A rather outdoorsy week

A week ago as we were driving home to Bér, we did some geocaching en route. Thankfully the weather was quite good and we managed to get a few caches in. The final tally was 6, they included one by a nice stream, an interesting old lookout tower and one by the Hungaroring F1 circuit.

Roy outside the Hungaroring

The lookout tower

By the stream where my first cache was

Once home we had to do some more gardening. We replaced 6 roses that died in the winter and also planted some of the herb seeds we got. They were parsley, dill and sorrel. Let us hope that the weather gets really warm for them to germinate. Plenty of rain lately, so that should be no problem.

The herb garden

The lovage is very high already

We also finally got our latest art acquisition, namely another of Sándor Pantali's lovey paintings. Keeping with the Bér theme, this one was painted at winter time, from the garden of the community hall, looking towards the street behind the gardens. Roy thought there was not enough colour in it, and that is true, but what do you expect in winter? There were lots of other much more colourful paintings in the exhibition, but those were of other places, not Bér.

And then on Friday Gábor and Vera, our latest good friends, arrived.  Gábor is a fellow orienteer, also a member of the Postás Club. I have known him for ages, but only got into closer friendship recently. He let me have a fascinating book, which he was one of the editors of some years back, about the life of a Hungarian scientist who had a turbulent, but utterly fasscinating life. Vera is his girlfriend, whom he got to know when working on the book and she happens to be the younger daughter of the scientist. The significance of the subject of this book is that he probaby went to his concentration camp on the same train as both my and Gábor's father and thez might have all known each other.

Gábor and Vera on top of the andesite columns

Vera having a rest en route up to the top of the andesite

Gábor and Vera turned out to be really lovely company, we had a hike to the andesite columns and otherwise just generally chatted. Fist night Roy cooked, the second day we went to the Mill for lunch. It was a lovely time we had with them, we both hope they'll come again.

Ádám and Andor on the terrace of their mountain hut

The Danube bend from above

We returned to town on Saturday and I went on a hike to the Pilis on Sunday, as arranged with some friends some time ago. As it happened, the weather forecast was awful, so very few turned up and as even those few have already been spending 2 days cycling, they were so knackered that they only accompanied me on a small bit of my hike. It was lovely to see them, but as I don't mind hiking alone, I still had a fantastic day out. The weather was reasonable and very little of the forecasted rain fell. The total tally of caches for the day was 4, the total distance covered was 13.7km with 450 metres of hight climb.

Ádám is taking pictures

One of the fantastic rocks on my hike

Today I had a visit to my homeopath who confirmed that most of me is fine, but that I must do something about my tendency to get very tired. I did tell her that my sleep patterns have been upset lately and she also found that some aminoacids that one needs for healthy sleep and other balances are a bit insufficient, so recommended more animal protein.  This is rather interesting, because having been a vegetarian for a long number of years, just lately I have been hankering after meat and even had some. Perhaps I'll loosen up a bit and will have the occasional liver (one of my favourites) and perhaps more eggs. We'll see!

Some fantastic tree roots in the Pilis

Another, even more amazing set of tree roots

Stephen is arriving for a 24 hour visit and a gig on Wednesday, so that should be fun. Next blog entry perhaps in a week or so's time!

A reasonably uneventful week

The plan last week was to go back to Bér on Monday, but we definitely needed one more day in town to recover from our sojourn in the South, so we travelled down on Tuesday. We managed to do some food shopping and arrived still in time to do some mowing.

The back garden after Roy mowed it

The grass was not nearly as high as we expected and while the strimmer and the main handheld mower were still at the repairers, we got going with the old mower and the tractor.  Roy is doing all the tractor mowing and that didn't start until Wednesday, but I am happy to report that with the exception of the edges, which await the arrival of the strimmer and a few bits, like the top of the Kottage cellar, all got nicely done in 3 days.

Lovage, the latest star of the herb garden

The rains arrived about 5 minutes after the last go at mowing, so our timing was spot on. We did some weeding and I did some sorting in the herb garden while Roy did a bit of digging out of big weeds. Hopefully, I'll manage to remember to buy some parsley seeds and any other seeds that take my fancy, so the empty bit of the herb garden should get some greenery too.  And I love parsley anyway.

Sage, the old faithful

On Thursday I managed to get to the nurse in Bér and she gave me the required prescriptions for 3 months, so I won't have to go back until August. Apparently, the ghastly woman doctor - who made such a bad impression on me on the one occasion that I had to see her - had done a runner and now Thursdays belong to just the nurse (hooray!!!), as she is an absolute sweetie, kind and helpful. I also managed to hand over the box of chocolates to her for being such a darling and sending me a month's worth of prescriptions in the post last month when we got stuck in town.

