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. 😉💓