Caching in the Mátra and a fraught Fáklya meeting

 Last Saturday Viktor and I went caching in the Mátra. He has been after a particular moving cache, which you can only find once a year, but he was very clever this time last year, just after this cache has started on its route and got it before the end of 2022. This made him eligible to go and get it again this year. As it is nearing the end of its route, it was getting urgent to go and get it.

The start of our hike at the top

It turned out that we chose the first really wintry, hoar frosted winter day for the hike. We had two cars, so we left one at the bottom of the mountain and travelled to the top in the other car. At the end, we used the one at the bottom to get back to the top to fetch the other car and went on our way to the next
cache, but more about that later.

Not much later, the sun came out

 

We got going just after 8:30 and the frozen leaves on the ground went crunch, crunch under our feet. The cache was found very quickly, and we carried on down the mountain. As we got lower, and as it got warmer most frost melted and all the streams were pretty much in spate. The trouble was that we had to walk in semi permanent swamp, as the water found its way down in lots of places. 

Flooded path en route down

We found quite a good place to hide it again, after about 1.2km, hid it and went on. In the beginning we didn't meet anyone, but after about half way down, lots of people were hiking upwards, saying hello en otheir way. We got back to the car just after 11 am and were happy to sit down and have a sandwich. We decided, that before Viktor goes home, we will get another cache, which was only a small detour for him and I was happy to join him, as I completely forgot about that cache when planning my route after separating from Viktor.

Pebble fishing lake

He was also happy that I joined him, as the last kilometre or so was on a very bumpy road, and he was worrying about his car. We went slowly and while there were enormous puddles along the way, none of them were deep. After getting back to Viktor's car, he discovered that his radiator grill was missing. I did remember something flying towards my car and hitting it underneath on the motorway, but didn't realise that it was Viktor's radiator grill. He was very worried about what his wife would say, as he seems very unlucky while geocaching, with respect to the wellbeering of his vehicle.

The abandoned quarry wall

After we said good-bye, I went to get another three caches on my own, while travelling homewards.
The first one was an abandoned quarry, which turned out to be really beautiful. I walked up to its highest level, where a pretty well hidden cache was awaiting. The views were gorgeous, both towards the high rock walls and towards the valley and the village to the West. The sun was quite low and the light beautiful.

The view from the quarry

 

The next one was a spring, which I must have driven past a thousand times in the past and not noticed, in the village of Palotás. Nothing special, so I went on with more expectations to the local fishing lake, which is a reservoir really. There the sun was really low, getting ready to set, but I managed to get 3 out of its 5 points on foot and then the last two by car. It got very dark by then, but Roy joined me for company by then.

Palotás fishing lake

I really enjoyed that day and it looks as if I will see Viktor and Edit again this coming Saturday, when we will go to the celebration to the 5000th Hungarian geocache in the Mátra again. Hopefully, we will be able to log three caches: 1. the 5000th cache 2. The event cache: GCJaro and 3. the moving cache by the lake, which a local couple have found earlier this week, so Viktor tolds me, and we are both hoping that they are planning to take it and place it near the 5000th cache party, near the local lake, so that we can all find it.

The sun setting over the lake

In the meantime I had a vaguely upsetting thing happening in relation to one of my Fáklya comrades, who suddenly got very hostile. I, for the life of me, can't work it out how I upset her, but as if she had a sudden 180 degree turn, was not at all friendly and quite obsessive in her manner. I hope it is really nothing to do with me, but her own mental state, which seems to me after this affair quite unstable. The crisis of capitalism gets to everybody, just people react differently, and this one was an unpleasant surprise to me, as I was always very fond of her, and an utterly at sea as to what, if anything, did I do to make her like this.

Jobbágyi church at sunset

I could only take part at both the reading group and the branch meeting remotely, and had some technical difficulties with the second, but both meetings were actually very good.We have finished Trotsky's Revolution Betrayed, and next week will start Engels's The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State. I am looking forwards to it, even though it is a hard read, especially in the beginning, where he is particularly detailed describing Morgan's research, but we'll cope, I'm sure.