An old poster of Line of Duty

While in BP I watched a fair amount of TV, as with the US series coming to a season's end, British TV woke up and restarted some of my absolute favourites. Grantchester, Maigret, Line of Duty and Hinterland are back.  I am a happy bunny, except when my HP laptop decides to bugger about with its network card. I think this one is for the bin and I have to buy one that is a bit more reliable and functional.  And does not go tootsies up after only 2 and half years!

Sensuous hills everywhere

I know I wrote before that this time we would stay in Bér for 3+ weeks, but I had little trips in during that time on account of concerts or theatre. Therefore, this Friday I drove in as I had a geocaching hike planned for Saturday, before my concert on Sunday afternoon. I was planning to go home on Monday, although any food shopping would have had to be done before, as no shops are open on May Day.

Beautiful purple iris growing wild

Best plans of mice and men..... It turned out that for some weird reason I only brought with me half of my pills, so I had to request Roy to come in on Saturday with the rest of them. He actually didn't mind, as it was only my geocaching that turned him off in the first place and now we can be together before going home together. The other saga that was playing out had to do with the strimmer and mower. The mower was still waiting for a part, but the strimmer, which has become rather urgently needed, and we thought that that could be done quickly.  We insisted that he did that and he agreed to have it done by Saturday. Guess what? When he opened it up he realised that it had another part that was broken and replacing that was making no economic sense. He only had it for 2 months and he had to discover that now.  I don't think we'll bother to take anything else to him after we got the current two back.

Muggins at the precipice

While Roy was traveling in by bus, I was climbing mountains (3 to be exact) to collect 4 caches on Saturday. They were all on big hills with enormous views and while the weather wasn't terribly good, at least it didn't rain. The first one had no marked paths, so I had to use my compass a lot, but it was spectacular once we got onto the very top.  Following that, we descended, crossed a valley and climbed the next one, which is called Long Mountain.  I  can tell you it was.  But the views here were even more spectacular, so we didn't mind. Finally, we got back to the car, drove about 16 miles and then got a drive-in cache by a hillside chapel, followed by the third mountain we climbed that day.  And this was probably the most spectacular, with 360 degrees of views and while the sun went by then and it got very cloudy, the mysterious, shimmering, sensuous hills all round were a treat to photograph.

An impressive old tree en route

The tally of caches was 4, the distance was 16.3km with 533m of height climb. I am currently rather knackered, but happy. My heart, joints and other aching bits are trying to recover today, but unfortunately, on account of the cock-up re: strimmer described above, now I have to go and buy a new one. So, as soon as I finished writing this, we are off to the DIY store to buy a new strimmer. What fun! I'll let you know what happened when I got back.

One of many panoramics I took on the hike

We bought a petrol driven strimmer for about £95. I also got some herb seeds to plant and then we went to Tesco and did the weekly food shop. We followed this up with going for lunch to the Regős and now got back for me to finish this post and then get ready for my concert.

Great and Lesser Kevély Mountains in the distance

Speak to you again next week, hopefully!

The return of winter and the Harkány geocaching holiday

The weather forecast was for a lot of rain and a severe drop in temperature for exactly the four days we were supposed to be away and I was wondering if it was at all wise going? Geocaching is done outside and there is no way whatsoever getting away from this fact.  But, we have already paid for the hotel and anyway, Harkány is a spa town, so I thought that if worst comes to worst, we can always sit in hot water up to our necks and relax.  That would not get us any geocaches, but the holiday itself would not go to waste.

Cottage near our first cache

Well, the weather front arrived on Wednesday morning as we were packing up the car for the journey. It wasn't just wet, it was like winter has returned. Sleet and later on snow fell, the wind was vicious and at times there was whiteout on the roads, that we were wondering if it was wise to carry on.  But, the fools that we are, we did carry on.  AND  we were geocaching to boot.  Obviously, all caches in exposed places, like tops of hills and mountains were discarded, but there were plenty on the list left, that were in towns, villages or only just outside and reachable with a short walk.

The big church in Dunakömlőd

As the day progressed I got so wet that I had to have a change of clothing half way through and the car seats were beginning to get saturated. Roy, wisely, refused to stir outside the car, saying that this was my hobby and he was not prepared to end up with pneumonia.  Fair enough, I thought!

Wine cellars

We were travelling down along the A6, visiting towns and villages along the way, but some were quite difficult and in a complete whiteout and snowstorm, one gives up easily, which I did here or there. Thankfully, as we progressed South, the strength of the storm abated a bit, so towards the mid-afternoon, things were looking up.

