Bükk Blue Tour, stage 3: Jávorkút-Pereces

Itiner

• Follow the K sign from Jávorkút to Pereces.

Detailed description of the tour

The light pole above Jávorkút-Ómassa

Jávorkút is a good place to fill up with water, but Ómassa is not far away, and there is a spring on the northern side of the village on the way to the Little Plateau. Standing in a large meadow, surrounded by resting places, the porch house was built in 1920 by Countf Bethlen István built it as a hunting lodge in 1920, and since then it has been extended with several buildings. A 19. In the second half of the century, a large pine forest planted east of the guest house, the 'svéThe seeds were brought from the eponymous country, and to the west is the first 'ancient pine', planted in the area.

The K signs follow the asphalt, as on the southern side of the plateau, the Bükk Blue Trail follows a karstic pavement, the "sekéA karstic valley with a karstic valley floor, where several waterholes in the trees catch the water that emerges at the foot of the neighbouring hills. Finally, leave the road to the left and reach the edge of the Great Plateau in a wooded area. Avoiding power lines, we descend through an open field, one of the power poles is the pass point - don't forget to read the number.

Light pole above Ómassa - St. Paul's Monastery

When we reach Ómassa, we cross to the surface a few metres aboveand start descending the streets of what is probably the country's most narrow village. The small shop and pub in the centre is the last place until Varbo where we can surely get some supplies.

The village is the cradle of the metal industry in the region, as it was here that Henrik Fazola built his first blast furnace.which was later moved to Újmassa, and finally the modern factory moved to Diósgyőr. Leaving the village through the side street next to the pub, you cross a real gorge gate. The stream runs down the short valley into the side of the Little Plateau with a loud sound in the wet season, but as the power line was also run up to Szentlélek here, it is not a pleasant stretch. Higher up, on the right, is the Jubilee spring, which is usually expected. (It was occupied by tourists from Dalmatia in 1985.)

A hairpin bend takes you to the edge of the Little Plateau, and you turn into woodland under the Pauline monastery of Szentlélek. The monastic order was granted the site at the beginning of the 14th century, but there were hermits living here in a convent as early as the previous century. It was deserted by the Ottomans, but as it was far from the villages and difficult to reach, the stones were not removed, so there is still something to see today. The memorial plaque on the ruin is the point of reference, but you can also get a stamp (with the Cossacks' Way stamp) at the north side of the guesthouse. Szentlélek became a tourist hub in the early days of tourism, with the first tourist trail from Diósgyőr leading here, and in 1932 a shelter was built, later named after the polymath Herman Ottó. The building is now a company holiday resort.

The Pauline monastery of Szentléleki - Örvényes spring

Crossing the road, on the left, in the woods, you will find the Szentléleki Tourist Park, which was awarded the Tourist of the Yearin 2024 and offers all types of accommodation for hikers. Leaving the road, the trail passes a huge old beech with a double trunk, and after a short descent you arrive under the rocky outcrop of the Seeing Stones. The limestone cliff emerges from the slope without a transition, do not avoid it under any circumstances: climb a few metres up the rock stairs to the edge, where you can see the caves.From the top, you can climb up to the edge of the rock and enjoy one of the best views of the Little Plateau. Behind the back of the Upponyi Mountains, recognisable from the Lázbérci reservoir, you can see the Slováof Slovenia, the Low Tatras' Mount Király is almost always visible, but on a clear day, the High Tatras rise just opposite. The cliff is a typical example of the Beech "landmarks": the softer layers of shale that support the limestone layers have been eroded away by the erosionThe limestone has lost its support and has fallen away towards the slope.

We walk northwards across the Little Plateau, first through young, then chaotic old beech in its natural state. From the edge of a cutting, we look north again and soon turn east, under the Buzgó rock. Be sure to take the short detour to the rock at K▲: you come to a narrow ridge where the forest opens up and then the rock emerges as a jagged ridge. Clinging to its back, you look out again to the north, as from the Seeing Rocks, but here there is much less tourist traffic, and the site is surrounded by real wilderness. To the south, for example, is the Harica Valley, a jungle-like expanse, into which the mountainside below the Vortex Stone is a veritable crag.

