Borders, borders and more borders........

After leaving Zagreb I headed north and east for a couple of hours before finding a quiet place by a fishing lake to spend the night - to avoid the Hungarian motorway tolls which require an e-vignette the sat nav had taken me briefly through Austria. I had tried to get the vignette but the App didn't recognise my UK registration number but I bet the monitoring cameras would have done if I had transgressed. Similarly on a visit south of Gyor to the remarkable Pannonhalma Abbey high on a hill top the parking app wouldn't accept it either and as I had no small change I had to move on. An ATM had happily dispensed 100,000 forints - about £230 so working out what things actually cost is a bit mind numbing!

Anyway at a supermarket I did a few repeated small shops offering up the largest notes and so soon accumulated some small change although for 2 and 1 forints the tills don't give it out even though it's on the receipt...

I had crossed back in to Hungary from Austria and in Gyor spotted a car parts store so went in to buy 5l of engine oil before stopping at a Kwik Fit (of all places) to see if they could do me an oil and filter change. The guy was very helpful but said his workshop wasn't high enough, however he happily pointed me in the direction of another workshop not too far away and as I had the correct filter with me they had the job done and dusted within the hour for a very reasonable £30.  Passing through the Buda Hills north of Budapest I found a quiet forestry picnic area to spend the night before dropping down to Budapest to stay on the Ave Natura campsite, near the city but pleasantly situated in a shady valley. The owner was a very friendly and switched on guy with good English who placed me on a level pitch and explained the local bus service in to the capital, including providing two tickets.

Thus I was soon on my way down to the Danube, across the bridge and walking round towards the parliament buildings. I enjoyed a couple of hours exploring and had lunch in the centre that comes alive at night. There were some beautiful buildings and I even took a spin on the ferris wheel for some far reaching views but to be honest it was all rather too busy and in places seedy for me so after crossing over the river and walking back up on the Buda side with good views across the river I caught the bus back to the site.

 

The various sites of the Danube bend, on Europe's second longest river, started with an unexpected ferry crossing to Vac - I left the van on the west side and enjoyed the short hop to an attractive town with more fine buildings including a spectacular cathedral. Built in to the walls a small cafe was serving fish and chips by the river which was delicious before the ferry took me back over to the van.

Further up the valley the impressive castle of Visegrad towered over the river and was well worth the visit with remarkable views, a number of sections to the castle and some impressive displays of how life might have been. 

The huge basilica at Esztergom was undergoing refurbishment but you could still have a look round the cavernous interior and enjoy the views over the Danube.

That evening I tucked away by a fishing lake and had a chat with a guy who offered me a nip of some local home brewed hooch - it was strong but nice enough and he was very friendly with good English having worked in various parts of the UK. It was a very peaceful night but I was away early to the village of Holloko that preserves the traditional rural buildings of a very attractive area. Again the parking machine wouldn't accept even coins but I could pay in the information centre this time.

Down at Gyongyos the narrow gauge railway that climbed in to the forested hills was closed for a signalling upgrade so I headed up in to the hills anyway finding a quiet spot just off the road in the Buk National Park. Next day down at Lillafured I parked up to join another narrow gauge railway that rolled down to Miskolc through lovely scenery - it had been constructed to extract timber from the surrounding forests and the loco had a chainsaw tucked away in case of unforseen events on the line. After a quick ice cream I was back up to Lillafured where a grand hotel looks out over a reservoir.

Moving on to Tokaj an important centre of the Hungarian wine industry I found a lovely place to park up right on the river with good views across to the castle. There was a group of canoe campers set up on the opposite bank and a party for the local youths at the boat club but it was a quiet night after the event ended. Tokaj has a number of cellars tunnelled in to the rocks and provided a place for a lunch out in the sunny square.

For the weekend I headed over in to Slovakia having used the last of my forints to fill the tank and get some food in - it's not a currency to hang on to as I have seen all that I wished to in Hungary as much of the country is a huge flat plain. In the very north east of the country I found a superb little site in the Poloniny NP at Ulike Sedova, hard up against the Polish and Ukrainian borders. The friendly owner turned up later on, charged £12/night with hook up and shower key and pointed out the barrel of beer running on an honesty box basis and at only £1.50 a pint. There was only one other couple staying and I enjoyed an afternoon in the sun before a quiet and slightly woozy night. Next day I set off on a six hour walk that took me up to a pillar marking the junction of all 3 national boundaries - a very sobering place in the light of events on the other side of Ukraine although in fact Lviv only a hundred miles away had been bombed days earlier. The countryside was the same in all directions - gently rolling wooded hills and it felt the same as the wooded borders of the Baltic states with Belarus and Russia last summer.

