On the back of caves

Itiner:

• Walk from the bus stop to the tourist hostel on the K◼ sign.
• Go around the hostel and behind it follow the S sign to the stairs.
• At a meadow, fork right at the S sign and follow it to the chapel of St Francis.
• From the chapel, follow the S sign to the junction with the road after the Red Lake.
• At a junction, turn left onto the Z+ sign, which joins the Z sign.
• The Z sign leads in a straight line to the Tengerszem inn.
• Just before the hostel, turn right onto the PT sign (nature trail), which you follow to the inn (or Pap's Palace).
• Turn right and then immediately left on Dózsa György Street.
• Our street joins Petőfi Sándor Street, which you can walk straight on to find the bus stop.

Detailed description of the tour:

The swallowed river system

Next to the bus stop, a retro-style buffet lines the car park, but our route takes us in the opposite direction to the landscaped cave entrance (signposted K◼ ), rather than towards the booths. On the other side of the roadside lane, you will immediately notice the huge rock of Baradla, to which the whole cave owes its name: the Slavic word "bradlo", plural "bradla", meaning cliff or steep, rocky mountain. This suggests that the ridge, white in the distance in the forest landscape, had this name before the cave. The cliff is indeed imposing, with a towering 51-metre wall dominating the view - and it is adwarfed by the campsite's inn, which doubles as a restaurant and tourist hostel. Built in 1937, it is an excellent base for hiking in the area, as are the wooden huts of varying levels of comfort. Next to it is the visitor centre and ticket office, and at the base of the cliff is the cave entrance.

Interestingly, the Baradla cave has of course always been an open passage, as there is evidence that Neolithic man has taken shelter there. The cave system, some 25 kilometres in total length, was attempted in the 18th century, but the technical arsenal of the time made it much more difficult to progress than it is today. The first artefacts were built there in 1806 for a visit by Joseph the Great. The tourist industry was developed in the 19th century. The tourist industry was relatively intense in the 19th century, but the same period also caused irreparable damage: torches used as light sources clogged parts of the passageways and stalactites wereThe stalactites were used to break down the stalactites and sell them for a good price to souvenir-seeking visitors. Imre Vass, one of the Baradla's pioneering explorers, describes in his account of the time a "thick smoke thick enough to choke".

The unsustainable conditions ended when the Hungarian Carpathian Society took over the management of the cave in 1881.and the construction of footpaths and bridges began - but it was not until 1935 that electric lighting was installed. The tunnel system is basically an underground river system, formed in well karstified Triassic limestone, and theand its famous stalactites and sinuous corridors are formed by rainwater seeping down from the surface. It is true that the main branch rarely sees large quantities of water, as there are two other levels below, where the stream drains through gullies. If you are going on a cave tour, be prepared for high humidity and temperatures of 10-11 degrees Celsius most of the time. The main corridor from Aggtelek to Jósvafő is mostly easy to walk (with a guide) and is about seven kilometres long.

Our hike, however, invites you to take to the heights: the stairway( markedK and S ), which starts on the left of the entrance, winds up to the rocky top, first in the shade of trees clinging to rocky terraces, then through scrubby bush. The steep slope is secured by a handrail and a bench at the end of the strenuous climb offers a resting place. A long way to go: the Carpathian mountains of the Slovakian side are joined by the mass of the Bükk massif, which tops out on the Bükk plateau, but the landscape is otherwise hilly.

The path continues to climb only gently, but the steps are made more difficult by the limestone boulders that constantly protrude from the ground. The acids produced by the roots of the vegetation and the dissolving effect of water thus break up the rock, leaving the soil a shallow skeleton for the friendly andThis leaves only thin, low trees and loosely closed thickets (karst scrub) on the high ground. A huge chunk of the body of the mountain is missing during the hiking trail, as we are treading on the back of the cave. But not for long: within minutes the S sign forks and you follow it to the right. Iron trees and closed woodland cordon off the trail, with rocks lining the trail in places.The signs tell us first about the flora, then about the fauna. You reach a small meadow where the signpost turns right, cuts through the trees and leads you to the outbuildings of the village.

Between drains

Once there would have been cabbage patches, now replaced by aquatic vegetation that hints at a barely perceptible lake: water runoff from the cleared forest has blocked the sinkhole that once fed a branch of the Baradla cave, now filled by a shrubby habitat. We kick off down a bare, silty slope, but the climb doesn't last long, and we level out around Lake Aggteleki. The rocky hillside is covered with a cirque, or devil's plough, as it is popularly known: the organic acids produced by the roots of the trees that once lived here and the dissolving action of water in contact with the soil have sliced the limestone surface. The adjacent trailhead reveals the rugged slopes of Mount Lakes in all their raw beauty. Continuing up the other side of the carriageway, along the S sign, you come across small, narrow (trouser belt) plots: these traditional-sized plots of land are very important for some species of animals and plantswhich would be wiped out by the uniformity of large agricultural fields.

