1585:  Hungary’s Wild West

Wednesday 8th July 2020

Now completely alone on the campsite as the owner had gone away for the day, leaving us in charge!  Wonder if she has CCTV!  CO2 ran free and I did some more laundry.  Our destination was a few hours away, Hortobagy – wild west country.  Part of the Great Hungarian Plain where winds whistled and horsemen herded cattle and sheep.  Flat and wide horizons, but quite pretty for all that, as there are trees and colour.  All we needed was tumbleweed!  A few museums in Hortobagy about the life and the skills the herdsmen had with wood and leather.  It’s a popular destination as we saw more tourists here than anywhere else, including a few coaches.  

Not part of Sid Vicious attire!  A wooden dog necklace … not cruel as it looks.  Kept wolves from killing the dogs and then used as a pan holder.

The sheepskins were also used as bedding.

A suitor would leave his smart coat at a girl’s house.  If she didn’t ask him to take it away, he was in .. lurve!.

Hortobagy has the longest Hungarian stone bridge, all 9 arches of it.  I don’t know if this includes the former territories!

Typical complex of stables / barns.

There was a massive car park which we could have slept in overnight, but we fancied being away from people.  So we headed off to Tisza River.  We didn’t like the look of the low hanging branches to our planned destination on the river bank, or the mossies and mud.   So we stopped next to the road on a dyke.  It was quite busy with cyclists and fishermen passing but, come evening, it was super quiet.  Still lots of mossies though.  On the late night dog walk, I had to wear long trousers and my jacket with the hood cords drawn tight, so the only parts of me exposed were my face and hands.

We overnighted on the dyke over looking a field of sunflowers. 

1586:  Bike Ride to … Teaser Lake (Tisza)

Wednesday 8th July 2020

The guide book described this lake as smaller and less touristy than Lake Balton … sounds charming.  But, as it turned out, it didn’t deliver for us.  

We were parked on the dyke which has a FLAT tarmac mini road leading to it.  a) needs to be visited and b) we can cycle.  So off we set … CO2 ran for a bit and then we put them in the Os-car.  Mistake on my part … Oscar barks non stop unless I put a cover over the forward facing mesh – I’d forgotten.   Otherwise he can see my legs pedalling away from him and thinks I am trying to escape him … as if!?  After 10 mins of his noise disturbing the peace, we used J’s waterproof to block his view.  It worked for a while, but as soon as the wind lifted it, the barking re-commenced.  Ever resourceful, even if I was ‘asked to leave’ the girl guides, I filled the pockets with stones.  Peace reigned supreme.  We could actually hear the bird song.  On the nature front, we saw loads of big birds of prey and I spotted 2 snakes.  

Lunchtime on arrival at the Lake; so we went for a burger special – J, and a roasted cauliflower salad – me … our worst meal in ages.  A few people about, obviously on holiday, but picnic benches etc for thousands more.  Glad it was quiet on our visit.  Despite this being the eco tourism part of the lake, there were pedaloes, motorised canoes, a water park.  And of course the requisite mosquitos.  We were OK on the bike ride until we stopped, then they nose dived us in formation.  We cycled around a small spit of land, the viewing platform was closed and headed back to Jez.  Not on our must go back to!  And we’ve heard that Lake Balaton is rammed, so we will give this a miss this trip.

 CO2 set the pace.

Campsite and canoe safari.

The meal I wish I could forget … not sure where the cauliflower or salad were!

We’d heard from Danny and Lisa (met in Ephasus and they’d rented an apartment near our Turkish lockdown campsite) had left Croatia and were now in Hungary and planning to be where we were headed to next.  They checked out a wild camping spot and declared it unfit:  busy and mossie infested.  They’d found really great campsite.  So we stocked up for a BBQ en route and joined them in Eger.  A great night ….