Bring your bike to the heart of Zselic

Itiner

• In Kaposmérő, from the railway station, aim for Rákóczi Street, which is the main street of the town, and turn right when you reach it. Turn left from Rákóczi street to the first street after the cemetery; from here the road leads along the valley of the Bárdi stream to the Zsippo Bird Park (first on a dirt road, then on a cycle path).
• From the Zsippo Bird Park, cycle back to Bárdudvarnok, then turn right at the edge of the village, at the Fishing Canteen, onto the road to Szenna.
• When you reach Szenna, turn left at the crossroads to the skansen (about 500 metres away); the route continues to the right.
• At the junction for Patca, turn right towards Katica farm.
• 600 metres from the junction at Patca, at the bottom of the slope, turn left onto the asphalt forest road (signposted to the Zselic Star Park). Follow the road straight to the observatory. From here, the route continues on the asphalt road - at a Y-junction, turn left and go straight on at Aunt Lidi's house; the asphalt road leads to Bőszénfa.
• When you get to the deer farm inn, take the main road 67 to the first crossroads and turn right.
• At Gálosfa turn right towards Szentbalázs. From here, follow the road in this direction (you do not need to enter either Hajmas or Kaposgyarmat).
• When you reach road 66, turn left and follow the busy road to the northern border of Sántos, where you will pass the last houses and turn left at the first crossroads. At the next junction, a few hundred metres away, turn left again; this road leads straight through Kaposszentjakab to the centre of Kaposvár, Kossuth tér. (From here you can roll down Teleki Street to the station.)

Detailed description of the tour

We set off from Kaposméror to explore the gently rolling hills of the Zselic. The highest point of the 1200 square kilometre hills, the wildly named Raven's Nest, is not very high (358 metres), but be prepared to collect some elevation in the bumpy countryside. Initially, you will follow the former Kaposvár-Középrigóc (-Barcs) railway line, so there is no need to fear significant elevation gain. The southern part of Somogy county was once crossed by three roughly parallel railway lines, one from Kaposvár to Szigetvár and the other from Somogyszob to Barcs. But back to the present: from Kaposmérő, we follow the route of the former iron railway, first on a dirt road, then on a cycle track that was built visibly and perceptibly a long time ago.

Among horses, birds and ewes

A few hundred metres from the border of Kaposmérő is Kassai Valley, the home of Lajos Kassai's equestrian activities - on the first Saturday of every month, visitors can watch equestrian demonstrations on an open day. Continuing south along the narrow cycle path, it is not difficult to imagine the steamers that once plied the route, or the Ganz motor coaches that were so characteristic of the branch lines for half a century (you can see one of these on display at the Kaposvár railway station). But apart from the former (still inhabited) building of Bárdudvarnok station, there is no sign of the railway.

A short detour takes you to a part of the settlement called Öregzsippó, where you can visit a bird farm set up by a local family (basically from mid-March to the end of October; you need to book in advance for the autumn-winter period). In addition to dozens of bird species, the park also has an ethnographic collection and a small arboretum. To get to Szenna, you have to roll back to Bárdudvarnok, but at least you can admire Lake Petörke, which to the layman looks like a real fishing paradise. The idyllic scenery is interrupted by a short but steep climb over a hill towards Szenna - the first of the tour. On the flat top of the hill, weekend cottages, small vineyards and press houses blend into the landscape.

The Senna Skansen is open to all: five houses, a church, an adjoining cemetery and a few press houses. Chickens clucking in the poultry yard, geese gagging, and free-roaming rack ewes and lambs bring the small village to life; the cemetery with its old graves is a reminder of the dead, and the church's coffered ceiling evokes the knowledge of the old masters. Every month, the skansen has an extra programme to entice visitors.

On the way to the heart of the Zselic, family groups should visit the Katica farm in Patca. Children are sure to be kept busy all day by the activities on offer here (outdoor and indoor playgrounds, a slide park, petting zoo, giant maze, go-kart tracks), so plan accordingly. It is worth noting that, 20 years ago, the village seemed to be on the verge of total depopulation and disappearance, but the world has turned a very different corner with the arrival of the leisure centre.

