lucky cachers in the pavilion

The digging and planting brigade

 

The afternoon’s program was a tree planting, which – as a surprise – became the planting of two trees. Our fellow cacher, GYEZegzug, who is a retired forester, brought a flowering cherry and a Canadian red leaf maple to plant in our garden. Some strong cachers dug the hole, GYEZegzug gave instructions on how to do it, and soon my garden was richer by two lovely little trees. Thank you GYEZegzug for getting the trees and to geocaching.hu (presumably) paying for them. 

The flowering cherry measures for size

 

It has been planted

A few cachers stayed overnight, the rest of them felt so happy and relaxed, sitting and lying about on the grass that it looked that we would have their company until quite late, but one interesting and fortuitous fact cleared the lawn very quickly soon after all activities ceased. Somebody discovered a moving cache being placed at a nearby lake, and to a man and woman and child, they have all disappeared to find and log it, within about 5 minutes. 

The red leaf maple going in

 

Many under the shades of our trees

This may be a very good idea for those of you who would like to clear your party, assuming your guests are all geocachers: just find and place a moving cache not too far, and they will vanish like the autumn mist. 

The birthday cake from the Zila pattisserie

 

All in all this was a fantastic day, I received lots of lovely presents: sweets, wine, champagne, beer, watermelon, marzipan, flowers, plants, a T-shirt, champagne, pálinka, homemade goodies and a few besides that I can’t think of at this moment. Thanks to everybody who came, who had a good time and I hope to be around in another 5 years’ time to have another party. You are all invited!!!