 

Back at the site an Australian guy on a motorbike had arrived - Tod was from Perth and had shipped his bike to the UK for a 3 month tour of Europe. He had a pretty unforgiving schedule having already reached the Nordkapp and had crossed the whole of Poland that day. His onward route was through to Turkey and a couple of years ago he had crossed Russia and Mongolia from Vladivostock to St Petersburg. Anyway we swopped stories over a beer or two but he was away first thing next morning as I enjoyed a rare lie in.

Heading south I stopped to admire a few of the old timber built churches that are common in the Slovakian/Polish border region - the history of this region is very complex with national boundaries constantly evolving and even new countries emerging so I guess stability in religion and the simple permanence of field and forest provided the communities with some reassurances. Again I had felt this in the Baltics where rural life continued with very little change for centuries.

Bardejov had a fine collection of old buildings around its spacious square and a brass band were filling the streets with a medley of tunes from the balcony of the town hall. A secluded spot beneath the ruins of Palec castle provided a quiet place for the night with just a French lady on her own in another van tucked away. Restoration work seemed to be underway but with only one guy facing a huge task it seemed likely to be a job for life.

Further renovation work was underway at the mighty Spis Castle but on a far grander scale so whilst there was access to the huge outer enclosure the dramatic castle itself was out of bounds. Nearby a small village situated round a Catholic church and monastery was well worth a visit.

 

The small Pieniny NP protects a limestone gorge that marks the Slovakian/Polish border and is a popular rafting location so the village is full of hire companies who then run you back in a minibus and trailer - perhaps not a very environmentally sound arrangement as the 5 mile raft trip then requires a 30 mile round trip for each bus. Normally you can walk or cycle back up the gorge and I had intended to cycle it each way but it was closed for repairs to the trail following the floods a couple of months ago so I just enjoyed a ride over the footbridge in to Poland and round a few villages. I stopped at a small campsite which was busy but not full and later that evening enjoyed a remarkably intense thunderstorm with impressive lightning stikes for several hours. The German van next door lowered their satellite dish and unplugged their hook up in case of power surges but as I had neither to worry about I just enjoyed the spectacle. Moving on I arrived at the Slovensky Raj NP and stayed on a large open site that was very convenient for this popular area known as Slovakian Heaven. Numerous walking and cycling trails pass through the limestone area with gorges dissecting the plateau in various places.I decided to ride up to the plateau heading south and then head back over a total of 30 odd miles that began with an hour's steep climbing up a rough track. Then a traverse of the plateau through forest and woodland before a long steady descent back to the van through some tiny hamlets. 

 

 Early next day I was away by 8 to walk the Sucha Bella gorge which gets very popular later in the day. After paying the small admission fee I set off up the gorge following a number of log bridges, steel steps and aluminium ladders for a couple of hours with it mostly to myself - at busy times the waiting would be beyond tedious. Finally emerging on the track I had ridden the day before I noticed that there were bikes to be hired for the return trip - good value at a fiver a time but I was surprised they didn't provide helmets as in places the track was rough, steep and loose. Anyway I walked down and then packed up as the temperatures rose and headed west to remarkable Orava Castle situated high above the village on a narrow ridge. The self guided tour was excellent giving access to all the various levels and rooms - the timber roofing was remarkable with superb craftsmanship on every detail - shaped shingles even forming the ridge coverings.

 

 After a quiet night on a quiet site at Vavin in the Mala Fatra NP having enjoyed views of the towering peaks of the Tatras mountains I moved on stopping briefly at a folk village (Cicmany) with beautifully preserved houses decked out with flowers and well tended gardens. I tried to use the parking app without success but took a chance and looked round anyway. I took a screen shot of the failed SMS messages in case by some remote chance a fine arrives back in Wales one day before moving on to Bojnice castle which had been rebuilt to reflect those of the Loire Valley and reminded me of the Disneyesque structure back in Morocco. A guided tour (in Slovakian only) was required to visit one area but otherwise it was self guided again and I enjoyed the cool rooms on a hot sunny day.

 

I am now heading to the capital Bratislava before crossing in to the Czech Republic for a couple of weeks then it's time in Germany, Luxembourg and Belgium before my return home in 4 or 5 weeks.

 

 

Usual pics here.