Further photos to follow during the week 1st Aug onwards
Expedition Hungary Explorers 2009
Update on Expedition ‘Hungary Explorers’
8th July to 19th July 2009
Departing for Hungary on the 8th July 2009, 23 FACCG volunteers embarked on a momentous journey of discovery, exploration, conservation and cultural enlightenment. Members of the Group spent 8 days in the Bükk National Park and a further 3 days in Hungary’s capital, Budapest.
The Group arrived at its first destination, Felsőtárkány, late on Wednesday afternoon, after embarking on a journey which involved nearly every form of transportation, bus, plane, underground and train. Although it was quite tiring it was also a wonderful opportunity to see the towns and villages, as well as the picturesque Hungarian countryside. One amazing observation made during the 2 hour train journey between Budapest and the town of Eger, were the flowing fields of giant sunflowers. These beautiful sunflowers covered an extensive area, and enhanced the richness of the countryside. .When the Group disembarked the train at Eger; the Group were met by representatives from the Bükk National Park, who helped to transfer all the volunteers to the village of Felsőtárkány. The village itself lies in the picturesque Tárkány Basin, at the foot of the Bükk Mountains, 12 km from Eger, along the north-eastern border of Heves County. Felsőtárkány is renowned in Hungary for being the gateway to the Bükk Mountains.
The Group at the Bükk National Park Centre, Felsőtárkány, with Mr János Baczur and the Director of the National Park.
On arrival at Felsőtárkány the volunteers were pleasantly surprised with the beautiful location of the accommodation, which was situated within the grounds of the Bükk National Park Centre. The building itself was amazing with large rooms and excellent facilities. The surrounding grounds housed a massive timber quadrangle with wooden tables and benches, a small loch (or large pond!) that was full of fish and numerous types of pond life. In the evenings a constant chorus of frogs and toads could be heard in the vicinity of the pond. There was also a tremendous recreational parkland area adjacent to the centre. Also the lovely town of Felsőtárkány demonstrated that its’ houses and buildings were designed with such individualism and in some instances grandeur.
All FACCG volunteers undertook 4 days of conservation work in the Bükk National Park, with a few completing the conservation tasks on the 5th and final day. The two main projects included firstly, the creation of a new 7.3 km nature trail and secondly, undertaking timber work tasks within a bothy type of accommodation, both projects were located in different areas of the National Park. The conservation work had been organised by János Baczur, who was employed by the Bükk National Park Authority.
One of the most unusual aspects of the conservation days was the fact that all the volunteers who attended the nature trail project had to cycle to the location each day, and the cycle route was 11km long and uphill all the way!! This proved to be a major achievement for everyone, but especially for those young volunteers and staff who were not used to mountain biking. The cycle ride took between 1.5 to 2 hours on the way to the project, but the reward at the end of a full day’s conservation work was the cycle back to Felsőtárkány, which was downhill all the way, and therefore only took about half an hour!!
The creation of the nature trail close to the Tamás-kút, for the Felsőtárkány Forestry Directorate, involved constructing and erecting oak timber interpretation boards and signs, clearing numerous footpaths to create better access and way marking the route by painting signs on the trees along the whole 7.3 km route of the trail. Some litter picking was also undertaken and resulted in 5 large tyres being dragged from the woodland and a further full bag of litter being collected. During this project volunteers learned about the nature of the National Park and saw a variety of species including, , Honey Buzzards, Woodpeckers, an amazing variety of butterflies and insects (including the biting ones!!), many different fungi, very large beetles, lizards, endangered insects, signs of Wild Boar and much much more. The diversity of the insect life was phenomenal!
A small group of volunteers worked on the project at the Guba house working with Eger Forestry Company, and part of their remit was to construct solid oak timber benches and tables for the garden area, insulate the attic of the house and lay a new timber floor. They worked extremely hard and managed to cope with the intense heat. This house belongs to the Carpathian Association and will be used as a small bunk house for groups and individuals to use in the future, particularly while they are hiking through the Bükk National Park, the purpose of this will encourage people to visit and explore the park for a longer period of time.
