Nagyvázsony – Városlőd (OKT 17th day hike)

As a start, it is worth at least walking around the castle towering on the side of Nagyvázsony, whose unusual feature is that it stands not above the village, but in the hillside of the Vázsonyi-séd valley. From here, the trade route between Bakony and the Balaton Uplands mountain ridges could be well monitored, but the small fortress's primary function was not this: it was built as a residential tower in the 15th century after the member of the Vezsenyi (or Vázsonyi) clan, who owned the area, lost the nearby Zádor Castle. As a military engineer established centuries later, the fortress protected also by marshes "has the enemy immediately at its sides: namely the heights dominating it, (...) besides, they are also targetable."

One of its many owners was the influential Pál Kinizsi, who was gifted the castle by King Matthias after the last Vezsenyi died — the castle flourished during his reign. Several times, plans were made to blow it up, which did not happen, but towards the end of its history, it lost its significance, and locals carried off its stones. It was first restored in the 1950s, and its modern elements, contrasting with the older parts, were added during the renovation at the end of the 2010s.

The closest stamp for the Blue Trail is found on the bistro wall across from the castle square, but we can also stamp at the garden of the Kinizsi Brewery. From the hillside, we can nicely see where we will head in the coming hours: opposite us rises the cone of Kab Hill. The flat landscape below suggests easy walking but also indicates that no particular excitement is to be expected.

The Blue Trail descends through a forest strip to the bank of the Vázsonyi-séd; the small brook is hardly noticeable, mostly indicated by the ruined mill buildings. On the side of the building on our left, a stylized mill wheel is visible, built along with the indoor exhibition space for the 2023 European Capital of Culture event series. According to tradition, Pál Kinizsi worked as a mill servant here. In the Vázsonyi-séd valley — called Eger Water in its lower section — several mill ruins line up, visited by the Mill and Springs Trail educational path created between Vigántpetend and Monostorapáti.

We rise out of the valley and reach the main road on a street; crossing it, we begin the initially rather slow climb to Kab Hill. The forest edge is still far; in the field, we ascend slowly and slightly, with two things defining the landscape: looking back is the Kinizsi castle on the other side of the valley; ahead stretches the spreading mass of Kab Hill topped with two transmission towers. The logical link between the area’s shape and its formation is rarely so tight: today's Kab Hill is the remnant of an 8 million-year-old, almost 6 million years active volcano. It is a typical shield volcano, as the fluid basaltic lava spread quietly around the crater without major explosions, forming the spreading, flat, gently sloping shape.

On this terrain, tolerance for monotony is more important than fitness. After a slight zigzag, we turn face-to-face with the summit and climb almost straight. The landscape also changes as we enter the oak forest, whose natural relations are interspersed with a grid network of clearings. The chessboard-like linear openings reflect their boring nature in their names, numbered and lettered similar to large US cities: the Blue Trail climbs in the 6th clearing, crossing H, G, and F. The most beautiful corner of the ascent is a smaller wooded meadow surrounded by forest. The steepness gradually increases, and eventually the transmission tower and a smaller TV tower appear across. The "pencil" of Kab Hill, with its 219 meters, is Hungary’s 4th highest structure but was the 2nd highest when switched on in 1962. According to some sources, the tower was designed for 400 km/h wind speeds and broadcast TV to nearly a quarter of the country; staff lived in adjacent service apartments.

After crossing the excavation road, climbing over a wildlife protection fence, we turn left and pass through a young forest patch. On the western side of the hill, we have to use a ladder again, then on a forest road crossing a thicket, we reach the foot of the summit. A right turn onto the final stretch, the 599-meter summit ultimately makes us sweat: here, in the former crater center, where the thickest basalt layer accumulated, the slope is steep. Looking back, however, the views of other high points of the Southern Bakony, including the Lugos Peak, recognizable by its lookout tower, are beautiful.

The Blue Trail turns north to bypass the summit, which we can reach by turning right off the asphalt on the K▲ marking. This is a "mandatory" detour since above the southeastern cliff of Kab Hill stands the Pál Kinizsi Lookout wooden tower, built in 2013 on the site of a previous one constructed in 1937 and demolished when the transmission tower was built. The wooden structure is just tall enough to allow us to measure the forests of Southern Bakony and Balaton Uplands, and the lake is visible at several points among the flat ridges.

