Yesterday I did another 22.6 km on the Blue Trail, this time in the Balaton Highlands.
That's a total of 160.5 kilometres so far. It looks like a lot, but this distance is only a small part of the entire Blue trail.
There were so many beautiful sights that I thought I'd split the post in two so that the pictures could do the talking.
The trail: Városlőd, Úrkút, Kab-hegy, Nagyvázsony
Level of difficulty: easy
Distance: 22.5 km
I started the hike in Városlőd at the pub in the village centre, where I had a refreshing coffee. This got me going and I followed the blue signs with light steps. Soon I came to the church, where I noticed a few interesting things. One was a stone cross and the other was a beautiful en chiselled Chinese bronze vase in the square with lions at the bottom.
This is a monument to the memory of the Swabians who were expelled in 1948.
Swabian folk costume: Black wedding dress
Christmas Holy Eve costume
Then a little further down, in a window, beautiful orchids. Here in Hungary, these exotic plants are very popular, and they are usually put in the window.
Welcome to Sobri Jóska Adventure Park! This facility is very close to the village, but I just walked past it. I'll try the tree-top rope courses next time.
At the Adventure Park I took the blue sign.
For a long time I walked on a shady road with trees like this.
Water Finder's Trail
There are vast pastures next to the forest
I arrived at Úrkút.
Úrkút is a small village surrounded by forests. In the past, manganese was mined here, but this polluting activity has fortunately been abandoned. Thus one of the country's most spectacular geological wonders has been preserved for posterity. It should be noted that this area is still part of the Bakony, also the southern part.
See the details here in English:
https://guideathand.com/en/sight/kislod-ancient-karst-of-urkut
https://www.termeszetjaro.hu/en/poi/geotope/paleokarst-of-urkut/26459199/
Scientific study: https://opac.geologie.ac.at/ais312/dokumente/Journal_of_Alpine_Geology_54.pdf
The entrance to the Úrkút Paleoarst Geopark.
Two wooden stairs lead deeper and deeper to the foot of the huge rock walls.
The limestone rocks are deeply indented and full of holes. They are very similar to tropical karsts (millions of years ago, in the time of the dinosaurs, the climate was tropical here, too)
Thanks to the special, cool microclimate, it is pleasantly cool even on the hottest days.
A small hole in the stone, how deep can it be? In any case, it can be a good hiding place for small animals, especially snakes!
One of the two stairs
This part was once a cave. It has rock formations like this.
How it looks from above
Snake or lizard? It is a legless lizard! Harmless and shy, a protected species
It took me a long time to get around this area, and most of it was still to come. I quickly went to the nearest stamping post to confirm I had been here and then continued on my way to the Kab site. But that's for my next post.
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[//]:# (!pinmapple 47.084716 lat 17.649007 long @fairyberry/my-blue-trail-from-varoslod-to-nagyvazsony-part-one d3scr)