The season is almost starts. It’s coming, unstoppable, so I it’s time to get back in my shape.
But do not be worried, nothing like surgery, no serious changes. I just wanted to relax, escape from the noise and the dust of the city, to somewhere, where the nature is around me. Don’t have to pay attention from which direction a car could come, no crowded buses, metros. Just me and the nature, alone. Ok, not exactly like this, let me explain.
It’s the 30th of January, in the morning. I woke up early in the morning, since I had a good, and tiring plan for the day. A few days, almost a week ago I decided to have a nice hike in the near mountains, a little 15-20-25 km long one. The date and time was fixed, the location as well, there was nothing what could hold me back! Then I asked my college, Orsi from the ship, if she would like to join. She said yes, happily, so our group was already bigger. I also asked our Boss, but unfortunately she could not come with us. Hopefully next time, she can’t escape!
We agreed that at 10:00 in the morning we meet at the Ors Vezer Square, and after that we go to the bottom of the Pilis, to Csobanka.
Then the plan has changed. Me, as just a tourist, I would go by myself to explore it alone, but Orsi, who has been here before, knew the place, knew the routes, so she could recommend another one. So I took her suggestions, and we changed the destination to Pilisszentkereszt. Just an hour ride, and we parked the car in the town-center next to a small stream, and got ready for the trip. I packed my back-pack, put something to drink and eat, chocolate, scarf, gloves, in case if the weather takes a 180 degrees turn. Oh yeah, because the weather was surprisingly nice with us – at the beginning. The sun was shining, no wind, no rainfall, so it was a really nice weather for hiking, already in the end of January.
So we started our way to the canon. The weather – as I mentioned – was simply fabulous, but the surroundings. It was not raining, but the snow, the ice melting. And it makes water. The water and the soil together is mud. A lot of mud from a lot of water and a lot of soil. That was exactly what we had there. Make it through the parking place was a nice challenge, we had to look carefully where to step, if we did not want to sink in the mud. But we made it, nothing could stop us. We started our real journey in a solid path, with a small stream on our right, under the ice.
Birds were singing around us, everything was peaceful, as it was painted in my head. The stream turned to the left in front of us, so we walked across a bridge to the other side of the water’s route. A few minutes later the path was gone in our side, but the “river” was still running its way. Somehow we had to pass through again, but how? There was no other bridge. But we figured it out, and it started to begin as an adventure.
They’ve built a kind of dam to control the water, the flow. On the top of it we could walk through to the other side and continue our way. Of course we did not forget to take a hundred of pictures, I was wondering, from the left to the right and back, what is nice, which is better, nicer, or more beautiful. A little while later another “problem” came up, because the rout jumped again to the other side, without any sign of it, left us to solve it by ourselves.
But of course, we did not panic, through the frozen water’s surface and some rocks, we slide-jumped across the river and reached the other side to continue our trip, to the end of the canon.
We’ve reached the end, the route was in a good condition, without really big mud-plash. It is a beautiful place, we have to agree, there are just a few pictures above. I asked Orsi, that was the hike? She said no, of course not, most of it was still ahead of us. We walked across a parking lot and – I was surprised – the main road as well. In the forest next to the road we were heading up way. An easy, 20-25 minutes’ walk, climbing, we reached the “Szentkut/Holly dwell” spring.
It is not just a simply touristic attraction, not at all. People – locals, travelers – are coming here with dozens of cans and bottles just to fill them up with the spring’s water and bring back home. The “customers” in front of us brought at least 14-15 empty water-bottles. They were sitting on their heels around for 10 minutes, when finally, they finished. So, a small rest here, Orsi filled up her bottle with the local, ice-cold, mineral-rich water. We had our breakfast, and the go! We checked the signs, and agreed, that the “Lajos-forras” is our destination. Only 0,9 kms, that’s nothing. Nice joke.
At first we had to climb up. All the 0,9 kms. On the sides there were no more walking paths, all the way we had to walk in the middle of the “road”, avoiding from the rocks and mud-plashes. And, in the end, on the top, there was the trick 🙂
Because this 0,9 km led us to a cross, where we could decide from two ways. To the left (Dobogo-ko) or to the right (Lajosforras). Our destination was the Lajosforras, 5.5 km from here, so it wasn’t a hard task to figure out, there and back, it is 11 kms. The weather was perfect, still, the sun was shining, no wind. We were in time, we had a lot of time until 5:00 pm, so we could make it. Why not, let’s go! So we started to the right, followed the signs (yellow line on a white background), and followed, followed, and followed. Then the surface has changed. First we were walking on the side, in the grass, no signs of mud. Later on, just a few came up, appeared in our way. After that, more and more mud-plashes, and in the end, what a surprise, there was no drier, solid place where we could walk. Just mud, water, in the middle of the path, on the sides. One is better than the other one. We had some seconds, when we totally get lost, where is the sign of the route? But in the end, we could find always a sign, checked the path, and moved on.