Engels: The Origin of the Family etc.

The branch meeting had a very good leadoff by Dani, on the question of: Marxism and the National Question. Dani only got as far as the 1920's, so I'm sure we need another leadoff on the later events that proved Lenin right. The meeting decided a few things, most of which I agreed with, but I still have a bad taste in my mouth over the Zsófi affair.

We had the new router installed in the BP flat last week, which now should give us hyper speed, 1000 megabits per second internet and the billing has been combined into one per month from both the BP flat and the Bér accounts. We ended up with new contracts, although I am a bit puzzled about some of its content. When I get a minute, I'll ring them and get someone to explain them to me.

Tomorrow we are having lunch with Robert, whom we haven't seen in nearly a year. This time we are off to the Regős, which is close, reasonably cheap and the food is good. Roy is getting worried about his cefre going off to the distillers, so I will have to ring Pali to ask when he's taking it. The next post is likely to be in the middle of next week, but which day, I'm never sure of.

Four days in Szekszárd, the phone went bust and back in Bér

This was our first short holiday away from home since the spring Geocaching Festival. I have been going crazy with not being able to go away somewhere for a short while, like we used to do 6 or 7 times a year before the pandemic. My way of getting out of town was by organising a geocaching hike in the hills behind Szekszárd, a marvellous place with fantastic wine estates, brilliant red wine and a great B&B, where we have been 4 years ago.

The Pension to the White Cow

We got going on last Friday, the day before the hike, in spite of the weather forecast promising torrential rain and gale force winds. We were lucky, as nothing materialised windwise, but the rain was around for days, on and off, and at various strengths, but eventually we really ended up as drowned rats, but more about that later.

Strange tree by the Danube

Rather than caching en route down, we decided that we will buy a motorway pass and bomb down early, starting caching once there. Additionally, we had another job to do on the Friday, namely check out the route up to the lookout tower, where the hike was starting, as people were warning us about the quality of the road. We have 4-wheel drive, and a chasis that is 17 cm high, so we weren't worried, but I thought it would be safer to be sure. So we spent the whole of the morning sorting this problem, which put us back by several hours.

An over 200 year old oak tree by a cache

We also had another problem, as one of the caches was only accessible by driving on a flood barrier, which required a permit to drive on. I spent many hours trying the fathom the intricacies of their website, finally ringing them and having a bit of luck of getting through to a really lovely, patient and helpful chap, who guided me through their daft website to success. I bought a 1-day pass for that bit of the barrier, which meant that we had to hurry up, otherwise we would have run out of light on the one day that we had the permit for.

Tower by the flood gates

All in all, we just about found every single cache we planned for that day, even though we only had the afternoon, got lost once or twice, due to the silly GPS, and ended up just before the dark finding that cache by the confluence of the Sió and the Danube. We then nearly got lost again in the dark, getting back to our B&B, which was still as great as 4 years ago. Especially the breakfasts were fantastic, neither of us managed to eat everything on the table on any of the three mornings.

Our little group, photo taken in one of the rare dry times

Then the day of the hike arrived, with the weather looking very miserable and somewhat threatening. I moved the assembly back to the edge of town, thinking most people's cars will not make the drive up the hill to the lookout tower, after a full night of torrential rain. Needless to say, most people cancelled and some of those that did turn up, not having read the late notice, drove up the hill in those conditions. Thankfully, finally 10 people turned up, so 11 of us started after we found not just the lookout tower cache, and the event cache, but a moving cache as well, brought by one of the brave souls who came and joined us for a bit of a wet adventure.

The tower in the fog at the start

The rest of the day had some rain, some sun, some clouds and darkness and, I'm sorry to say, some heavy rain too. This, however, did not affect our little crowd one bit. If anything, the hardships made us closer friends than we were until now, especially with the new ones we have never met before. There was an obvious care for the others, especially for an oldie, like me, for which I am especially grateful and by which I was really touched.

