By 6:10 a.m. I was packed up and on my way but already I could hear the sounds of tractors working amongst the morning bird song.
I did not get very far before a waymark appeared to direct me into impenetrable undergrowth. A previous blogger warned that there was a section of overgrown path near here, assuming this was it I followed some forest tracks to intersect the Kektura a little further on. Initially as I rejoined the marked path there was a trail to follow but this soon disappeared and I battled through 5ft high nettles and various other plants to follow the route indicated by my GPS and occasional (and surprisingly new looking) waymarks. This lasted only a few hundred metres but it was tough going. After that I was soon at the village of Nyiracsad. Ladies on bicycles with bags on their handle bars alerted me that despite being Sunday, there was a shop open. I purchased some breakfast from the very busy shop and sat on a bench on the "green" to eat it while watching the early morning comings and goings.
The rest of the walk was the usual sandy tracks through woods with two important highlights. First was the narrow gauge forest railway now operated as a tourist train, bringing people out for a picnic amongst the trees (although a number of people seemed to have arrived in their cars instead). The train was an old diesel. Shortly after my second highlight was my first (and possibly only) kilato (lookout tower) on the Alfoldi Kektura. This gave a view of the large area of forest extending in all directions. The mountains to the north that I climbed before Satoraljaujhely were no longer visible, mountains to the south, probably in Romania were in the grey distance.
I ended my walk at the Halap Csarda (an abandoned building) on road 48 and caught a bus into Debrecen where I am now in the Fonix hotel. I walked around the town which has a well laid out and lively centre with buildings of various ages, a wide boulevard, trams, fountains and many bars spilling onto the pavement. On this Sunday night it seemed full of tanned and beautiful young men and women enjoying a drink, so I had a Gin and tonic and watched the world go by.
I did not get very far before a waymark appeared to direct me into impenetrable undergrowth. A previous blogger warned that there was a section of overgrown path near here, assuming this was it I followed some forest tracks to intersect the Kektura a little further on. Initially as I rejoined the marked path there was a trail to follow but this soon disappeared and I battled through 5ft high nettles and various other plants to follow the route indicated by my GPS and occasional (and surprisingly new looking) waymarks. This lasted only a few hundred metres but it was tough going. After that I was soon at the village of Nyiracsad. Ladies on bicycles with bags on their handle bars alerted me that despite being Sunday, there was a shop open. I purchased some breakfast from the very busy shop and sat on a bench on the "green" to eat it while watching the early morning comings and goings.
The rest of the walk was the usual sandy tracks through woods with two important highlights. First was the narrow gauge forest railway now operated as a tourist train, bringing people out for a picnic amongst the trees (although a number of people seemed to have arrived in their cars instead). The train was an old diesel. Shortly after my second highlight was my first (and possibly only) kilato (lookout tower) on the Alfoldi Kektura. This gave a view of the large area of forest extending in all directions. The mountains to the north that I climbed before Satoraljaujhely were no longer visible, mountains to the south, probably in Romania were in the grey distance.
I ended my walk at the Halap Csarda (an abandoned building) on road 48 and caught a bus into Debrecen where I am now in the Fonix hotel. I walked around the town which has a well laid out and lively centre with buildings of various ages, a wide boulevard, trams, fountains and many bars spilling onto the pavement. On this Sunday night it seemed full of tanned and beautiful young men and women enjoying a drink, so I had a Gin and tonic and watched the world go by.
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| Narrow gauge tourist train |
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| View from Kilato (lookout tower) of Great Plain |
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| Debrecen centre with the Large Protest Church |
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