Exploration hike in the nooks of the Somogy sandy ridges

Itinerary:

• From the Felsőkak terminus, we start together on the route marked with K and ZT on the In the Footsteps of Lost Settlements Nature Trail (the trail's symbol stylizes a house wall and fruit tree).
• After barely a hundred meters, we continue straight on the ZT marked trail.
• After two kilometers, we turn south on the S+ marked trail.
• Upon reaching the K mark, we follow it westward, turning right towards the Lencseni fishpond.
• At the pond, the Tőzike Nature Trail ZT signs lead us back to the station.

Detailed about the hike:

Our hike starts from the Kakpuszta terminus of the forest railway heading eastward on the K marked path. If arriving by train, by now we have crossed increasingly dense marsh forests and sandy oak groves, but at the Felsőkak terminus we are greeted by a true forest idyll. The railway arrives at a forest clearing lined with centuries-old oak trees, where benches, tables, covered shelters, and fire pits are available for picnickers.

Among the fishponds lies an old pedunculate oak forest regularly nesting white-tailed eagles, giving us a chance to spot these massive raptors that stand (or rather glide) at the top of the food chain. Recognizable even in flight by their sturdy hooked beaks and broad, square wings ending in "fingered" feathers. Older individuals show faded heads and backs, and nearly white tail feathers.

We leave the forest clearing heading west along the sandy forestry road on the K and ZT marked trails of the In the Footsteps of Lost Settlements Nature Trail. At a crossroads, the K sign turns right, but we continue straight on the trail marked with green signs featuring house walls and trees. In the mixed forest ahead, the road crosses a sand ridge where beneath the thin, barely a few centimeters thick soil layer is quartz sand. This wind-blown, grain-sized sorted sandy sediment with large pore spaces allows nearly unhindered water movement. The grain surfaces bind relatively little water, so rainfall quickly seeps to the bottom of the sand layer and collects in depressions under gravity. This rapid, poor water retention explains why diverse plant communities develop in a relatively small area.

Just a few dozen meters past the dry sand ridge, we enter a fen alder grove providing lush vegetation. In this wet area, fishponds existed until the last century; a pond system was built along the Boronka and Aranyos streams. The retreating German army blew up the dams to halt advancing Russian troops in the marshland. It took the Red Army three months to cross the triple minefield and the nearly impenetrable, marshy inner Somogy area. During this time, the Germans, struggling with a lack of raw materials, extracted as much oil as possible from the Zala oil fields to finance their retreat.

At the former Kakpuszta

Crossing the deeply cut valley of the Aranyos stream through alder and willow forests, we arrive at the abandoned settlement marked by a sign. Next to the road is a square earth mound indicating remnants of former house walls. The loosely arranged buildings once formed a settlement of more than a hundred farms. The scattered farmstead landscape typical of the Great Plain and northern Europe lagged behind modernization due to poor public transport, asphalt roads, and lack of electricity, so with the passing of the last elderly residents, the village of about 500 inhabitants ceased to exist. At the edge of a clearing a few meters from the road, recently inhabited houses could be seen, representing the last remnants of the once thriving settlement. Today, only a few houses with some families represent the once large community of Kakpuszta farmers.

We follow the gently winding path marked by ZT, which after a few hundred meters joins a diagonally intersecting road. Here we make a sharp right turn onto the S+ marked trail, but before that, it is worth making a short detour to the former settlement's cemetery. To do so, follow the S+ and ZT signs to the left; after a few hundred meters at a four-way junction, turn right on the ZT trail - the cemetery lies 10 meters to the left in a bushy forest. Although some graves are still maintained, most of the cemetery is overgrown, with crosses and tombstones eerily disappearing among the bushes. Wooden and concrete tombstones have decayed or crumbled, and more valuable marble and finer stone grave markers were removed. Only the sandstone-carved tombstones and crosses remain in this chilling place.

We return to the S+ path and continue southwest. On a longer stretch, mixed forest types alternate: pine forest, oak groves, and acacia groves, then the ZT markings arrive from the left. A few hundred meters further, slightly off the road at the border between meadow and forest, lies the former church site. Sadly, only a wooden frame and bricks scattered in the grass recall the former church, which the villagers once self-financed.

Shortly, we arrive at the village's main street, where only a larger grove meadow remains, bisected by a road. The old fruit trees remaining precisely mark the former farm locations. These are frequented by the area's current residents, the red deer. Deer, roe deer, badgers, but mainly wild boars come to feast on the fruits.

From the mid-1990s, the golden jackal, which had completely disappeared from Hungary during the mid-century, returned to the area. Known as the reed wolf or forest dog, this medium-sized predator mainly feeds on rodents and weakened or young red deer individuals and carrion. Extremely adaptable and family-oriented, jackals efficiently reclaim their former territory. By the late 2010s, their numbers rose to tens of thousands nationwide, most of them living here in Inner Somogy. At night, their blood-curdling, howl-like barks announce their presence to competing jackal families in the area.

After more than a kilometer, we spot the K mark at the border of Alsókak, from which we head west on a straight path among rolling sand dunes on the K route through a rather uninteresting planted acacia forest. At a planted pine forest, we turn right at a right angle and continue for another kilometer without much variation.

Along the Aranyos Stream

One kilometer from the Lencseni fishpond (or Sárréti Lake), the bushy forest on the opposite side rises, with a gated road leading to the dam. Next to the gate, we enter the dam on the ZT marked Tőzike Nature Trail, which curves down below the dam to the marsh forest by a bridge.

This pond system damming the Aranyos stream, destroyed during the world war, was renovated only here. Although buildings on the opposite side are on private land, it is worth lingering by the water to try to spot a fishing white-tailed eagle or a black stork. Both are rare protected birds favoring the extensive wooded areas around the lakes. They nest undisturbed in old forests far from settlements, while fishponds provide them with inexhaustible food.

Through the marsh forest's lush vegetation, we follow a winding path to the Aranyos stream, which we follow for one kilometer. This radical change in atmosphere—from straight, bright sandy roads to a mystical marsh forest path—is the most distinctive part of our hike. The Aranyos stream once meandered widely across the marsh, flooding and depositing sediments in the valley bottom. Along the current excavated channel, traces of the former stream bed bridged with small planks are still visible in places. Unfortunately, stream channel straightening is deepening the flow, lowering the water table of an already poor water balance area.

Nevertheless, a viable aquatic community inhabits the area. Walk carefully on the path: although the darkly patterned Somogy subspecies of the nose-horned viper hides during the day, it lives here. It is easy to recognize by its suddenly rounded thick tail and zigzag back pattern, although the latter blends well with the dark shading in the marshy habitat. This roughly ten-centimeter-long snake feeds on small rodents, reptiles, and amphibians; it only poses a problem if stepped on or provoked, which can be avoided with due care.

One kilometer after the stream, the trail leaves the stream and joins a forestry road snaking through brighter old sandy oak forests. The area was once filled with these hornbeam-oak woods. Thanks to continuous forest cover, the original understory plant species characteristic of this forest community have survived, including many protected species, with snowdrops, wood anemones, and hepatica standing out in spring blooms.

The forestry road winds with gentle bends through mixed oak, ash, and elm forests. Letters painted on trees are common forestry abbreviations for tree species, helping us recognize major forest species: pedunculate oak (KST), Hungarian ash (MAK), and slippery elm (VSZ). Near the trail's end, we return to the mixed-age forest near the hike's start, where the two trails join. We then walk back on the already traveled section to the Felsőkak terminus of the forest railway.