A loess wall on the hike

All in all, we found another four caches, after the initial ones at the lookout tower, had some muddy bits, including one very steep muddy path, where my hiking poles came in very handy. On that steep descent in the mud, some of us tried to descend on our bums, getting awfully wet and filthy in the process. My new gear, the boots and the coat, took all challenges in their strides and passed with flying colours.

The last cache and its tower

The very last cache was a bit of an extra challenge to get to, as the marked path on the map looked absolutely lethal to get down to. Obviously, the guy who put the cache out, never thought that there will be crazy people approaching it from above. So, we had to try and find a part of the hillside forest where the gradient was a bit more friendly. Finally we all got down, so all was well.

Some of the group on the last tower

This was the point where Viktor, Edit, Peter and I left the rest of the people, as we had the luxury of Roy waiting for us at the bottom of that particular hill. We were taken back by car, while the rest of them had about another couple of hours of hiking back to their cars at the first lookout tower, two valleys and range of hills away. I felt a bit guilty abandoning them, although I am pretty sure that those two hours would have become at least three if we were still with them. We were totally exhausted by then and were glad to be able to sit down. Unfortunately, I put my hiking poles down by a picnic table on our return and was so happy to get into the car, that I only noticed they were missing about 20 or so minutes later. After depositing the others by their cars, we went back, but the poles were gone. Since then I bought another pair, and finding out that they cost about £20 each nowadays, I can see why they were nicked.

Where I left my hiking poles

Sunday, the day after that wet hike, the sun came out and the weather stayed mild, sunny and really lovely all day. Our caching took us towards and into the town of Mohács. a historically important town for Hungarians. It was there, in 1526 that Hungary had suffered a catastrophic military defeat at the hand of the Turks, thus putting them under Turkish rule for the next century and a half. We visited the actual river bank where King Lajos the Second was found dead, apparently drowned when he fell into the river wearing full armour.

The restored watermill with its owner

 

We also visited a beautifully restored watermill, which looked like an absolute wreck only 20 years ago and is now a gorgeous, fully equipped, working mill, which provides a welcome from the family that owns it now, their members are the guides and they even take school groups and other interested parties. I tried to get a treadmill going, but due to Roy's reluctance of having a go, proved too weak to do so. I was told that you need a minimum of two people to get it going. We walked around Mohács, finally arriving at the ferry port, where the boat was just coming over the Danube and watched it dock and disgorge its passengers and cars.

The treadmill

The following day was spent caching as well, but this time Roy put a deadline of 2 pm, after which he wanted to start for home. The focus of our caching that day was the town of Baja and its nearby villages. I have recently read the autobiographical books of Marion Merrick, a lovely English teacher, who moved to communist Hungary in the 1980's and, as far as I know, she is still here. She mentioned Baja in her books, how much she loved it and the people in it, and how much it changed over the decades. As I have never visited it before, I was awaiting the visit with excitement.

Riverbank in Baja, early in the morning

I agree with her, it is a lovely place, the centre is beautifully restored and cared for and her beloved Petőfi Island is also pretty. Mind you, if you only saw it 40 years ago and then now, you wouldn't recognise it. She wrote about how simple and undeveloped it was then and how much it changed and in some aspects was spoiled over the years. We had an exciting adventure there, while looking for a cache in an ivy-covered big tree. Suddenly we heard chainsaws and it turned out that a couple of lumberjacks were felling an old tree nearby. We stayed and watched them, it was fun.

The lumberjacks at work on Petőfi Island, Baja

 

Our trip back on Monday was eventless, although the jam through BP was the usual horrendous affair as it usually is around rush hour. We parked up and arrived home to the flat in good time and before it got completely dark. Hopefully, the yearly gas meter reading was done, I haven't yet checked with Eva, who has our flat key normally, if everything was OK or not. We both were pretty exhausted, so we took Tuesday easy, did buy another set of hiking poles, cost of which Roy was seriously grumbly about and threatened me that should I lose it again, there is no chance of further replacements. Will have to devise a method by which I can have it chained to myself in the future.