At the statue park in strong winds

We also had a moving cache to gather up at somebody's 20th wedding anniversary celebrations, so around the Paks nuclear power station we gave up and started motoring at some speed to make the service. I am an atheist, but normally can put up with a sermon if it is interesting, witty, with a human touch and sincerity.  This Calvinist pastor, I can tell you, was none of these, but was extremely boring, monotone and full of Bible quotes.  Roy and I vamoosed after about 15 minutes. We could have logged the geocache in the garden, but felt it would be very rude not to wait to the end to congratulate the couple, which we did sitting in the car.  Then in about half an hour we got to our destination to thaw out and have dinner. The cache total for the day of travel was 8, which is pretty reasonable, considering the weather.

One of many new lookout towers

Our hotel was an incredibly beautiful 1940's Bauhaus building with glorious art deco curved handrails on the stairs and old furniture too. We had one of 8 specially large rooms with en suite bathroom and enormous balcony. What a crying shame that latter could hardy be used in temperatures around zero, but was beautiful to look at.

A Turkish mosque from the 16th century

On the following day we went for another moving cache which was doing the rounds of the country's borders in a clockwise direction. Fortunately it was quite close to our hotel and near other caches we wanted to get, but another, even more important, fact made it especially attractive. It was so close to a tarmac road that in all likelyhood we could take the car in on the grassy lane to fetch it.  Latter was important as the cache included its hide, which weighed about 10 kilos.

Siklós Castle

So, we got up, had breakfast and departed, only to find that in spite of it being available on the net, it was gone. Roy, the clever, observant clog, found the little chit that explained when, who and at what time took it. The piece of paper also had his telephone number on it, so I rang him and he apparently took it home and wasn't going to place it until tomorrow.  I got rather angry, so we agreed that I will fetch it from him, put it out and then we will sort out the paper work together.

The upper balcony was ours in the hotel

All this took all morning, so we were only left the afternoon for all the other caches we were planning to get. The weather was less rainy than the day before, but in exchange for that the wind got up. I have not felt that cold for a very long time, as I did on that Thursday. Due to windchill, the temperature went from 3C to at least -4 or -5C and while I was wearing all the clothes I brought with me, I was still cold. Roy helped me to carry the heavy moving cache and that was much appreciated, because I could not have managed it alone. I reckon it is now so far from the road (we carried it a full km), that it will not be moved for a while.

Early medieval church in Túrony

The inside of the Túrony church

On our first full away day of caching we found 8, they included nice rows of cellars, old ruins, a fascinating statue park in an abandoned quarry, a spring in a village and several churches and chapels. It was a good day and considering the conditions, it was amazing that we managed to get 8.

Zsolnay chapel and belltower

In the evening, we had dinner and an early night, as the following day promised much better weather and we were going into the county town of Pécs to pick up a few of its many caches.  As it happened, we started caching en route as well, so we ended up with very little time for the town ones and managed only 4 of those. We also got stuck in a traffic jam, which turned out to be added to by an accident too.  In all that bad luck we had one bit of good luck, namely the fact that we managed to squeeze past the accident site before the police arrived, which would have meant the closure of the road and us sitting there for hours. Te police in these parts doesn't care a hoot about the rest of the motorists and getting the traffic moving is rather low on their priorities.

Profusion of lily of the valley in Pécs cemetery

The second day's caches included some more churches and chapels, the airport, a memorial to fallen airmen, a ruin of a Turkish mosque, parks and a mausoleum. The total was 12, making it 28 for 3 days. The weather on Friday was a lot drier, less windy and really warm, so we were hoping that it'll stay like that for Saturday too.  That, unfortunately, was not to happen.  While the real cold did not return, the sun went and Saturday was overcast and slightly chilly.

Majolica columns by the mausoleum

I got out the list from the beginning of our trip and did the ones we postponed then in a backwards order. We enjoyed this day too, which included a stages of the cross, a memorial chapel to a writer, a lovely place by the river for picnics, an old ruined Roman fort, another statue park, this time made of metal, another lookout tower and a multi in a pretty little town, also by the river. The total on this day was also 8, so that makes a grand total of 36, which I am perfectly happy with.  Had the weather been kinder at the beginning and had we both been in better physical condition, this could have been over 40, like in the East last spring, but the comparison is not fair, as in the East the vast majority were medieaval painted churches, which were all drive-ins and ever so close to each other.

Zsolnay majolica lion lining the step up to the mausoleum

Last night I had a little funny turn, so we might have to postpone our return to the village by a day, but hopefully spending today in bed and having a good night's sleep might restore me to my usual vim and vigour. Speak to you again next week!

