Today fell into two halves: first a walk beside fields to Mindszent, then a walk along the River Tisza embankment to beyond Martely.
I was kept awake last night by a group arriving in the accommodation late and talking loudly outside my door. I assumed some immature youths, however at 6:30 am they again began their discussions and on going to the bathroom I discovered they were my age (i.e. not so young). As the toilet door could not be locked I found it difficult to concentrate fearing one of them may also want to use the facility.
Again it was an agricultural area I walked through to reach Mindszent. Most of the crops had now been harvested. There were a few areas of grassland on which sheep and cows were grazing, also a goose farm with thousands of white geese, a few patches of trees and two wayside shrines. Much of the morning was on roads, including nine kilometres of straight road into Mindszent.
It was Sunday and I had not stocked up on food, so after a few false tries I found a restaurant in Mindszent serving an extensive range of food. I asked via Google Translate (that handy smart phone App) for their recommendation and received a delicious broth and chicken stuffed with ham and cheese. Google Translate does not always get it right, at the end of the meal the waitress typed something in and the translation said "Do you want the shit?". I understood what she meant (I think) and paid the check she then provided.
On leaving the restaurant it started to rain heavily calling for full waterproofs. On reaching the River Tisza on the edge of town it was time to leave the Kektura with its waymarks of blue lines and for a while follow red lines along the Tisza embankment, heading South. As I walked flashes of lightening were followed by long rumbles of thunder around five seconds later. While you are very unlikely to be hit by lightening it does happen, so I was walking under telegraph lines in the hope that the lightening would reach ground through them rather than me. Then thinking that the lines are actually held on insulators I headed down the embankment so that I was walking under the cover of the trees which lined the river.
As I reached Martely the rain was easing. I walked down to the "strand" area where I understood from the Internet there was a campsite. It was a beautiful, picturesque location by an ox bow lake with patches of green pond weed, trees, some starting to turn yellow, and a few boats, one in the distance with fishermen. However if there was a campsite I could not find it. There were some Panzios but they looked very closed down, they had notices with telephone numbers but I doubt if anyone would understand my attempts at Hungarian if I called them.
I decided to wild camp a few more kilometres down the river. After some abortive attempts I found a nice spot right next to the river, obviously used by fisherman. After erecting the tent I watched the herons languidly come and go and some other type of bird. I kept my waterproofs on with my hood up to protect against the mosquitoes. As the skies darkened I headed into the tent for the remains of my food supplies and a read of my kindle.
I was kept awake last night by a group arriving in the accommodation late and talking loudly outside my door. I assumed some immature youths, however at 6:30 am they again began their discussions and on going to the bathroom I discovered they were my age (i.e. not so young). As the toilet door could not be locked I found it difficult to concentrate fearing one of them may also want to use the facility.
Again it was an agricultural area I walked through to reach Mindszent. Most of the crops had now been harvested. There were a few areas of grassland on which sheep and cows were grazing, also a goose farm with thousands of white geese, a few patches of trees and two wayside shrines. Much of the morning was on roads, including nine kilometres of straight road into Mindszent.
It was Sunday and I had not stocked up on food, so after a few false tries I found a restaurant in Mindszent serving an extensive range of food. I asked via Google Translate (that handy smart phone App) for their recommendation and received a delicious broth and chicken stuffed with ham and cheese. Google Translate does not always get it right, at the end of the meal the waitress typed something in and the translation said "Do you want the shit?". I understood what she meant (I think) and paid the check she then provided.
On leaving the restaurant it started to rain heavily calling for full waterproofs. On reaching the River Tisza on the edge of town it was time to leave the Kektura with its waymarks of blue lines and for a while follow red lines along the Tisza embankment, heading South. As I walked flashes of lightening were followed by long rumbles of thunder around five seconds later. While you are very unlikely to be hit by lightening it does happen, so I was walking under telegraph lines in the hope that the lightening would reach ground through them rather than me. Then thinking that the lines are actually held on insulators I headed down the embankment so that I was walking under the cover of the trees which lined the river.
As I reached Martely the rain was easing. I walked down to the "strand" area where I understood from the Internet there was a campsite. It was a beautiful, picturesque location by an ox bow lake with patches of green pond weed, trees, some starting to turn yellow, and a few boats, one in the distance with fishermen. However if there was a campsite I could not find it. There were some Panzios but they looked very closed down, they had notices with telephone numbers but I doubt if anyone would understand my attempts at Hungarian if I called them.
I decided to wild camp a few more kilometres down the river. After some abortive attempts I found a nice spot right next to the river, obviously used by fisherman. After erecting the tent I watched the herons languidly come and go and some other type of bird. I kept my waterproofs on with my hood up to protect against the mosquitoes. As the skies darkened I headed into the tent for the remains of my food supplies and a read of my kindle.
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| Sky on leaving Tompahat |
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| Long straight road into Mindszent |
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