My annoying phone

The final frustration of this last week relates to my telephone. You know the one that I couldn't use in Bér when it was brand new as it insisted that I wasn't registered on the network. I had to return to the place I bought it 4 times, until I found someone to fix it, but it has always had some funny stuff, on and off and totally without discernible reason. Now, the latest is that when someone rings me I can't see on the screen the graphics that would enable me to answer the call. I have to wait until they put it down, and even then it carries on ringing. Finally, when it ceases to ring, I can call back, but then the sound is so low that it is difficult to hear anything. It also makes calls of its own accord, often in the middle of another conversation.

A service provider not to be recommended

I went to Yettel, my service provider, and where I bought the phone, and they said that it has to go to the service centre, but no worry, they will do it in 4 hours, but I need to take my charging cable too. Who would have thought that, well we didn't, so we had to go home, fetch the cable and then go to the Samsung service centre. After a bit of waiting, I got a nice, friendly and patient chap, who listened and said that: 1. there is absolutely no need for the charging cable; 2. the repair time is a minimum of a week and half; and 3. absolutely everything will be erased from the phone while they are looking at it. Good job I hang onto my previous phone as a spare, or I would be without a phone for weeks.

The Fáklya logo

And then, we came down to the village yesterday, after an extensive £150 food shop in Lidl. We are on catchup here, as there are lots of jobs in the garden and in the house, plus with Roy's pálinka mash. I also had two online meetings last night and the night before. One was an executive meeting, the other an ordinary branch meeting, both of Fáklya, my political group. This week I think I will go geocaching with Viktor once, and possibly with Feri once too. He said he would come with me caching if he was free this week, but I haven't called him yet to see if he is free. This year was so devoid of caching, compared to previous years, that I am desperate to get a few under my belt before the end of the year.

Our Full English was without beans

Must go now, we had a full English breakfast at 10 am, so it is still a bit early for lunch, but I am having braised liver in a paprika sauce, so I have to start getting the ingredients together. Roy is having a hamburger, which is made with a special beef from Lidl, in a bun with some salad. I think this time I am having mashed potatoes, as we had our belly full of chips lately. Next post hopefully next week, if we are still alive and kicking. 😉💓

Fáklya launch, a weekend at Márti and Laci's and some Decathlon shopping

This is going to be a quick account of the last week, as I am packing to leave for 4 days of geocaching and hiking. Two great events hallmarked the last week, namely: 

1. The great public meeting announcing issue 1 of our newspaper: Fáklya.

2. A fantastic weekend, spent with Laci and Márti in Csobánka.

Alex with his kayaking friends

Other than these two events, we also did some shopping, hosted another branch meeting of  Fáklya and did a fair amount of paperwork online. Got a permit to drive on the flood barriers round the Danube, while geocaching tomorrow, sorted an amalgamation of our two Vodafone accounts and a bit of work for Alex's new business, Lovesick Kayaking.

Márkó with the first edition of Fáklya

 

So, first about the launch meeting of Fáklya. It was held in a medium size hall and we filled it to the brim. I was the first speaker, explaining why we need a paper, followed by Levi, outlining the gist of the leading article about the current state of Hungary. Both were very good, followed by a few questions and comments, which were less good. Still, we managed to wrap it up in an hour, which was good going. Sold a few papers, badges and had a couple of contacts, whith whom comrades conducted a good discussion afterwards.

Zsófi in the chair, Levi and I the speakers

The weekend was equally good, confirming how much we both like Laci and Márt, as well as the environment they live in. Csobánka is a gorgeous village, surrounded by hills and forests, and their house exudes calm and happy. Unfortunately, their dog had to be put down in September and they still miss him terribly. They are thinking of having another puppy, but not until they are both retired.