At the edge of Zselickisfalud, at the end of a pleasant slope, we turn left onto the forest road - a signpost indicates the right direction to the Zselic Star Park. After crossing the stream, the pleasant, almost flat road suddenly turns uphill: a not too steep but long section through the beautiful forest to Kardosfa. As you approach the forest hotel, a rest area and the first stop on a nature trail appear along the road, tempting you to stop, but it is better to tackle the climb in one go.

A starry reserve deep in the forest

At the heart of the Zselic Star Park is a visitor centre, the two main attractions of which are a planetarium and an observatory. Located in the heart of the Zselic Landscape Reserve, the Astronomical Park was awarded the title of International Astronomical Park in 2009, which means that you can observe more details of the night sky than in a landscape full of artificial lights, due to the low light pollution. The small visitor centre, hidden deep in the forest and in harmony with nature, helps us to better understand space and get a closer look at the celestial bodies. The telescope allows you to get a closer look at the sun by day and the stars by night under clear skies; on cloudy days, the planetarium helps you to see outer space.

From the visitor centre, continue towards Bőszénfa. Along the way, there are rest stops and little curiosities along the way, such as the display area, which is a clever way of observing the stars during the day, and "Aunt Lidi's house". The original is in Senna, and the small show house is deep in the forest at the fork in the road known as Csárdahely. As the name suggests, it may have been a catering unit along the Kaposvár-Szigetvár trade road that once led here.

As you approach Bőszénfa and emerge from the forest, huge fenced fields, pastures and woodland surround the thin strip of tarmac you roll along. It's worth slowing down a little, as you can see deer and roe deer in the distance, and if you're lucky, grey cattle, donkeys and horses grazing closer to the road. The deer farm's reception building is just off the busy Route 67, with a petting zoo and a petting zoo for young and old. Emus, pot-bellied pigs and kangaroos are all at home with the local game and domestic animals. In the inn you can sample dishes made mostly from local ingredients (wild game, forest fruits and mushrooms).

The former Kaposvár-Szigetvár railway follows the route to the capital of Somogyria: the keen-eyed traveller can discover former station buildings, guardhouses, and even rails in the asphalt of an old railway crossing. From Kaposszentjakab you reach the county seat - here you can find the ruins of the Benedictine monastery of Zselicszentjakab. It is not worth climbing up to Várdomb, however, because the ruins have been closed for years (in 2018, the renovation that should have been completed in July 2015 has not even started). The abbey was founded by a landlord in 1061. It was developed and expanded until the 16th century, when it came under Turkish rule for a hundred and thirty years - even before that it had been used as a fortress for a time. It never regained its former splendour, and the monks never returned to the Vardomb.

The heart of Somogy

We roll into Kaposvár on a straight road; if we don't turn left or right, we come to the main square, named after Kossuth. Already on Fő Street it is worth slowing down: the imposing building of the Castle House is contrasted by a playful statue of Klára Weeber entitled Tótágas (The Giants) under a huge plane tree. There is no need to hurry past the statues in the city centre: József Rippl-Rónai is frolicking on a chachaat's tooth in the pedestrian street, and a little further down, after passing the conversing duo of Endre Ady and the artist, watched by a bronze dog, you can sit down for a while next to the Children Playing. The former villa of the painter, a native of the town who worked in the post-impressionist and art nouveau styles, now houses a memorial museum. Art Nouveau features can also be seen on some of the buildings in the city centre, such as the Rainbow Cultural Centre, but also on the neo-renaissance façade of the Town Hall or the neo-romanesque Church of Our Lady of the Assumption. The eclectic yet coherent image is broken up by the poorly managed apartment buildings of the 1990s just a few tens of metres away. Kaposvár is also a city of fountains, and we encounter artificial geysers spouting water at every turn. Once you leave the city centre, Kaposvár's railway station is worth a detour: designed by Ferenc Pfaff (the former chief architect of MÁV, who still has many important railway buildings across the Carpathian Basin), its proportions show that it was once expected to handle much heavier traffic. Indeed, trains once departed from here in six directions, criss-crossing Somogy.