Bent figure-eight in the middle of Bakony

Itinerary

• From Porva we follow the Z mark all the way to the Porva-Csesznek railway station.
• From the railway station we ascend on the S mark to the saddle near Károlyháza.
• On the S▲ mark we go up to the Zörög peak ridge intersection.
• From the Zörög peak we walk straight on the Z mark into Vinye.
• From Vinye we follow the P mark to the Porva-Csesznek railway station, where the S mark branches off.
• Turning right on the tracks, then leaving them to the left, we switch to the S+ mark.
• Reaching the meadow along Hódos stream we turn left onto the S mark, which leads back to Porva.

Detailed tour description

Starting from Porva

Porva is located on a plateau lower than the adjacent Kőris mountain range, above the Zirc basin. The village, situated between the highest mountains and the longest gorge of Bakony, is poor in sights but its location makes it an ideal starting point for hikers looking for long distances. There once stood a Pauline monastery here; during the Turkish occupation it was a wilderness, later Germans settled in the area. The population mainly lived from the forest, and their water mills lined the Hódos stream. Circumnavigating the church on the Z mark, we begin the gently ascending meadows. (This section of path is named after Flóris Rómer, who wrote the first comprehensive natural history book about Bakony in 1860.) The hiking trail enters a narrow, water-eroded loess corridor that vegetation literally has to be broken through, so it can also be accompanied from above, parallel to it.

In the attraction of Kőris mountain

The roofs of the receding village come into deeper view, and after a sharp right turn at the upper edge of the meadow, the green ridge of Kőris mountain unfolds as well. It is hard to believe that the white radar dome marks the highest point of the Transdanubian Central Mountains – merely a modestly rising hill with gently sloping slopes appears beyond the pastures. We only see just under half of the massif as we are observing it from a plateau. We follow the edge of the forest for a while, then at one point (be attentive!) turn left into the forest, then cut across a ditch. Fragmented, patchily logged forest areas alternate around us: sometimes slender hornbeam stands, other times bushy young stands or dense mixed stands follow. We join the generally dry streamlet of Csárda valley and after treading a pleasantly winding path, arrive at the Porva-Csesznek railway station.

The Cuha railway

The unusual forest railway station building in Hungary houses a seasonal buffet and also a small Railway History exhibition can be viewed. The Cuha Valley railway line has operated since the end of the 19th century when the construction of branch lines also began on the Budapest-centralized radial network. The track connected Dombóvár with Győr and required outstanding technical achievement from the engineers due to the rocky, narrow mountainous environment. (The difficulty of the challenges is shown by the fact that one of them, Károly Gubányi, with the experience gained here, later directed the construction works of the Trans-Baikal railway’s Manchurian section.) To build the track, the immediate environment was reshaped with numerous explosions, tunnels were drilled, bridges and viaducts were erected. The line, although somewhat deteriorated (and naturally after several renovations), resists the occasional floods of the capricious stream, falling rocks, and although it has a low (mainly tourist) traffic and was once sentenced to closure, today it is an industrial monument because of its solutions and environment.

The Zörög peak

Behind the station building we turn left on the S mark, and after crossing the bridge, for the first time we see the ample Cuha stream. Our promenade moves away from it, and at a junction 1 km further up, we temporarily say farewell to the babbling creek. The S signs climb through a young stand, then after a thinning forest patch enter a straight cut under power lines. Sometimes we enter the forest but only at the saddle point, under Károlyháza we turn left to tackle the most beautiful forest section of our hike. The S▲ mark shows the right direction; a gravel-covered forest road drills into the realm of silvery beeches. We bid farewell to the vigorous wind forest at a hunter's lodge. From here on we walk in a slightly more natural state mixed with dead wood in hornbeam-beech woods, then climb a steep, wild path to the ridge of Zörög peak.

From the grassy soil the green carpeted forest is soon replaced by a logging patch, then keeping a straight direction we reach the Z marked hiking trail arriving from the opposite side. There once was a lookout tower on Zörög peak, its flat ridge was cultivated until the mid-19th century. Today it is not inviting at all. Among torn, logged forest patches we descend, touching the Kőpince cave which cuts deep into thick limestone slabs, arriving in Vinye.

Vinye

The wide clearing is a junction of hiking trails, with many accommodation opportunities offering the chance to spend time in the forest. Once it belonged to the Esterházy family, but today nothing reminds of this – one of our rare places where tourism seeking the tranquility of the forest is dominant. After a short stop for food and drink, starting back we enter the Cuha valley on the P marked or the southward road.

The Cuha Gorge

A resting place at a widening spot marks the beginning of the Cuha valley hiking trail. We ford crossing the stream, right at the start we walk in the most atmospheric and noticeably cool section of the gorge: the water flow lowers the temperature, heavy cold air is trapped in the narrow valley. After the next bend a rain shelter and resting place offers a chance for refreshment; nearby on one bank of the creek a massive cliff wall looms – looking up we can discover thick limestone layers. We walk through a magical, rock-strewn section; sun infrequently colors the foliage in long beams.

High above grim dolomite cliffs emerge from the vegetation cover as the trail (and water) bypasses the rock promontories with a large loop. We step under the railway’s high viaduct, make a big turn – on the other side appears an interesting structure on the slope behind the green leafy curtain: a half tunnel-like, perforated pipe towards the slope is the country’s only landslide protection vault, one of the brilliant engineering solutions of the Cuha valley railway line. The restless landscape slowly calms down, after another railway bridge we cross the last ford and the valley floor widens. The creek meanders along its own sediments on a wide, flood-irrigated meadow, and the hiking trail arrives at the S mark at the Porva-Csesznek railway station as a wide forest promenade.

On sites of mills, over the ridges of pastures

Turning right on the tracks, after a few meters the S+ mark leads us into the forest. After the turmoil of logged forest patches, we follow a wide, shady ridge, then at the corner of a game field, between fallen trees and a deep ditch, we start descending towards the valley of Hódos stream. Our narrow path turns into a water-washed, grooved road upon reaching a spacious meadow.

We cut right across it; an old oak patriarch shows the way. The valley of the stream was followed by a narrow-gauge economic railway until the 1970s – although today almost nothing refers to it, the Bakony network exceeded 30 kilometers at its heyday. We start heading left on the S mark, which crosses a long, wet, cool meadow – due to its location, on a lush grassy chain of meadows animals once grazed, but as the name of one ditch shows, a glassworks might have operated here. The hiking trail is named after Bélá Dornyay, the author of the first hiking guide of Bakony and a renowned researcher. The gently rolling but never dry Hódos stream once supplied the row of water mills of Porva with tireless energy.

Turning left the water flow slowly disappears, and the route becomes a straight line. Crossing the spacious pastures, Porva’s church shows the right direction.