For both projects the skills and knowledge obtained from the Treecycle woodcraft courses were invaluable.
On the first Saturday of the trip volunteers were given a historical tour of Eger the largest town to be reached from Felsőtárkány. They also spent their own time exploring Eger and swimming in the outdoor pools located there. On the Sunday the group undertook a guided walk within the National Park which lead them through Beech and Oak woodlands, wildflower meadows on the crags, and protected conservation areas. Whilst on this walk the Group were able to absorb the amazing views of the surrounding countryside, as well as discovering numerous species of wildlife and learning about the history of the surrounding countryside, which was both interesting and fascinating. The walk was over 15km long and ended at Stimecz-ház, where the Group were able to complete the journey to Felsőtárkány, using the forest railway which runs betweens the 2 locations. János went out of his way to organise all these activities for the group.
The last day in Felsőtárkány involved two small groups of volunteers finishing off outstanding work on both projects while other volunteers travelled to Eger or stayed at the National Park Centre to take part in various activities. Earlier in the evening the whole group cycled up into the woodlands in Felsőtárkány as part of a guided tour lead by János into one of the underground caves. Viewing the inside of the caves by torch-light was an amazing experience as many of the rock formations that had been created over hundreds of years. The volunteers could see that the rock formations were transformed into weird and wonderful shapes, some resembling huddled figures in the darkness. 
Brian, Ashley and Peter (Eger Forestry Company) outside Guba House
When the group returned to the accommodation they were given a presentation by János about the National Park. The final evening at Felsőtárkány ended with a group sing-song around a roaring camp fire. The following morning the Director of the Bükk National Park (accompanied by János) visited the group at the accommodation and thanked everyone for all their hard work within the park. Everyone departed from Felsőtárkány and embarked on the journey to Budapest for the final 3 days of the expedition.
Upon arrival in Budapest the volunteers were amazed at the bustling busy city with its beautiful architecture and the River Danube flowing through its heart. The accommodation, the Maverick hostel, was a very beautiful ornate building. High ceilings, tall wooden doors and windows, ornate tiled floors and a gorgeous wooden staircase.
The temperatures in Budapest were unbelievably high and it had been declared a National heat wave by the Hungarian authorities! The Groups final days in Hungary were in excess of 40 degrees! But everyone sensibly lathered on the sun cream and weighted themselves down with bottles of water, before embarking on their exploration of the city.
The time in Budapest involved visiting various buildings and attractions such as the Chain Bridge, the Parliament buildings, the Royal Palace, as well as sampling Hungarian food from the large choice of restaurants available. Everything from wild boar soup to a Wood platter was worth sampling!
On the last day the young people travelled by bus to, Aquaworld, a water theme park complex to spend the day having fun on the chutes and slides. A few young people who didn’t go swimming spent the day enjoying a bus tour of Budapest and then had lunch on a boat sailing on the Danube.
On the last evening in Budapest there was a huge thunderstorm and the rain was relentless, but afterwards the temperature had dropped and was much more bearable. Everyone walked down to the river and booked onto a large boat owned by Mahart PassNave Shipping Ltd, called THE MS RÁKÓCZI OR THE MS BUDAPEST for a 2 hour trip along the Danube with a buffet meal included. The boat trip was amazing as there was dancing and fun with the Hungarian musicians on board and the buffet was plentiful and delicious. The evening views of Budapest from the deck of the boat were breathtaking and romantic as the Chain Bridge and all the beautiful buildings were illuminated against the night sky. It was a brilliant end to an absolutely amazing expedition.
Everyone arrived back in the UK in the early evening of Sunday 19th July 2009. It had been a marvellous experience discovering another country and working with countryside professionals and meeting the local people. Travel is an amazing opportunity to expand the mind, a discovery of new places and people and a realisation that the world is a big place with lots of opportunities and great experiences to be had.
The question is…………where will we go in 2011..?
A vote of thanks goes to Sharon Pearson for her work looking after the finance and accounts for the expedition and Mr János Baczur for all his hard work in organising and hosting the Group in the Bukk National Park, we could not have done it without him, and we hope to see him in Scotland in 2010!