The K sign turns into a deepening, dark and narrow valley. To the left, the Harica or Orrvényes spring flows(a verification point), the slopes steepening on either side. To the left, in a clearing, stands the well-maintained Wolf's Den key cabin, run by the St. Lawrence Tourist Park. Next to it is a spring, a fire pit and a bench. Further down, the valley floor widens, but the lush aquatic vegetation hides the ruins of the former railway terminus. The name of the Harica stream is a reference to this wet environment, as the Slavic word means harast. Inside, at a small lime waterfall in the riverbed, stands the interesting moss-capped socket of the Harica spring. (During wet periods, the spring water flows down behind it on the other side like a waterfall.)

Örvényes-quelle-Varbó, mining monument

The resting place is in ruins, but it was once designed for larger groups, as it was reached by a branch of the Lillafüred railway (which now ends at Mahóca). Construction of the network around the Sinava Valley began in 1920, and since the Palotasallo, passenger transport started relatively soon, and long stretches of track survived into the 20th century. The railway line was built in the second half of the 20th century. This wing line was completed in 1948, from the Miskolc paper mill to here, the last of the eyesIn 1994, the last train to transport waste rolled along the 17 km of track. In 2006, the forestry department dismantled the remaining tracks due to the many rail thefts, so you can no longer see them on the valley floor.

Which wouldn't be easy anyway, as everything from here on is covered in lush vegetation: we're in one of the longest valleys in the Northern Beech, with the stream flowing into the valley at the foot of the Little Plateau.It is wide and sometimes breaks into several branches, and after a cloudburst it wreaks havoc down here. The terrain is accordingly rearranged, and the drainage area is not small, making the trail challenging to follow in places. Long trousers come in handy on this stretch, with fords to cross, but the forest-like terrain is veryThe rugged terrain is reminiscent of the wild Carpathians, making this one of the most beautiful stretches of the Bükk Blue Trail. Its difficulty and landscape, as well as its remote location (thethe valley is the essence of the whole trek.

Eventually the terrain flattens out a little and after a meadow you turn right out of the valley. (Further down the valley, the houses of the predecessor of the village of Kondo once stood.) We have to climb upwards, which is not good after the fatigue of the long bush fight, but it is not our last climb. We pass through a much more artificial, managed forest, mainly oak woodland, to the wide pastures above Varbó. We have a view of the village and its hilly surroundings, and at the far end of the pasture we turn off onto the roads. Varbó's main attraction is the reservoir, which lies at the foot of the hills, and from its shore you have a fine view of the mountains on the edge of the Little Plateau. The lake was built in the 1970s to hold back flooding from the Bükk (zááIt is now mainly used for fishing. The fishing buffet near the shore offers a filling station before the last part of the hike, and a shop is located in the village centre. The K sign takes you through the village, the miners' monument in the centre is the reference point.

Varbó, miners' monument-Pereces (miners' monument)

The memorial commemorates those who died while working in the coal mines in the area. The K sign leads you out of the village under hills next to the cemetery, from where you climb a steep but atmospheric cellar road. The telltale name of the Warm Side used to be covered with extensive vineyards, but now, in the saddle of the hill, it is a small, steep hilltops you walk a little to the left off the tourist path, you have an uninterrupted view of the Galya stream valley. Through sunny pastures and a beautiful hilly landscape, you reach the asphalt road down to the valley floor, where you can even see cows. Follow the tarmac to the right towards the former brown coal mines, but only briefly as the signs soon turn left into the trees. A relatively gentle but long climb follows to the crest of the hill - crossing theWe pass over one of the most exciting industrial sites in the area, the Graenzenstein mining tunnel.

The Adriatic mines near Varbo are linked to Perecess, via its light railway network, to the Diósgyőr ironworksWith a length of 2,434 metres, it was at that time internationally long in its category. For a long time, horse-drawn trains were used to transport mined material and miners through the tunnel, which later caused many problems: when they switched to steam locomotives, they had to be specially adapted. Accidents also resulted from the cross-section being only a few centimetres wider than trains: Smoke poisoning was not uncommon, and in 1947 a derailed train had its girder collapse, burying 11 miners in the sand. The sub-tunnel was widened in 1949, when it became a tunnel, but in 1960 it was closed due to earth movements, and the tunnel was destroyed by a collapse of a mine shaft.and by the time it could be reopened, it was no longer needed, as road haulage replaced the railway. The abandoned tunnel was later closed, filled in with rubbish and finally covered with earth.

Pereces is reached by a wide dirt forest road, past the buildings and the closed shaft of the former mine. The village, now part of Miskolc, has been mining coal since the 1870s and was the first in the country to use electric locomotives for underground transport. Although the end point of the Bükk Blue Tour is at the bus turnaround, the is located further down, at the miners' memorial at the former tunnel entrance.