Well, in some of my crazy rides, crazyness is a result of the poor service quality of Hungarian Railways Company (MÁV). Few years ago we (my good friend and me) planned to ride from Miskolc to Mátraszentinmre (through the mountains of Bükk), but just one day before our departure we got to know that the railway line was under reconstruction and the replacement buses refused cyclists. So instead of Miskolc we had to start from Nyíregyháza which added a 90 km extra distance to the already not very light original project. The same thing happened the day before yesterday. My intention was to make an ambitious circle in Zemplén (a mountain, I will tell you few words about it later) and initialy I wanted to start and to finish it at Tokaj railway station. However when I went onto the home page of MÁV to be absolutetly sure about the time-table, I had to see that it was absolutely impossible to take a train with bicycle there since the line is under reconstruction and the replacement buses... I think you guess already. (Actually this is the same line as few years ago when we wanted to go to Miskolc.) So theoratically I had two options: either to cancel my circle or add 2 x 30 kms for the Nyíregyháza-Tokaj session. If you know me you can imagine that the first option is really theoratical... Finally I rode 253 km yesterday.
First of all few words about the context. Zemplén, which - as I said - is a montain, it is situated between two rivers, Hernád on the west and Bodrog on the east. (Bodrog flows into Tisza at Tokaj, the latter - second biggest river in Hungary after Danube - comes more from the east.) When I say mountain, please stay on the Hungarian scale, its highest point is just a little less than 900 m. Few know yet, but Zemplén is a paradise for cyclists. There are numerous asphalt roads, they don't reach the highest altitudes (the maximum heights are between 400 and 500 m above see level), but you have plenty of alternatives to zig-zag among the hills. I know them quite well since - you can imagine - this was not my first ride there, but this time there was a special motive behind. I wanted to combine the different itiniraries into one big circle as much as it is possible to do within one single day. Finally I crossed the mountain 4 or 5 times (depending what we consider as crossing), none of them was extreme but altogether I still accumulated close to 2 000 m in elevation gain. The weather was not the what you always dream about, at 5:00 AM I started in light rain (it stopped soon) and I had a second wet period in the afternoon, but the temperature was OK (between 15 and 20 degrees mostly), I could see the sun few times and the wind - when it blew (because it didn't blow all the time) - helped more than bothered me.
As I said, I started at 5 AM, though I woke up at four. I only wanted to have a very short tea, but it became a bit longer and there were some other stupid difficulties. There are still lessons to learn :-)! The first part to Tokaj was rather smooth and silent, it is funny to go through villages where most of the people are still sleeping or just washing out the dream powder from their eyes. My first stop was on a nice place beside Bodrog mostly to have my (first) breakfast. I was in a good rhytm so I regretted a bit to get out of it, but in the meantime I knew very well, that the strict respect of a basic rule on a long distance ride is not a game: you must eat continously. (I know this, because few times in my youth I neglected eating enough and the consequences were catastrophic near to death experinces.)
Fortunately the rhytm came back after the stop, and I was heading into Zeplén itself then. The first real mountain village was Erdőbénye, here you must test already your climbing capabilities, though this is not at all the most difficult part. After the village it continues but the level of the efforts required stays acceptable. The uphill road leads you to the upper entrance of Aranyos völgy (valley). Aranyos völgy is the first miracle on this trip, this is not the valley which tourist visit the most, but hunters have - or better to say, had - a completly different taste. I have switched to past tense because life is changing and many of the past hunters houses are small hotels and pansions today. The light slope gives to cyclists the possibilty to roll along without much effort and to be amazed by Nature's beauty at the same time.
Reaching the road close to the river Hernád I turned on the north. It was only few past 9:00 but Zemplén was already on my right. Close to Boldogkőváralja I had my second breakfast then I went on towards the starting point of my second attack. Unfortunately here the wind also attacked - to my face, what I didn't find too fair, and perhaps he also reflected some about poor cyclists since later during the day he became more supportive. Nevertheless At Fóny, at the foot of the second uphill, I had the strong convinction, that a cofee was really necessary.
Coffee forgetable, but taken, no more excuses to stay! The uphill road from Fóny to Regéc is steep, but not not tragically and in the meantime it is beautiful. I can also say that it is more beautiful than steep. Most of the time you can see the fortress of Regéc on top of a hill above the village, a really picturesque view! The fortress would merit the little walk there and a visit for the little entrance fee, but this time I was too busy with my bicycle and touristic attractions are difficult to put in the agenda when you ride more than 250 km, so I didn't seriously considered the possibility of that facultatif excursion. Instead I stopped for a few minutes at the highest point and afterwards I started my descent toward the Hutas.
