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The grove of wild fruit trees is a favorite feeding spot for wild boars, as the rooting also showsPhoto: Német-Bucsi Attila, Hungarian Hiking Association
The southern Bakony landscape, despite its low terrain, is crisscrossed by deep valleys and covered with dense, old forests, offering captivating hiking routes. On our excursion, we visit the museum preserving the mining past, the Köves-árok forests and springs favored by miners, and the hiding place of the famous Bakony outlaw, Savanyó Jóska.
The Bakony forest was famous for harboring outlaws, bandits of the Hungarian wilderness, the "betyárs." The shallow caves in the gorges served as their hiding places, preserved in folk names. Near Ajka, the Savanyó Jóska cave is found, where the famous Bakony outlaw supposedly hid multiple times from pursuing police.
Savanyó Jóska was a witty man, 160 cm tall—he used this trait to escape tight situations. In the wooded, rocky Bakony region, he often hid in narrow rock crevices to lose his pursuers' trail. This late 19th-century outlaw was finally caught due to a betrayal: a companion mixed a sedative into a drink, and police easily captured him at an inn in Zalahaláp. The reward posted for the bandit leader's head was 1000 forints; the motive included that the betrayer's brother was shot by Savanyó Jóska in a dispute.
Although sentenced to death, he was ultimately given life imprisonment, as only part of his cruel acts could be proven—many were committed in his name. After 20 years in jail, he was freed by the bishop of Vác to end his life as a tailor. He lived only a year after prison, committing suicide in April 1907, blaming unbearable rheumatism in his letter. His grave in Tótvázsony has become a kind of romantic pilgrimage site.
The lesser-known, but no less defining, tough paupers of the area were the coal-mining miners living nearby. Near Ajka, in the mid-19th century, right around the time of Savanyó Jóska's activity, the brown coal of the Cretaceous period was discovered for the smelters and furnaces of what later developed into the industrial town of Ajka. The Eocene limestone covering the mineral deposit led mainly to deep mining operations for extracting coal.
This mining method was costly and dangerous. On January 14, 1909, a tragedy occurred when the deep mine ventilation system's motor caught fire during lubrication. Although miners were warned of the danger, evacuating over 250 people to the surface was a lengthy process. Panic ensued, some were trapped in the mine, and suffocating smoke caused casualties. That day, 55 miners perished in the mine.
The coal resource was extracted for nearly 140 years in the valleys around Ajka, mainly here in the Csinger valley. Brown coal was the base for the world-famous Ajka glassworks’ smelters, and a thermal power plant was also established in the rapidly developing industrial city. Bauxite and manganese ore were also found in the hills around Ajka, making mining and related industry the livelihoods of the area. However, the economic viability of production became questionable after the regime change—the thermal power plant kept the last coal mine alive until 2002 but now is heated by "renewable" energy sourced from the Bakony forests. Thus, not only miners but also the region's main attraction, the dense Bakony forests, suffered from the change.
The detailed description of the tour can be found under the Directions menu item.
Author’s recommendation
- We can start the hike from the Hubertus Forestry Forest School and see the exhibition of the forestry management of the area, featuring stuffed Bakony animals and short films about their lifestyle and behavior—especially engaging if hiking with children. This allows for a close-up experience of the area's rich wildlife—or in other words, their shed pelts.
- At the starting point museum, we get insight into the mining past of Ajka through original tools, machines, and rock samples. This industrial time travel offers a glimpse into the sweaty work of once productive eras.
- Next to the Ajka Mining Museum, there is a cozy restaurant where we can refresh and snack, embraced by the surrounding forests after the hike.
Derived from the technical difficulty and the stamina requirements.
Track types
Safety information
- At the Hubertus Forestry Forest School, we follow the asphalt road for a short section, which is open to traffic. The winding pavement in the dense forest is hard to see on wet, humid days, so be careful to stay to the left side in the direction of travel!
Roadbook
Itinerary:
- From the Ajka Mining Museum, we follow the K+ mark to the Jószerencsét spring.
- We bypass the Peres clearing via the black oak leaf T educational trail marking to the Szerencsefel spring.
- The S+, then the branching S● mark leads down to the spring.
- We continue on the S+ mark to the Hubertus Forestry Forest School.
- On the gravel road under the building, following the blue oak leaf KT educational trail mark, then the later joining S mark, we ascend to the Pokol-lik and the Párka-lap plateau, from where the brown oak leaf PT educational trail mark takes us back to the Hubertus Forestry Forest School.
- From here, an unmarked path heading north leads back through Cservár-puszta to the Mining Museum. The last short section is completed on the S+ mark.
