Monday 28th July 2008 – Lillafured, Hungary

It was only a short distance to the Hungarian border from Baile 1st May and after filling Henrietta with diesel to use our last remaining Romanian currency we said goodbye to Romania. I would recommend the country to everyone, particularly Moldavia and parts of Transylvania. We will definitely return one day. However, one thing that I will not miss is the roads – they were awful.
We crossed the border and it was a revelation, beautifully asphalted roads with not a single pothole! For many miles the scenery could be described as boring but the road was straight and flat I was thoroughly enjoying driving in fifth gear at 80 – 90 km per hour without having to examine the road in front for potholes and deformations that could send the contents of the van flying in all directions. I must say that the roads were not all as perfect but they were all better than the best Romanian roads.
As we approached Miskolc out first Hungarian hill appeared, which was a good sign as the campsite that we had chosen was supposed to be in mountains. I had programmed the satellite navigation system with the approximate location of the campsite and this turned out to be very useful. We were happily following signs to Lillafured (our destination) through Miskolc when we came across a police car blocking the road and we were forced to turn of on another road. Needless to say, there were no signs to anywhere on this road but the Garmin got us back on track and we soon climbed up into the hills and arrived at Lillafured. We found the campsite on the outskirts of the village and settled in. The owner gave us a photocopy of an English guide to Lillafured that includes a number of interesting walks in the area. She also gave us an A4 map that showed the area around Lillafured at a scale of 1:40,000, suitable for use when walking. We are on the edge of Bukk National Park that stretches over to Eger in the west and we had hoped that it would form a good base for walking. We visited Hungary with our good friends, Ann and Nick, a few years ago and made the trip by train to Eger (home of the famous Bulls Blood) to see the town and sample the local wines. At the time, I commented that the countryside around the town was very pretty and looked like good walking territory – now was our chance to find out.
It had been a very easy drive, in very good weather and for the first time for quite a while we had a day without any rain.
Photos: The Lillafured campsite with the steep hill behind our pitch in the shade of a large sycamore tree.