Bükki Kéktúra, 2nd section: Pazsagi tourist house–Jávorkút

Itinerary

• Throughout the route, we follow the K trail from Pazsagi tourist house to Jávorkút.

Detailed description of the route

Pazsagi tourist house–Derecske-lápa

After leaving the Pazsagi tourist house and the surrounding forester's houses, we stand before a long forest path, bypassing all settlements until Bükkszentkereszt. There is no trace left of the medieval village Pazsag. We cross a varied forest that is sometimes distinctly natural in character through valleys, and after passing an almost imperceptible saddle, we begin to descend in the deep ditch of Derecske-lápa. Here is the first checkpoint of this section, which is a double-trunk pine on the north side of the trail.

Derecske-lápa–Bükkszentkereszt

The short side valley flows into the Hór valley, which is the country's longest stream valley and one of the most characteristic locations of the Southern Bükk. At its bottom, a stony road follows the stream, along which the K trail leads to the left. We ascend gently, and to the right branches off the Hideg-patak valley, at whose mouth a house stands – this was once the cableway leading to the Felsőtárkány side valley and the terminus of the narrow-gauge railway running from the Tebe meadow loading site to here, which was used to transport the felled timber further up.

A little higher, the valley widens, reaching the most beautiful spot in the area, the Tebe meadow. To the right lies a small lake which, after rainy periods or snowmelt, swells into standing water filling the entire marshy area – yet even in its "dry," actually marshy form, it is a fascinating sight. In the side depression lined with hillside and meadows, at the road junction, a covered rain shelter stands and for a long time will be the ideal resting place.

The wet marsh was used for a long time as pasture for animals from Répáshuta, and the abundant water is due to poor drainage, numerous incoming streams from side valleys, and the nearby Hór spring. The latter functions as a karst overflow and therefore works only periodically. A bit further up is the glassworks in Gyertyán valley, the last glass shed in the mountain range – quartz sand (frog salt) necessary for glass production was obtained here from small quarries around Tebe meadow.

Behind the trees to the left stands a cave exploration research house, but after the upper end of Tebe meadow, the Bükki Kéktúra turns right and starts climbing into the dry-bottomed Sügér valley in the forest. This valley is particularly difficult to walk, densely overgrown, without wheel tracks, with negligible tourist traffic; the narrow path following the bottom of the ditch is hard to proceed on, and there are a few fallen trees as obstacles. The wildly primeval forest-like terrain is eventually replaced by a milder slope valley head, followed by changing condition path sections until reaching a forestry concrete road. Shortly, the Ilona house stands on the left, next to which benches and tables are placed. Ahead springs the ruined Ilona-well, whose water otherwise disappears further down in a sinkhole beyond the cleared forest patch.

The asphalt road turns left, we bypass the clear-cut area on it, and on a ridge top, we leave it to the right. The path cuts the road bend in beautiful, dark wind-beech forest, then the K trail joins the asphalt again. This leads to one of the most beautiful points of the Southern Bükk, the almost unknown Dorongos meadow. It is bordered by low hills and groups of pines – an evergreen collection was planted beneath the trees near a former forester's house, the remnants of which remain today. Due to its high threshold, the meadow has no drainage; among its formerly existing sinkholes, some remain (periodic), and shallow sinkholes make its surface uneven.

Before the huge clearing’s northern rocky-gated end, we leave it to the right, arriving back on the asphalt by a short forest path, where we head towards Bükkszentkereszt. In the 19th century, to protect the forest, the pastures were concentrated; their remnants are today’s Lófő clearing and the meadow chain. The atmospheric place is surrounded on all sides by forest that would overgrow without mowing – but it no longer reaches even half of its original extent. On the edge of the village to the left is the IV. Béla monument (checkpoint), which recalls that the king fleeing after the Battle of Mohi was caught here by the Tatars. He was, however, successfully defended and so reached the monastery at Bélapátfalva.

Bükkszentkereszt–Forestry monument

The former glassworks settled by Slovak population is now a popular resort village and the highest settlement in the range. The Bükki Kéktúra briefly crosses the village; after turning right at the main street, it is worth eating or drinking in the center, as from here to Jávorkút we walk through uninhabited land with no opportunity to resupply. (Numerous guesthouses and pensions operate in the village.)

The K trail immediately turns out of the village and descends along the cool pasture of the Száraz-Szinva valley on a stony wheel track to the Szinva valley. Limestone rocks appear here and there, but we soon reach the main road, where we must follow left for a short distance. Because of the traffic and blind curves, this is not a risk-free section, but we quickly turn onto the lazy-valley asphalt road closed to public traffic. The gently ascending forested valley stretches quite far; this section is named after László Lendeczky, the former president of nature walkers in B.A.Z. county. There has been no water flow here for a long time; the valley formed at the border of two rock pastures.

Now already on the Bükk plateau, we walk through beech forests typical of the plateau, which thickens well when the ascent ends. A loop takes us beside the Kurta-bérci forester's house, where many benches and tables stand, and opposite the trail lies a narrow meadow. In the shadow of a lone tree at the edge, there is a World War military grave.

From here we follow the asphalt for a long time, but the best of the Bükk plateau landscape distracts from this. More and more sinkholes appear beside the road, which the bends go around. On the left, at the bottom of one deep sinkhole, in the place of a cleared pine forest, is the Forestry monument erected in memory of the victims of forestry work, which is also a checkpoint.

Forestry monument–Jávorkút

On the narrow meadow chain decorated with occasional rock outcrops and surviving pine patches, the elevation difference is minimal; however, the view of deep sinkholes separated by narrow rims is a defining experience of the entire Bükki Kéktúra. The plateau was once covered by softer volcanic debris rocks, cut through by the water flow at the time, reaching the limestone surface that formed sinkholes. The openings developed higher and higher along the stream’s flow, so the previous sinkholes dried out and clogged, and today they perforate the surface like a series of sinkholes. Pines and junipers standing in their sides give the landscape a high mountain atmosphere.

After the meadow called Menyecske sinkhole, the similarly appearing Kecskeláb meadow joins from the side. From the branching point, trees disappeared after a forest fire, and on the burned or cleared forest areas, we turn right to finally enter the shade of old beeches on the side of Nagy-Kőris. (We can also stay on the asphalt, which leads to the same place; there is a resting place beside it.) We turn right and also follow sinkholes, but now in the forest, arriving at the forest settlement of Jávorkút, where accommodation and a restaurant operate and a plentiful spring wells up.

The turreted house was built in 1920 by Count István Bethlen as a hunting lodge and has since been expanded with several buildings. Among the large pine forests planted in the second half of the 19th century, east of the pension blossomed the "Swedish pine forest," whose seeds were brought from the name-giving country, and to the west is the first planted "ancient pine forest." Interestingly (among others), these atmospherically very special but non-native stands officially formed one of the core areas of the Bükk National Park established in 1977.