We pass the Zombor Hole sinkhole (signposted), barely detectable in the vegetation. It marks an important boundary: the open, uncovered karst area (i.e. the limestone outcrop) and the clayey sedimentary surfacewhere rainwater from the latter flows into the limestone bedrock, specifically the Red Branch of the Baradla. For the moment, we trample along the narrow, vegetated path, with little sign of the nearby mountains, until we reach a dirt road. At one point, a sign reminds us of the nearby Ravas Hole waterhole, further evidence of theAnother reminder that here, on the edge of the uncovered karst, streams from the impermeable clay have little chance of staying in the open. Their path through these natural 'drains' leads deep into the spongy limestone body, where they can be seen in great detail.and become part of a vast, ramified system of cave rivers.

On the backs of caves

The hiking trail leads through gently undulating terrain that is now in the process of being ploughed up after the abandonment of pastures and reapers. The signpost merges with the busy road, but fortunately you don't have to follow the tarmac for long, as you soon see the chapel of St Francis on your right, where you switch back to the dirt. Inside, you can read the life and hymn to the sun of St Francis of Assisi, founder of the Franciscan Order and patron saint of nature. The building was built as a bus shelter when the nearby Peace Cave opened in the 1950s, then abandoned and dilapidated over the decades. It was renovated in the 1990s at the initiative of the National Park Service and was restored to its present form.

The signpost winds behind the chapel into a scrubby, hay field. The former clearing will be absorbed by the forest in a few decades, and in its present form is inhabited by a community that is widespread on the karsts. The evergreen grasses tolerate trampling and chewing well, which is why they have been able to survive for centuries.The sides of the hollows are covered with a pleasant-smelling pine, juniper. If you look carefully, you can see that the surface is dissected by circular depressions, or 'hollows': These are formed by the dissolution of limestone and are so characteristic of the karst that they even derive their name from the Gömöri dialect.

The S sign turns to the left, leaving behind the closed meadow and the hornbeam-oak shelter. Not for long, as within minutes you arrive at the entrance to the Baradla cave at Vörös lake, a curved thermostone building built in a landscaped setting. This entrance is entirely artificial; it was opened in 1890 on behalf of the Hungarian Carpathian Associationbut the tourist traffic of the time did not yet require a reception building - and water and electricity were not easily available. At the same time, the most spectacular section of the Baradla was visited in the 20th century. However, in the second half of the 20th century, the most spectacular part of the Baradla's waterfront began to grow, and the construction of some major infrastructure became inevitable: a tasteful visitor centre that blends in with the landscape was a major challenge in the 21st century. and, descending towards the exit at Yosvafő, the world's longest (2.3 km) light railway line.with walkways, footpaths and bridges (guided).

The karst outcrop

The hiking trail crosses the parking lot and winds down along the trees. Soon, a surface of water glistens at the bottom of the hill: you arrive at the Red Lake. The gully where it used to accumulate used to be open to the crest of the hill, but the alluvium has clogged it, leaving the water on the surface. It wouldn't have a long life by Earth's standards and would soon fill up completely, but the Aggtelek National Park was closed in the 2000s and the water is now in the lake.It's a great asset, as it's the only permanent lake in the country that fills a pothole. It owes its name to the fact that the animals that used to graze here often disturbed it, turning the soaked, iron-oxide-rich soil (terra rossa) reddish. This colour also appears around the lonely boulders that stand on the beach, and of course, according to the logic of nature, it is no coincidence.

The material of the Bear Rocks was karstified millions of years ago, and we can detect traces of this in the form of grooves, holes and small cavities in the rocks. Then, the clayey sediment, reddish with iron oxide, formed by the weathering of other rocks, has long been until erosion, which is still at work today, destroyed the overlying layer and stripped away the rock mass. The Bear Rocks are therefore the remnants of a karst from an earlier geological period, and the reddish soil around them is also a reminder of the conditions of that period.