Here, under the big sign we met a couple, who were walking with their dog. Was a wonder, that the dog did not disappear anywhere in the mud. He (or she?) wasn’t so high (or tall?), but a low (short?) one, and wasn’t dirty. A miracle. They asked us, do we know, which way leads to the Lajos-forras? We told them, no, we are also searching for that. Said goodbye, and continued our way in the same route, with the same sign. The surface started to be trickier, more interesting. Clay, red clay, mud changes after each other under our feet, stacked to our shoes, gave us plus weight. Time by time some unknown, interesting sounds, voices hit our ears. By a human, or some animal, we did not know it. What we did know, that the traffic on these roads weren’t so high – except us. And some animals. Maybe a wild-pig, or a deer left his footprint in the mud. Wasn’t a long time ago, seemed to be fresh signs.
On the way we did not miss to take a lot of pictures, of course about more and more beautiful sights, views, and of course, talking, talking, talking J Was a fantastic time! After an easy 3 hours walk, when we had to explore our own way, not in the street, because that was in a horrible condition, we stopped to have lunch. The weather has changed back to “normal”, like it should be during winter, spring. The fog come down, but really hard. It turned to cold, rainfalls started to drop, just for a few minutes. But there was still no sign of the spring. So we were about to turn back, since we did not know how much we’ve already walked, and how much is still left. Then 3 guys climbed up after us, so we asked them, if they knew, how far is the spring from here. One of them answered immediately, like 500 meters away. Huuurrrrray!!! We did not wait more, get up, we could make 500 meters in no time. Our luck, that we did not turn back, and wait for a while. So we packed the bag again, and we were on our way, the end was close. Was really close!
And they were right, within 15-20 minutes we got some signs of civilization. First I doubted if we were in the right place, because we found two abandoned houses, which were really scary behind the fog. But when we heard a few human-words, and saw the persons, we were really happy, relaxed, and proud of ourselves, that we’ve reached what we wanted. Lajosforras, 6.4 km from the Szentkut, done! Looked around, read a little story about the place, took some rest, and started our way back!
What happened on the way back? Took another hundreds of pictures, stopped much less times then the way to the other direction, the temperature dropped a few Celsius down again, and the rain started to fall again – not heavily, but still. In this way we were much faster, since we knew the directions, did not have to stop searching for signs. We made this 6,4 km again to the Szentkut, where we refilled the bottles, a little stop, and go, before the night falls down, that would be good to reach the car. We went on another path, not where we came from, but to the hearth of the town, from the back door. On the left, on the right there were statues, picture of the Blessed Virgin. Then a little gate, and we were already in the real life again, with houses, dogs, cars around us. Few more minute walk, and we stepped into a little market, where Orsi bought some cakes, and a coffee for me. On the other side of the road, the car was still waiting for us.
I had my coffee, stretched myself, and looked at my shoes. A total mess, huge disaster. I don’t want to mess the carpet in the car, so there is no other way, without a changing shoes, I have to drive in my socks 🙂 Safety first, but I wanted to keep the car clean. She changed her boots, get into the car and made our way back to the Ors Vezer Square. She jumped out there, and about 40-45 minutes later I found myself at home again. It was a really long day, I got tired, just my legs, but it totally worth it! 🙂
I hope you read this part with fun and joy as well. I can only recommend this kind of free-time to everyone, and for those, who’s not afraid to get a little dirty, also in this kind of weather as well. The nature is just breath-taking, the air is clear, no noise, no pollution. You can’t get lost, there are signs everywhere, so you know which way to go. We agreed with Orsi, that if we had a little more time for next year, we will go a little bit more. For your – and my – information, there is a book, called “Orszagos Kektura Utvonal – National Blue-tour Rout”, where all the registered Hungarian routes are written down with maps, pictures and useful information. And for a bonus, a small “competition”, because all of these routes have check-in points, where you can get stamps in your book, and the point is – obviously – to cathcem all.
Thank you for your attention again, bye! 🙂
rivertraveller 