Huta is an ancient Hungarian word for smelter, or rather for an ancient type of it. This profession used to be practiced in the heart of Zemplén, and the name of the villages remember us to that. There are three of them, in one group (Óhuta - Old Huta, Középhuta - Middle Huta and Újhuta - New Huta) and I headed to go through all of them. This part of the mountain is so much isolated from the outer word that you marvel about how a place can be so much different from another few km away. It is green, splendid, full of flowers. Actually much more people come hear for the weekends than the number of the fix habitants.
In these villages you must go very slowly for two reasons. One, you need time to take the rich impression that their atmosphere are pouring upon you, second, the road quality is extremly bad. Leaving Újhuta another ascent starts on a forest road. Public cars are banned but public bicycles can go on it easily :-)! It goes up to Gerendás rét (meadow) which is almost at the same height (430 m) as the previous maxi close to Regéc. Good efforts lead to funs, the dowhill which follows on the smooth asphalt surface down to Kőkapu is really enjoyable and of a high degree from the point of forest beauty too.
Kökapu (Stone Gate, probably coming from some rock formation) is a very nice and rather popular piknik place close to a small lake. It also has a hotel, a restaurant, where my midday meal was served, and - you won't beleive - a railway station (see the photo below). I arrived to Kőkapu at 12:15 PM and I left it one hour later. There - after 110 km, already something - I was a bit satisfied of myself, but in the meantime I knew that I had not done yet the half of the total distance and I was aware of the difficulties (uphills) of the Northern Zemplén too. So my mood was a bit ambiguous then.
For the digestif I had an easy 5 km roll down in the valley to the Sátoralhaújhely-Hidasnémeti main road. I only had to go a little bit more than 15 km on this road (to Telkibánya), but it was a Zemplén crossing again. Not a terrible one, but not negligable, at least not in the physical state in which I was going more and more. At the middle of the uphill I glanced a small horse tugged cart with few gipsy people sitting on it at few hundred meters ahead of me. I was following that cart and where the road was not too steep I was faster than them. Quite instinctly the competition urge pushed me to race with it, and I almost made the second capital mistake of long distance cyclists (you remember, the first was not eating enough), I started to sacrifice the long terme balanced pace for a short terme advantage. So after overtaking the cart I had to pay attention to slow down and to regain my normal speed (But not before :-)!
From the local maxi to Telkibánya, the downhill way is nice and easy, but after Telkibánya, the most difficult part starts. The roller coaster between Telkibánya and Kéked are just annoying, but I had already some memories about the uphill after Kéked, and I knew very well, that it was the steepest of the whole circle. It is not long, 3-4 km, but it gains almost 300 meters in elevatin on that distance, and it is very tricky because all the time you have the feeling that it becomes steeper and steeper. Well, afterwards I checked and it really does. On the last 500 m the elevation gain is more than 50 m :-)!
If the ascent is the most difficult, the view from above is perhaps the most beautiful though this time it was not so stunning since in the meantime it started to rain. I was at 145 km, it was 4:00 PM, and I knew that I would have to go back to Nyíregyháza somehow. But there was one good thing definitely: all the difficult ascents were already done. I started to roll down towards Hollóháza in the pouring rain where the once famous pottery factory is still working though not at its old capacity and - I think - not at its old reputation.
The decent downhill to Pálháza helped to rebuild my inner peace and the relatively easy road from Pálháza to Sátoraljaújhely started to convince me that I would get back to my home before midnight. Actually it went much better. I eat my last sandwich in the center of Sátoraljaújhely, after that I was riding surprisingly easy to Tokaj, where I had few pancakes, changed the batteries in my cateye and started the last session back to Nyíregyháza already in full night. On that road I only stopped once (see the photo below) and I arrived in front of my house at 10:00 PM. This day I will never forget!
Some summary data:
Gross time (door to door): 17:10
Net time (time spent on riding the bicycle): 13:15
Distance: 253 km
Average speed: 19,1 km/h
Overall elevation gain: 1 850 m
Maps and photos:
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| The whole trip |
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| Close-up to the mountainous part |
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| The vertical segment |
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| Bodrog in the morning |
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| Zemplén in the background |
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| Coffee break |
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| Fortress of Regéc (an authentic middle age giant crane supports the reconstruction) |
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| I am on the right way :-)! |
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| Waldbott castle at Újhuta (it is for sale, you can buy it if you want) |
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| Shelter in the forest |
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| Lake at Kökapu |
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| Kőkapu railway station |
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| Looking back (after Telkibánya) |
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| The valley of Hollóháza |
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| New bicycle road from Sátoraljaúhlely To Kosice - Slovakia (not so bad, but could be better) |
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| Rainy evening in the center of Sátoraljaújhely |
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| Tokaj hill |
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| Bodrog is going to sleep |
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| Me too :-)! |
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