on horses, drugs and the state of my ankle

As my kind readers have surely noticed, I'm back from that survival trip I referred to in my last post. There were about 200-250 fellow hikers, some of them covered 20 kms, like we did, some others went 35, and behold - some opted for the 60kms version.

I went for this trip for various reasons. I wished to brush off my melancholy - check, well done.

I wished to spend hours, uniterrupted in the autumn forest - check, well done.

I also came down with a periostitis, which was an unfortunate addition to my check-list.

At this moment some old people enter my imagination, who, with hazed eyes, marvel into the upholstery and start sentences with...when I was young...

And at this moment, I'm joining their club....

When I was young(er), walking 20kms was not a big deal. Now I seem to have fallen out of practice, which is a shame, and I must render the situation right. I must return to the habit of having a 10-25 km walk in every month or two. That keeps one in shape and avoids nasty things to one's ankle.

In fact, my ankle was quite allright after the tour, but a mis-step on the floor of the bathroom proved wrong. I was unable to place my weight on my left ankle and had to keep limping. For the sake of getting things done at home, thanks for the question.

What painkillers I did take?

You must be joking.

This is exactly one of the cases when one should NOT take any.

I took none, but to avoid pain, I rested my leg. I simply HAD TO rest it. I even wrapped it into a sack made of wool. That thing kept my ankle warm. If the sensation of pain had been taken away by drugs, I wouldn't have been able to rest. Now, 3 days after the trip my leg is almost back to normal.

All right, let's hear about our 20km trip.

It started in the middle of the town and after some wondering into the nearby valleys and forests, the route went right back to the starting point.

The location of the town I live in neglects any high mountains and/or dangerous rocks/waters...Some might say it's dull. Others might say it's comforting and gives you the feeling of a friendly environment. Those who feel there's no challenge in a surrounding like this should try walking 60 kms within it. 20kms took less than 6 hours for me. I walked in a pace that is rather relaxing than exhausting. For honesty, I have to add that the total elevation during these 6 hours was about 200-400 metres.

A six-hour walk in the High Tatras is something of a completely different experience. An enjoyable one at that, but different. We plan to get there in 2009, btw.

Each participant was given a map of the tour. We were following various forest trails. We followed the red for a while, than switched to the yellow mark and so on. Tourist trails are quite well marked throughout Hungary - most of the trails go in and out forests, through meadows but some lead to famous places in towns. I said well marked, and if you click to enlargen this particular photo you'll see the red sign and above, a green dot. The red is a line, which means trail, dot means a natural/artificial well/spring of a water, a cross means intersection of different trails and so on. I said well marked, but those who painted those lines upon trees trusted the tourists and have definitely left something for the imagination. At some places the tourist need to rely on his/her compass, map or instinct. Education at its best, hm?

But as there are settlements practically everywhere in the country, noone can get completely lost and eaten by angry wild animals - mainly because those are extinct.

The well I referred to is here below - sorry for the quality. Those two kids are my son and a friend. Fortunately, most of the time we were alone in the forest. I went with my girlfriend and we both had our elder sons with us.

This is a trap the boys found. They were really excited about it. Our trip at 13-15 kms wandered around a famous horse-farm. In fact this is where one of our four-time world champion coach-driving team is located, and is called an Equestrian Park. This is where they keep their animals and train horses and drivers. They run shows for the public as well. This little lady here was training, but judging from the way she was sitting, she was rather having fun, than a serious stress. I bet this girl in the seat was younger than 18. And she managed this drive of four horses.
Besides horses, said farm keeps cattle. There are two varieties, both endemic to the Carpathian basin. The brownish ones in the front are Hungarian Speckled ones, while the lighter-colored ones are Hungarian Grey Cattles. While the speckled variety is a good milker, the more sturdier-built Greys have excellent meat qualities. The trip went right beside the farm's boundaries. A coach pulled by four black horses was driving near the tourists.

We arrived home safe, with some normal pain in our muscles :)