As you walk further back, you can actually see some teddy bear influences in the shapes of the small blocks. Leaving the frozen bear family and the lake for good, we head through more closed, thicker forest and reach the highway at a sheltered rest area. We don't follow it for long as we cut a bend to the left. We come to a rock outcrop with impressions of limestone from the sea, and soon we are back on tarmac. Leave it again to the left and you immediately come to a fork: follow the left-hand branch of the Z+ sign. Near Jósvafő, the previously hilly landscape suddenly becomes mountainous, with steep hillsides and sheltered forest. (To the right, at the bottom of the slope, is the exit of the Peace Cave, part of a cave system independent of Baradla.) We tread briefly on the ground as we cross concrete again: uphill, towards the valley closure, and as this is the access road to the entrance to the Baradla cave in Jósvafő, fortunately there is little traffic.

The outfall is at

The Z signs guide you until you come to the huge triangle of the inn and the Tengerszem inn. The building complex, with its colourful shutters, is made of stone and wood, and blends in perfectly with the lush forest surroundings. The cave entrance is artificial, as in the Red Lakes: The tunnel was completed by Christmas 1928, making the previously unvisited and uncrowded part of Baradla accessible to visitors. In order to welcome more and more visitors, the Tengerszem Hotel was completed by 1944whose restaurant is one of the potential dining options in Jósvafő (the other is down in the village).

Just before the ticket office, our new companion, the PT sign following the nature trail, turns right downhill and into the forestinto the woods and into a narrow, cool-climate cauldron, with water running in stone streambeds everywhere below. The whole Baradla-Domica system drains into the valley floor of the Yosvafő valley, where the surrounding limestone plateau flows down to theThis is the source of much of the water absorbed by the surrounding limestone outcrops, as well as by the streams from the clay-loam terrain to the south.

The upper end of the small park is home to the Jósva spring, the country's largest cold-water spring. It actually has two sources of water: the stream from the Short Alsho Cave, which is sealed off by an iron gateThe spring of the Short Alshó cave flows out of the cave (the Táró spring), and the pool spring next to it is the Long Alshó cave. The double outlet of the channels that cut the Baradla was long thought to be one, but when a major flood in 1955 washed away the main channel, the water flowed into thethe gully of the road upstream, the two separate sources of the underground streams, which had been flowing out of the same place, were revealed. The researchers then worked long and hard to discover the source of the water, which is now known to be a small stream. After a lengthy exploration, the researchers discovered the Short Alsace cave, which was about one kilometre long, while they made little progress in the difficult conditions of the Long Alsace cave, which is thought to lead to Domica (the lowest cave). On the stairway in front of the spring, protected by an iron gate, it is possible to observe the carbonic acid content of the water as it rises to the surfacefrom the carbonate-depleted water and builds up a large freshwater limestone deposit.

The village of waters

There's not much left to see, but it's here, in the final kilometre, that the route's most spectacular sights are lined up. There's a short stretch where you can leave the tourist road and see the emerald green of the lower end of the park.Tengerszem Lake on the left (this leads back down to the signpost). The trees overhanging the water, the waterfall cascading over the dam and the parkland surroundings come together in a magical harmony around Tengerszem. Initially there was no lake, only a mill built on the spring in the 1840s, and then an electricity plant was built on the watercourse, which provided power to the village houses from 1917. The valley dam was built in 1935, when the Tengerszem lake was created.and the turbine to generate the electricity needed to light the cave. The project was supervised by Hubert Kessler, then director of Baradla Cave, a renowned caver and arm hydrologist, to whom many of the cave's most important features are attributed.He also oversaw the cave's electric lighting, the Tengerszem Hostel and the present National Park administration building (his memorial house can be seen next to the cave exit in Józsefő).

The footpath eventually bypasses the former turbine house and joins the tourist trail below. The nature trail, signposted PT, bends left, climbs gently up the hillside and follows a rock-cut path behind the old village gardens. The hiking trail eventually comes to a street and turns right towards the stream. It's worth looking around: beautiful, centuries-old houses stand on all sides of the tiny lane. On the right is the inn, the last of the old mills to be 'retired', and looking back, the Little House of the Old Mill.z, the small farmhouse, is a traditional vernacular building with a porch and muskatlelike decoration. Behind it, the church steeple rises up to the sky, while the country house awaits guests on the neighbouring plot. Down the street, the Papal Plank offers a crossing of the stream (next to it, symbolic mill wheels turn in the water).On the other side, a shady resting place has been built around the Saber Fountain.

The park, with its magnificent views of the old village, provides an idyllic setting for the end of the tour.It is a short (4-5 minute) walk to the village centre and the bus stop: turn right after the sign, then left at the first street after the Pap-pallo. On the other side of the bridge, join the main street, where you will find the bus stop just before the pub and shop.