The audience at the launch meeting

 

We arrived after the public meeting, quite late on Friday. The weather didn't look too good on Saturday morning, so we all had a lyein, until the sun came out and we went for a hike. Laci drove up to the col with the two beech trees, and we walked about 5km up into the hills to some lovely rock, then back another way through gorgeous forest.

The glorious autumnal forest

Once home, we had some lovely food cooked to perfection by Márt, followed by a fair amount of booze, as usual. We watched a bit of TV in the evening and retired reasonably early. On Sunday, we had yet another lyein and then departed to the Schieszl Restaurant in Budakalász, where we had treated our hosts to an absolutely gorgeous meal, expertly cooked by the chef, until we couldn't move.

Márti found the geocache

I had salmon with some amazing veg and sauces, Roy had duck's leg, and the happy couple shared a large plate of meat, and cleared their plates to the last morsel. I had a chocolate souffle, while the men had ice cream. Laci and Márti were quite impressed with the place, which was my intention in taking them there.

Márti and Laci with their plateau of meat

The above mentioned shopping was yesterday, when we only went out to Decathlon to buy me some waterproof boots and came home with £225 worth of clothes and shoes. Both Roy and I had a pair of shoes as well as a pair of boots, then Roy had a pair of cargo pants and I had a beautiful new winter coat, which had a detachable fleece lining and was very waterproof as well.

Roy with his new trousers

My new coat

2 pairs of boots and 2 pairs of shoes

Now I have to return to my packing, as we are leaving for Szekszárd early tomorrow morning to avoid the usual nightmare traffic on a Friday. Next post next week, but don't ask me when, as it is yet again full of stuff already.

A happy Alex (again), Lili, roses, Tibi and Klári for lunch and the Birthday/Halloween party

After having arrived home, we looked around if all was well. It was. The only worrying thing we spotted was a weird white layer on top of a couple of the cefre barrels. Later on the week I managed to talk to Pali and he confirmed that we should not worry, that happens sometimes, but does no harm to the cefre. We also managed to catch Tomi to change the tyres to winter ones, and that also went off very well.

Alex's questionnaire

On Friday I had some goes at finishing Alex's paperwork and got stuck. Eventually, we both realised that he gave me the wrong password to get into the gmail account of the business, but finally all was well, and I am trying to keep up with it as and when I can. There was also an end of season kayaking trip out, during which someone took a photo of him, which is his profile picture on FB. He looks so happy in it, I could cry. Let's hope that his life sorts itself in 2024 and he can stay this happy forever.

The happiest I've seen him in a good while

The credit cards had to be paid, and I had all manner of hassles online with both. The world is falling apart, or at least it looks like it is, when Barclays' website has hiccups. Eventually it was all well, I paid both and thankfully that's that for another month.

Lili is a beauty, isn't she?

 

Lili came over to tidy up in the Bunkhouse, get rid of the cobwebs and make the beds. Apparently she was having about 35 people at her event, which she was looking forward to. I find that people with rather strange, esoteric views about the world are very amenable and nice to talk to. I do not share their outlook, but I almost always like them as people.

The lovely rosebud I gave her

We had to do some gardening work, as the roses are getting very dangly, so some pruning was called for. I don't think I will have too many more roses after the end of October, but I managed to give a really beautiful deep red rosebud, just opening up, to Lili. She looked touched. We also had to bring the cacti in, along with the succulent, that we were given by Hulk.

A gorgeous yellow rose in the yard

The weekend was nice and sunny, although there was some wind and the occasional angry looking cloud. Lili's guests were lovely, friendly and hardly visible at all. One or two sat outside with their laptop, as the WiFi has difficulties getting through the 2ft thick walls. They stayed for an extra night and left on Monday.