Returning to the Blue Trail, we begin a descent no shorter or more exciting than the ascent. We follow the asphalt road; on the right side of the straight after a wide right turn stands a small building whose wall holds a stamp. Behind the fence, in the forest plantation area, the Kinizsi Pál tourist house operated in the 1950s, offering 17 beds and spring water.

Kab Hill – Úrkút

We follow the long straight asphalt road, built before the transmission tower in 1960 by more than 2000 young KISZ campers who were brought here on purpose — hence it was called Youth Road. When the K signs finally direct us left, a new straight section with (sometimes beech) forest follows for a while. From the forestry road, we return to the asphalt; here, at several larger stacked basalt stones, we turn at a fence, which we bypass on a narrow path. The dense forest mixed with pines hides the Tönkölyös sinkhole, rare on volcanic rock: the basalt lava of Kab Hill poured onto limestone, and where it surrounded the earlier surface heights, the limestone remained "bare." Over millions of years, precipitation water dissolved this, creating hollows and sinkholes on the surface.

Leaving the fence, in a pleasant forest environment, we turn onto a horizontal embankment rising from the flat terrain. This was one of the embankments of a narrow-gauge railway, which until 1953 transported Kab Hill's wood and served the area's former mines. We walk along field edges and finally arrive among trees at Úrkút, where benches and tables offer resting opportunities next to the well inspiring the settlement's name. In the village, a glassworks was established in the 18th century, later manganese ore mining defined daily life. The Blue Trail leads into the center — at the bus stop, by the restaurant entrance at the junction, we find the stamp.

Úrkút – Városlőd

Climbing up the street, at its end a gate marks the Úrkút Paleokarst area. Rounded rocks and pines surround a resting place, next to which stairs lead down among the dark gray limestone walls. The narrow crack is a remnant of vast depressions of a former tropical karst area, later filled by rivers with sediments — including manganese ore. Later layers covered the area, but the dark limestone cones pierced the surface. The black material was used by potters for glazing and by the local glassworks for coloring glass, but significant mining began after its discovery during coal exploration in World War I. Since mining was done mostly by hand tools (instead of blasts), the original shapes have been preserved and have been under nature protection since 1951. (During Bakony bauxite exploration and extraction, other paleokarst formations were discovered but were filled with waste.)

The Blue Trail turns away from the stairs, leading through mossy rock outcrops out of the former mine pit. We walk briefly at Úrkút's edge, finally leaving the village behind along a fenced meadow. After some small clearings, we descend into a relatively young but beautiful, closed beech forest in the Csollányos valley, arriving at its bottom at a clearing. Before the Blue Trail turns left to the transportation road, on the right, there is a large, ancient dried oak tree under which we can rest on a bench (Güszi Rest). The valley's name derives from nettles, indicating that the forest was long cleared in its moist and wide valley floor. A railway operated here in the early 20th century but no constructions remain outside the road today. The series of hedged, long-leaved meadows and the two steep slopes already provide a taste of the atmosphere of the Öreg-Bakony (Old Bakony) or Magas-Bakony (High Bakony) looming ahead. The shallow depression sides bear marks of previous forestry operations and plantations: beech, oak, hornbeam, and ash can all be found.

On Városlőd's outskirts, we turn right, crossing a meadow to the bank of the Torna Stream. At the foot of the steep slope, the Blue Trail path finds a narrow passage, and the stream is initially hidden by dense vegetation but later runs directly alongside the trail. Although it leads on the edge of the settlement, thanks to the wooden palisade, mixed lush forest, and slow-flowing stream, this is the most natural section of the hike (and the only real trail). In Városlőd, we cross the tracks and walk extensively in the settlement until the stamp. We pass by the large Catholic church, interesting as it was built on the foundations of one of the largest Kartause monasteries in Hungary. (And that the monastery started building it from stones of the abandoned Hölgykő Castle lying east of the village.) After the Turkish destruction, Swabian settlers arrived in the area; although most were displaced after World War II, their former presence is still noticeable in the settlement's image.

At the eastern end of the main street in Városlőd, where it branches, we find two stamps: one in the pub's window, another on the information board on the opposite side of the road.