Circular route from Ibafa through Kisibafa

Itinerary

• From the center of Ibafa, we start our circular route eastward on the main street of the settlement following the P marking.
• At the depopulated Kisibafa, we change markings and continue left on the S◼ route.
• We walk nearly three kilometers on the ridge path until our marking joins the S marking, where we turn left.
• We arrive in Horváthertelend following the S marking, and finally return to Ibafa.

Detailed description of the tour

The priest of Ibafa and smoking

We start our circular walk from the church on the P marking eastward along Arany János Street. According to tradition, the priest of the village, resettled in the 19th century, was addicted to pipe smoking – as the famous rhyme also highlights. However, the reverend's wooden pipe was lost, so in 1934, a carved replica was made for the current priest. This wooden pipe from Ibafa (or as the local Swabian inhabitants pronounced it: ipafai) can also be seen in the museum, where countless other variations and smoking accessories are on display. Besides the famous replica, pipes from eight countries can be admired in the showcases. Visitors can also encounter curiosities such as the pipe of Ferenc Deák, known as "the wise man of the homeland", made in 1865, and the pipe of Mihály Károlyi, a former prime minister of our country, which is also among the treasured relics.

The clay-loess soils of Zselic provided material for centuries-long operation of brick kilns, and from the second half of the 20th century, brick factories in the region; in Lukafa-puszta, due to similar reasons, pottery and pipe firing also took place. Whether the tobacco-loving priest actually existed is unknown, but it is certain that pipe making around Ibafa and consequently pipe smoking likely had serious traditions – this may explain the origin of the rhyme. It is also conceivable that the smoke lingering in valleys from puffing workshops (including the "pipe factory") sparked the imagination of locals, who, in a playful word game, tied the origin of the smoke blanket to the name (real or imaginary) of a local person (for sound's sake, associated with his office).

Among the small villages of Zselic

We leave the Pipe Museum, then after 150 meters turn left. After 100 meters at the fence of the former manorial building – today a dormitory – we turn right onto a narrower dirt road, which ends in an asphalt road after a gentle ascent. Turning right on it, we leave the buildings of a now non-functioning farmstead, then shortly turn onto a cart road.

Looking back from the wide dirt road climbing to the top, a very beautiful view unfolds before us of Ibafa hidden in the valley and the hills of Zselic. Soon we pass a cross worn by better days, then following its marking, our path leads beside groves and fields, arriving at Kisibafa, where now only a few ruined houses remind of the long depopulated settlement. This part of the country is especially affected by depopulation and aging: due to poor settlement structure in towns, the younger part of the population has moved (and moves) to distant cities to find work. We can rest in the shade of centuries-old walnut trees by a well with a wheel, where we find our next guide on the S◼ route.

Views, forests, hills

After the rest, we continue left, northward – leaving a ruined barn behind us – on the S◼ marking. We cover the next kilometer in a very atmospheric forest environment, then emerging at a clear-cut stretch, we walk along a fence. On the winding road, we re-enter the forest, where after one kilometer we meet the K↺ marking coming from Gorica, which accompanies us for the following one and a half kilometers. Surrounded by acacias, on the wide “Postás út” (Postman's Road), we soon arrive again at an intersection of hiking trails.

Walking on the wide dirt road (without changing markings), turning to the right we catch sight of the houses of Felsőkővesd in the distance. After a little more than a kilometer, the S◼ leads us to the S marking, where we turn left on its branch.

Leaving the ridge road, the dirt road winds downward, here markings become rarer as we walk on a shrub-covered field. Soon, on an even more beautiful mountain pasture, on a grassy road, we go down until reaching a farm near Horváthertelend. Walking along the village’s only street squeezed into the valley floor, we turn left and at the last houses of the small settlement, enter a very steep, water-washed gorge. Climbing uphill on the narrow path, we encounter our marking again at a waterworks fence. Here an arrow shows the direction, which leads us up to the top along a beautiful meadow beside a forest strip opposite, where we meet the K◼ marking again. On a steep loess slope, we descend along the S and K◼ markings back into the center of Ibafa.