 

A strange variegated deep pink rose

We were also leaving on Monday, as we had a crazy busy Tuesday in Budapest, so we had to do a lot of cooking in advance and still arrive, just as it was getting dark, on Monday afternoon. The previous weekend the clocks went back and I had lots of fun with some reluctant timepieces that wouldn't cooperate. The final bugger was the weather station/clock in the BP flat, which nearly drove me insane. We did manage it, but only after Googleing the Users Manual online. Good job I found the product code on it somewhere, otherwise even that would have been hopeless.

A view in the front on a rainy day

 

And then Tuesday, which was Halloween, arrived and we started with a long shopping list for a few things we still needed, plus bits and bobs around the house. We were on the home straight, when I started feeling very ill. Chest pains, difficulty breathing, heart arrythmia, so the usual stuff. Admittedly, it was unseasonably warm and high humidity, plus a warm front, so it was not unusual for me to feel like this. Thankfully, I was with Roy, who helped a great deal, we made it home together, and after a good two hours' complete rest, I started returning to the land of the living.

Tibi, Klári and Roy putting the curry away

The reason why all this was a bit worrying, was not only the thought of something really nasty coming, but we had a heavy social program for the rest of the day. We were expecting Klári and Tibi for lunch and I have already cancelled one meeting with them in September, when I was still infectious after my Covid in Scotland, and I definitely didn't want to do that again.

We were glad that the curry went down well

 

Well, I am pleased to say that the lunch, chat and generally catching up with those two went really well. They liked Roy's curry and my Somlói galuska. We didn't drink too much, as Klári is pretty much teetotal and after my funny turn I was trying to be careful. One good news I was very happy about: both of them are due to retire in 2024, so we might just see them more often. Klári is still working in Ireland, and that was the main reason behind the rare meetings.

Roy, the poor thing, after a lot of effort plus the fright I gave him, went to have a nap while the guests were still here, and didn't wake up until a lot later. He looked quite smooth after his nap, so it was well worth it. I started getting ready for going out later to a combined Birthday/Halloween party at Zsófi's. I couldn't think of any special costume to go in, until Roy suggested looking at zipped up moth proof boxes in hidden places. Out came an amazing top, covered in glitter and definitely looking like a butterfly. So, I went as a butterfly.

The buterfly with her mask on

The party was really lovely, they made quite a lot of effort to decorate it for Halloween, and I met people I haven't met before, like Zsófi's brother and sister and a few of her non-political friends.The other costumes were also quite imaginative: Adriam came as "the spectre of communism", wearing a white sheet with two holes in for his eyes, Zsófi, the birthday girl, wore some totally crazy roller skating outfit, I was home by 22:20 pm to a happy Roy and a very knackered me. Slept quite well and quite long, although the sniffles with an occasional sneeze and/or cough are still with me.

Zsófi, Hanna, Mark and Marci at the party

This morning I sorted Roy's family history club membership. That may not sound to you as something of an achievement, but believe me, it was. Hungarian websites, especially those that are written and maintained by volunteers, are archaic, rigid and most of the time unfathomable. It costs 5000ft for a year to be a member of the Hungarian Family History and Research Club, which is usually payable after they send you an e-mail in January to ask you. However, there is a restricting condition of this membership, which, again for some unfathomable reason, they don't advertise sufficiently for all the membership to become aware of, namely that you are restricted to 365 logons, after which you have to pay again. That's what happened to Roy the other day, so I had to sort it for him. It took several e-mails and a phone call to the treasurer, to find out how to do it, which part of the website and also, what is going to happen in January? I have not yet got an answer to the last question, but thankfully, I managed to pay the money online and Roy is now a happy bunny that his MACSE has returned.

The birthday girl is having fun

The rest of today is going to be taken up by planning and typing up my cache list for our trip at the end of next week to Szekszárd, finishing Alex's paperwork and getting ready for tonight's Fáklya branch meeting. Next post, hopefully, on Wednesday, a couple of days before our trip. This weekend, however, is going to be spent with Laci and Márti in Csobánka, which we are both looking forward to.

Hanna wearing her amaying costume and headrest