Much of today was through parts of the Koros-Maros National park where they are trying to create a "steppe" environment.
First I had to get out of bed which I did with some trepidation as last night I threw out two very large, black beetles (?) and a small, black centipede thing scurried under my bed. Nature is all very well but I did not fancy stepping on one of these things. It also meant I spent the night imaging things were crawling on me, although in part my itchy feeling was due to bites I received the previous night at my riverside campsite. Some unknown insects attacked my underarms and groin.
First part of today's walk allowed a closer look at the water buffalo kept by the Rehely visitor centre. Then it was along an old railway embankment. This was much overgrown with fallen trees making progress a struggle in places. I revived myself with a typical, strong Hungarian coffee in a little bar in Ecsegfalva, just a wooden shack with an awning beside it and a some mismatched chairs and tables. I am getting fond of these little bars generally occupied by a few men drinking beers or something stronger, even first thing in the morning. I join the occasional women drinking a coffee or Pepsi. They remind me of the little, one room bars in a town on the west coast of Ireland that my wife and I visited when we first became intimate. We revisited the place several years later and the little bars had been supplanted by seafood restaurants and the like. Come to Hungary now before it to changes!
After coffee I followed the meandering of the river embankment without much sight of the river itself on its broad flood plain. There was much steppe like grassland with a few large birds (although I could see no Bustards), skittish deer and a couple of farms. At one of these I sent the free range pigs racing in all directions, the geese into a flurry of honking and caused anxious turkeys to usher their children to safety, just by walking past. Then it was through trees before exiting the Kektura to reach the Thermal Campsite at Turkeve.
It was called Thermal as it was attached to a Spa emitting some smelly vapours from what I assume were meant to be healing waters. With no swimming trunks I gave the baths a miss but there were plenty of campers of various nationalities walking back and forth to the baths in their swimwear. The middle aged men were mainly in "speedo" trunks. With their bulging waistlines over hanging these brief items it was not a good look.
Slightly disappointed that the spa restaurant was not serving food an hour before its official closing time, I headed into town. I found two Pizzerias, both "zarva" i.e. closed, so it was off to the Coop for bread and cheese (and tomatoes, a doughnut etc.). I ate them in the tent to the cosy sound of a shower pit-patting on the "canvas".
First I had to get out of bed which I did with some trepidation as last night I threw out two very large, black beetles (?) and a small, black centipede thing scurried under my bed. Nature is all very well but I did not fancy stepping on one of these things. It also meant I spent the night imaging things were crawling on me, although in part my itchy feeling was due to bites I received the previous night at my riverside campsite. Some unknown insects attacked my underarms and groin.
First part of today's walk allowed a closer look at the water buffalo kept by the Rehely visitor centre. Then it was along an old railway embankment. This was much overgrown with fallen trees making progress a struggle in places. I revived myself with a typical, strong Hungarian coffee in a little bar in Ecsegfalva, just a wooden shack with an awning beside it and a some mismatched chairs and tables. I am getting fond of these little bars generally occupied by a few men drinking beers or something stronger, even first thing in the morning. I join the occasional women drinking a coffee or Pepsi. They remind me of the little, one room bars in a town on the west coast of Ireland that my wife and I visited when we first became intimate. We revisited the place several years later and the little bars had been supplanted by seafood restaurants and the like. Come to Hungary now before it to changes!
After coffee I followed the meandering of the river embankment without much sight of the river itself on its broad flood plain. There was much steppe like grassland with a few large birds (although I could see no Bustards), skittish deer and a couple of farms. At one of these I sent the free range pigs racing in all directions, the geese into a flurry of honking and caused anxious turkeys to usher their children to safety, just by walking past. Then it was through trees before exiting the Kektura to reach the Thermal Campsite at Turkeve.
It was called Thermal as it was attached to a Spa emitting some smelly vapours from what I assume were meant to be healing waters. With no swimming trunks I gave the baths a miss but there were plenty of campers of various nationalities walking back and forth to the baths in their swimwear. The middle aged men were mainly in "speedo" trunks. With their bulging waistlines over hanging these brief items it was not a good look.
Slightly disappointed that the spa restaurant was not serving food an hour before its official closing time, I headed into town. I found two Pizzerias, both "zarva" i.e. closed, so it was off to the Coop for bread and cheese (and tomatoes, a doughnut etc.). I ate them in the tent to the cosy sound of a shower pit-patting on the "canvas".
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| Very large fields of, in this case, hay bales |
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