Scrambled eggs

I found my way out of Budapest much easier than I got in – dry when left, I’d got some bearings in the city and Google maps had put me on a good route – the one that took me past the cycle breakfast – thank you Google.

I enjoyed both Budapest and Prague and found myself comparing the 2 cities. The main sights of Prague are in a much more compact area where as in Budapest they are much more spread out, with your regular shops and businesses in between, this combined with the buzz of the traffic it has a much more lived in feel rather than just a tourist magnet – I’m all for environmentally friendly and safer for bikes – but there is something about the noise of the cars and busses and trams that, in my head, makes things more real – or I’m just losing the plot??

In Czechia and Slovakia, Google maps didn’t give a cycle option so I was using the Komoot App for navigation. In Hungary Google maps seems to work and I’d used this and Komoot to plot a route from the city to the campsite I’d planned to stay at – both routes overlapped at times but were both different – Komoot is geared up for walkers and cyclists and in theory it should be better than Google maps – sometimes it is – sometimes it’s not – I’ve been surprised when Komoot has taken me on a road when there has been a perfectly good cycle path nearby – for both Google maps and Komoot it depends on how much information you give it in the first place and some inside information from local cyclists is always handy. So on this day I’d used the Google route for a good distance, until it took me on a dirt track – one, this would have slowed me down (and I still had a long way to go for that night’s campsite) and 2, I’m now a bit anxious about getting more broken spokes so I backtracked to the road and reset my journey with Komoot. Not sure if my route planning is the best way of doing it but it has mostly worked so far.

I didn’t quite make it to my intended campsite – luckily, as the day was pushing on and I was getting tired I came across one that I hadn’t found when I did my research the night before – Madarpart was about 10k before my planned stop – it is on the shore of Lake Tisza-To, Hungaries biggest man made lake – it was perfect apart from the mosquitos – lake, calm, damp from the mornings rain and humid – I should have known the wee buggers would be out but I always forget how bad they are until it’s too late! Covering up any exposed skin as quick as I could combined with a breeze picking up solved the mosquito problem. I was the only person staying again – midweek, not yet holiday season and bad weather was keeping folks away. Tilly who ran the campsite with her husband was amazing – she made me a huge plate of scrambled eggs with bread and 2 different types of cake and refused to let me pay for either the food or the campsite. Really loud thunder that night but the expected rain didn’t come till the morning – it did get really windy though and I had a crap night’s sleep – big gusts of wind, wake up, wonder if I should move tent under sheltered area, fall asleep; big gusts of wind, wake up, etc, etc. When I got up in the morning it was pretty Scottish outside – windy and wet and I packed a damp tent away.

Quite back road from the campsite until I joined the main road that had a fab cycle path running parallel to it and this crossed over the lake I’d camped beside – definitely popular for paddle sports and cyclists and bird enthusiasts but it wasn’t a morning to be stopping. Signs indicated that bike path continued to Hortibagy which was on my route – fab I thought but not for long – nice paved route turned to farm track which probably would have been fine after a spell of dry weather but Bertie’s tyres were not cut out (and neither was I) for the slick coating of mud and I retreated to the road – I also wondered why I had bothered washing the bike 2 days ago.

When I left I did wonder if I would cross the border into Romania but after a big day the day before I wasn’t sure I’d make it and not sure about accommodation once I crossed over – tired legs decided for me and headed to the city of Debrecen (about 42k from the border). I was cycling on what was a trade route – especially cattle and salt – through Hortibagy National Park which is part of The Great Hungarian Plains. Lots of bird life including Lapwings and Egrets – Egrets were nearly extinct due to changes in landscape and being hunted for their feathers – if I’ve got my facts right about only 30 pairs in the 1960’s and now about 3000 pairs and I certainly saw lots of these gorgeous birds.

At Hortibagy, I’d hoped to go into the Pásztormúzeum (the shepherd’s museum) but it was in the process of being pulled down so that they can make a new and better one – both here and in Budapest (and elsewhere in Hungary I think) there is a lot of improvement work taking place which is great but bad timing for me though. I did go into the wee museum in the “Csarda” though – like all trade routes there was places for travellers to stop and rest and this Csarda / tavern was one of them – as well as making sure that the beer and wine was flowing and that the accommodation was up to scratch (not entirely sure what that meant in those times) – the pub landlord had to make sure that the bridges in his area were in good working order too – wooden bridges and frequent flooding due to the nature of the land did not make it an easy job – and not sure many pub landlords would be up to the task now!

Lots of stops – legs couldn’t be bothered – I found a wee hotel in Debrecen to stay – some fab bits of cycle path – did it stop or did I lose it – had a bit of a hairy section on a shared road with roadworks – cars and trucks generally giving me plenty of space but when there is no space to give a lot of them will go for it anyway! Hotel is fab – £26 for room with biggest onsuite shower – I’m in heaven – I’ve spread my stuff about, sink washed my clothes and had a quick wander round the town and liked it and managed to keep my room for another night and had a nice wander today.

I’ve given up on my 90 days Brexit clock ticking – there is a forest park nearby that I’d like to see and the sun is meant to be out tomorrow so think I might stay another night or 2 in Hungary before crossing into Romania.

Debrecen was once, for a short period of time, the capital of Hungary. And on that note I will stop waffling and head to bed.