Detailed description of the route:
Following the springs
We start in front of the Ajka Mining Museum on a gravel road at the bottom of Köves-árok, following the K+ marking. We walk through a shallow gorge typical of Bakony plateaus, along the valley floor bordered by steep slopes and beech forests. Near Ajka, we pass by holiday homes common around cities, where a sledding slope was once operated. At the valley bottom, a mining memorial stands beside the tourist path, as this area was famous for mining in the 19th and 20th centuries.
Forest resting places alternate while we enter the forest in the narrowing valley. We follow the stream among old beech trees until the path turns right uphill in a hairpin bend. Along the edge of a clearing, beside old beech stumps, we come back—now much higher—into a water erosion route, soon reaching the Jószerencsét spring. The spring enclosure offers a cozy resting spot with benches and tables, where the reliable, cool water refreshes after the climb.
Although the hills around Ajka do not have significant elevation differences, most of the small ascent has already been covered climbing from Köves-árok up to the plateau. On the K+ mark, we enter a long meadow, across which lies the grave of an unknown German soldier in the hornbeam woodland. We follow a path along the meadow’s edge southward marked by a subtly noticeable black oak leaf educational trail sign. Essentially, we just follow the clearing that soon widens. At the border of the wooded area and hornbeam forest, we turn west, following a marked forestry road.
After crossing a local summit, we arrive at a small hollow where the S+ marking joins from the right, which we left at Köves-árok. We make a short detour north to the Szerencse spring, located barely 100 meters from the junction. An S● mark alerts us to a water source hidden in the dense forest. After this short detour, we return to the junction and follow the S+ sign, now merged with the previously followed black oak leaf mark, going southwest past the Peres clearing grove. After a small hill, we descend into the Köleskepe-árok in the hornbeam-beech forest on the far side.
We pass a rain shelter on the edge of a scenic meadow and come out of increasingly deep erosion gullies to the Hubertus Forestry Forest School formerly called Hubertusz-lak. The old, neat forester’s house has been renovated into an exhibition and forest school presenting the life of surrounding forests. On the terrace in front of the exhibition, we can even have lunch. Near the enclosed complex, we find a plentiful spring in the direction of Ajka. The László spring supplies water to the forest school buildings, so the flow from the enclosure may sometimes be intermittent.
In the footsteps of the outlaws
Heading down the valley, we continue on the paved road marked by the blue oak leaves of the KT educational trail, which joins the S mark after a few hundred meters at the valley bend—here, we cross a stream. We circumvent the cliff on the left with steps and climb back up to the plateau.
In the shaded beech forest, on the upper part of the ascending path, there is a half-circle dark hole among the beech roots. The karst cave called Pokol-lik was, according to folk belief, the hiding place of Savanyó Jóska. The cave formed in Eocene Szőc limestone broadens sack-like behind the low and narrow entrance, and although its tilted floor is not very comfortable for lodging, its interior is quite spacious, resembling a larger room. While many caves in Bakony bear his name, it is presumed he also hid from the law here.
Exiting the cave, we reach the plateau where the S mark follows straight artificial firebreaks. At the first cross firebreak, we turn left. Soon, we arrive at a small clearing and continue alongside the road circumventing Kab Hill, now leaving the S mark for the brown-red oak leaf PT educational trail, which descends back into the valley to the Hubertus Forestry Forest School.
The section back to the starting point goes behind the forest school building, ascending a dozer road north on an unmarked path (formerly marked by K● , now worn off, but we may spot some marks on tree trunks). The wide forestry road cuts through the dense forest almost in a straight line, then leads along the edge of a long meadow after about a kilometer. On the far side of the Cservárpuszta clearing, we stop at a rest area by a planted pine forest, then, at the meadow’s end, we descend steeply, together with the S mark, back down to Köves-árok at the mining museum.
Csinger-völgyi olvasókabin (bivakszállás)
Pokol-lik (Ajka)
CserVár-Lak
Hubertus Erdészeti Erdei Iskola
Fekete István Dioráma
Public transport
- Arriving at the starting point by public transport is complicated; the closest stop is Ajka, Gárdonyi Géza Street (Alsócsinger) bus stop.
Get Timetable to destination
Directions
- From the Gárdonyi Géza Street bus stop in Alsócsinger, continue along the street. The first right-turning road starts the K+ mark, which follows the asphalt to the Mining Museum, the start and end point of the hike (1.7 km, 59 m elevation gain).
- The Mining Museum's parking lot is at the start and end point of the hike.
Parking
- By car, you can drive to the Ajka Mining Museum, where there is free gravel parking available.
Coordinates
Book recommendation by the author
- Hiking guidebooks - The most beautiful hikes of Bakony
Author’s map recommendations
Equipment
- Season-appropriate clothing, hiking shoes, drinks, and for navigation the Természetjáró App
Localization
Derived from the technical difficulty and the stamina requirements.
User Questions