I was nervous that I would catch the wrong bus back to the E3 this morning but fortunately the bus clearly displayed its number (4407) and destination. To avoid messing around with money I bought the ticket online, which also gave me a discount, although the cost of the ticket was pretty small (just over a pound) so the discount was negligible. The online procedure was lengthy, I reduced my age to avoid having to prove I was a pensioner saving a bit of effort, although it would have attracted an additional discount. When I showed the bus driver the .pdf of the ticket on my phone he made a careful examination, as if he had not seen one before. Maybe there is an App?
Safely back at the Haláp Csárda bus stop I plunged into the forest. Today was sunny after a few days of walking under dull, overcast skies. A few, small, puffy white clouds floated in the blue skies. Everything looked more attractive, the morning sun illuminating one side of the trees. A few butterflies danced about, a pair of large birds, eagles?, circled high above me. My first point of particular interest was a kilato or observation tower, one of two I climbed today. By climbing the stairs to the top I gained a view over the nearby trees, of yet more trees stretching out to the horizon, with a few areas of grass nearby. I could just see the white apartment blocks of Debrecen on the skyline.
I also visited the terminus of a narrow gauge railway built around 1902. An ancient diesel engine pulls equally old carraiges from Debrecen carrying people out of the city and into the forest for the day, or at least it does at weekends and Wednesdays in the summer. As today was a Tuesday in Autumn there was no one around unlike when I last came this way when families were enjoying a Sunday outing in July. There were boards here and elsewhere along the trail that gave information on the local birds, plants and animals. As it was all in Hungarian they unfortunately meant little to me.
I continued through more woodland, disturbing a few pheasants who clucked in irritation as they flew off. It was not all trees, there were fields from which crops had been harvested, others were being prepared for seeding. A few areas of maize and sunflowers were still awaiting their fate, but it was mainly trees, a few starting to show their Autumn colours. I was frequently seeing plants with clusters of black berries that I did not recognise. PlantNet identified it as Pokeweed which is not native to Europe and is poisonous. The tracks were of sand or dry dust; walking took extra effort as my feet sank in a bit on each step, especially where the track had been churned up by tractor tyres. A backpacker passed heading in the opposite direction then two ladies with day packs, maybe mother and daughter. I saw them at the bus stop and I assume they stayed on the bus until Nyíracsád and were walking back along the Kektura to Haláp where I got off. It is probably possible to complete the Alfoldi Kektura from Nagykereki to Nyíracsád by staying in Debrecen and completing a section of the trail each day, using trains or buses to travel to and from the end points of each day's walk.
Nyíracsád was a key destination which I reached in time to visit the cukrászda in the village for a coffee and cake. Suitably energised I weaved between children and parents heading home after school, then set about adding a few more kilometres. I did not add as many as I hoped as after crossing a busy road I found a pickup a short way up the track. Hunters I thought. I had seen plenty of deer around as dusk approached and I did not want to risk being shot accidentally. So I retreated back across the road and pitched my tent under a stand of mature trees I had seen earlier.
No comments:
Post a Comment