Káld – Hosszúpereszteg (OKT Day 6 hike)

Káld and Hosszúpereszteg, the two endpoints of the tour, were connected until 1975 outside the Blue Trail by a railway line: trains ran on the Sárvár–Zalabér-Batyk narrow-gauge railway opened in 1913. From both ends of the line, now also discontinued branch lines led further to Bük–Répcevis–Kőszeg to the north and Zalaszentgrót–Balatonszentgyörgy to the south. The 1968 transport policy sealed the fate of many domestic railway lines, including this one: following its closure, the tracks were quickly removed, and only the embankments of the former track—still visible in places—and the largely transformed station buildings of the settlements recall the vehicles that once rumbled here.

We leave the settlement center heading south, then turn right in front of the elementary school – where another stamping opportunity of the settlement is located on the fence – onto Rákóczi Street. We mostly leave Káld among houses built in the Kádár era, with fields on our left and forest to our right. We pass alongside the wide, steeply sloping clearing of a gas pipeline running underground, then reach a surprisingly beautiful alpine-like meadow with a dozen pine trees.

We leave a wider road leading to Új-hegy. On the southern slopes of the closed garden settlement belonging to Káld, mainly vineyards and wine cellars can be found, but winemaking is also practiced in other parts of the region. The current form of Alsó-Kemeneshát and Kemenesalja was formed geologically "recently", after the end of the Pleistocene – the Ice Age – water system 11,000 years ago, within which the ancient Rába built the alluvial cone of Kemeneshát, while the Upper Zala and Marcal, then still a single river, shaped the terrace region of Kemenesalja. Although basalt cones more commonly come to mind when thinking of Hungarian vineyards, grapes also grow on sand, and in fact: since phylloxera does not favor rocks high in quartz content, Hungary's sandy soil vineyards largely survived the devastating epidemic at the end of the 19th century.

We arrive among plowed, sown, or fallow fields cleared from the forest; the names of the fields recall the former manor here, Pereszteg-Tacskánd, where the famous forester of the Farkas Forest, Lőrinc Scherg, spent his first service years. The intermittently drying stream beside our path is called Tacskándi-patak, and the name of the settlement at the tour's endpoint contains the word "pereszteg", which also relates to the stream: the Slavic-origin word "prestrug" means "riverbed."

We cross the "pereszteg" and reach a clearing on a gently ascending cart track, then cut through the atmospheric Tomaji forest. The trees cover our path almost like a tunnel as we progress one and a half kilometers, then turn sharply left. Initially at the edge of the forest, then along a straight lane between fields, after walking 2.4 kilometers, we arrive at Felsőfalu in Hosszúpereszteg.

The layout of Hosszúpereszteg differs from Káld: it features few but long straight streets with ribbon plots perpendicular to them. This characteristic is typical of so-called street villages that developed along important highways, following their "linearity." In the 18th century, significant east-west traffic passed through Hosszúpereszteg along what is now Arany János and Ady Endre streets, bypassing the current village center. This period is preserved in the settlement’s structure as a spindle-shaped bulge where markets were held and animals were driven out.

We cross Route 8 and follow Hosszúpereszteg's truly long "main axis" further south. It’s worthwhile to observe the village's houses: since the population began declining during the socialist period, there are only a few "Kádár cubes" (standardized houses from the Kádár era). Therefore, traditional folk buildings still make up a large part of Hosszúpereszteg’s built environment. Of course, there is also socialist heritage, such as the now-closed grocery store raised opposite the simply decorated chapel by the stream and the concrete block at the elementary school that frightens children. Our tour ends aesthetically again: under a row of pine trees, we arrive at Hosszúpereszteg’s renovated church with light blue-white walls, where the stamp is found on the fence.