The Zsolnay Mausoleum

The faithful lions lining the steps

Mecseknádasd chapel at the top of the calvary

Schlossberg lookout tower in Mecseknádasd

Woodpecker drawing on an information board

One of dozens of swans in the oxbow lake in Dunaújváros

The Northern gate in the Roman fort of Dunakömlőd

The river bank for picnics in Dunaújváros

Muggins on the bird watching tower near the river

Weird metal sculpture in Dunaújváros

River port cranes in the bay at Dunaújváros

The geocaching Easter

Last Tuesday was concluded by a theatre visit, which was excellent. János Arany, one of the greatest XIXth century Hungarian poets, was the subject of a one man show, given by András Bálint, reciting many beautiful poems by him, 4 of his famous ballads, many letters he wrote or received and other documents relevant to his life. I teamed up with Jutka and we both enjoyed ourselves a great deal.

András Bálint

As my allergy attacks had really taken a lot out of me, the following two days were spent mostly at home, trying to rest and recuperate. There were quite a few trips and hikes planned for the 4 day Easter holiday and I wanted to be in tip top form.

Jutka by one of the springs

On Good Friday I finally managed to go geocaching in the Visegrád Mountains and pick up 6 geocahes at the same time.  Both Zsuzsi and Jutka were supposed to be coming, but Zsuzsi was a bit unwell, so it was just the two of us. We got going quite early and managed to leave the car at the end of the hike, catch the bus back to its beginning and start climbing. The distance was only 8km, but the height climb was in the region of 450 metres, very steep both up and down.

The view from the top

The first three caches were quite close to each other and all three was roughly at the level before the very steep stuff started. They were all next to springs, which made it quite pretty and cool.  The weather was a bit changeable, but stayed dry.

The Calvinist church in Leányfalu

The fourth cache was on top of the mountain, quite close to the fantastic lookout point on the very top. The panorama and opportunity to take marvellous pictures was much used and we had our sandwiches there as well. This was followed by a horrendously steep descent, which was a bit hairy, but fun. The last cache was also by a spring, after which we took about an hour to get back to the car.

A pretty little chapel in the puszta

As it was only about 2pm, we decided to drive to a nearby village and do a multi-parter cache there. That was quite interesting too, except the car was a bit coughing from the 3 point turns on 45 degree gradients. It is in these situations when I can't trust the TomTom, because occasionally it does go awry. However, we should have believed it, because later, when we did find the last part we were looking for, we realised that there was one place where we were only a few hundred yards from it with the car.

A wild hare, also in the puszta

On Saturday Roy and I went caching, this time by car and we visited a few interesting places about an hour's drive from town. We also  found a nice restaurant where he had lamb and I had catfish. Both were delicious. The tally for that day was 5 caches.

Roy finishing his sweet

Saturday was probaby the highlight of the weekend, as we visited Bozsa and Árpi, our very good friends in Csobánka, a picturesque village about 40 minutes from town. Árpi promised me some time ago to accompany me to some of the caves in the area where there are geocaches as well. In the first cave, we had to climb up through a tight funnel into a larger, but tilted, damp and slippery chamber to get to the cache.  I have nearly chickened out at the end, but perservered and with Árpi's encouragement made it all the way. Everybody thought I was the bees knees, I was just glad to get out of that cave alive. We also got the cache, so that was OK.

In the canyon on little bridges

Then we walked a few kilometres down that mountain, across on the ridge to the second cave, which was not nearly as dangerous, but still needed co-operation from all three of us, with one (Árpi)  climbing high for the cache, the second (me) climbing to just beneath him to take the cache for noting the password, and the third (Bozsa) holding the light at the bottom, illuminating the side of the cave, so that we could see what we were doing. We got that cache as well, so the tally for that day was 2.

The view from the top of the canyon wall

Afterwards we were treated to a marvellous dinner at a great restaurant in the next village and went home extremely happy.  The only downside of the day was that silly me left the camera on the table at Bozsa's house, so there are no pictures of the cave or the glorious view from the first mountain we climbed.

Wild cherry blossom in the forest

Finally, yesterday was yet another caching hike, but this time with just Zsuzsi. We went back to the same area where Bozsa and Árpi live and picked up 3 caches with a hike of about 11km. The first was in a canyon, the second by a holy well and the third just in a damp area of forest way up in the heart of the Pilis Mountains.

The Holy Well with pilgrims

Needless to say that I am now nursing my back, knees and a few other parts, which have been creaking from all this hiking, and then I'll have to pack and leave for the South where we are off to a spa town for the medicinal waters and for some more geocaching. Next post in about a week, as usual!