The wildest section of the Cuha Gorge

Itinerary

• From Bakonyszentlászló we start on the main street following the P trail (towards east), and follow it all the way to the Ördög-rét.
• To the right, the P+ trail leads through the entire Alsó-Cuha Gorge.
• After the gorge, at a creek crossing we turn right onto the S+ trail, which leads back to the center of Bakonyszentlászló. (At the Esterházy Castle remain on the unmarked street, the trail makes a detour to a spring.)

Detailed description of the route

Bakonyszentlászló

The village named after Saint László and founded by him, Bakonyszentlászló lies right on the edge of the Bakony region. The settlement can be found at the mouth of the Cuha valley, which provides an easy crossing through the mountains, thus it creates a connection towards the Little Hungarian Plain. Originally it was known as a village of swineherds due to the oak-forest producing acorns. After the expulsion of the Turks, the Esterházys settled Hungarians and Germans there. The areas of the two ethnic groups still remain spatially separated today: interestingly, a broad field can be found in the middle of the village.

Another striking element of the settlement structure can already be observed at the beginning of our route, when leaving the main street on the P trail we avoid the panel housing estate. Opposite the blocks of flats, under a steel structure, a huge excavator bucket languishes - according to its sign it commemorates the bauxite mining around Fenyőfő. Leaving the asphalt road to the left with the trail, and along its edge, red earth deposits testify that the mining finished not so long ago: until the mid-2000s it supplied raw material to the aluminum metallurgy sector of the Transdanubian Central Mountains, i.e., the system built up from mining to product manufacturing. The industrial capacity established in the mountains in the 1980s has mostly ceased; some parts have been transformed - however, the huge factories and changed settlements remain with us.

Bauxite

The Bakony region was once watered by abundant rains under a tropical climate with high temperatures - in such an environment, its sedimentary (mainly clayey) rock material started to weather. The resulting formation is bauxite which accumulated in lenses in depressions of the then particularly dissected, sometimes almost porous-eroded surface. This red-colored weathered material was later covered by harder rocks, protecting it from erosion and transport. The lenses accumulated in the northern and southern sides of the Bakony (e.g. Bakonyszentlászló, Fenyőfő, Iharkút, Halimba, Szőc, Nyirád, Kislőd, etc.) were mined from the mid-20th century - the scale of mining is indicated by Hungary being the 8th largest bauxite producer in the world in the 1980s. From bauxite, the raw material for aluminum production, alumina, was produced in Ajka (as well as in Almásfüzitő and Mosonmagyaróvár). The huge energy-demanding Várpalota (Inota) smelter producing aluminum was supplied with electricity by the nearby Inota thermal power plant burning coal from the local mine, belonging to Várpalota since 1951. As an alloying metal, manganese ore from Úrkút accumulated in tropical karst depressions was used. At the "peak" of the production chain was the metal industry in Székesfehérvár producing finished products - the only element which did not collapse in the mid-2000s, although since mining became almost completely unprofitable, the Székesfehérvár capacities are now supplied by foreign raw materials.

Forest walk

Back turned to the concrete, we walk along the mining area and the loading site - on the left, behind the trees we can discover a large clearing. Its size is justified by the fact that the largest bauxite lenses in Europe were mined between Bakonyszentlászló and Fenyőfő. Meanwhile, under our feet appears an element that will gain importance later in our route, sand, although it still thinly covers the reddish veil of bauxite dust. Crossing the railway tracks, do not look for the disappearing trail; instead, stay on the straight, well-followed dirt road, where after about 500 meters the red bands reappear. Beyond a row of trees, a wide arable field glows to the left; we must be careful at its far end not to get lost: the correct path is not the first dirt road leading to nearby beehives to the right, but a parallel track a few meters away.

Crossing a low hill, we arrive in dense forest on a high-quality forestry road where the P trail turns left. A few meters ahead, however, the path again tunnels into the greenery with a right turn, and initially gently, finally turning down sharply, it leads onto the clearing of Ördög-rét. The clearing is equipped with a rain shelter and several bench-table sets, and its cool air is already breathed in from the higher parts of the Bakony through the gorge.

The Alsó-Cuha Gorge

The grassy clearing is only briefly sunny because it is bordered to the south and west by high steep slopes: between them stretches the Cuha Gorge. We continue on the P+ trail. Approaching closer to the creek, the landscape suddenly changes: huge dark cliff walls covered in moss cast shadows, and in dry periods water remains in deep puddles in the creek bed. A detour trail points to the Remete Cave, a 7-meter-long, dripstone-laden passage; however, the hiking trail aims for the gorge narrowness. Water breaks through between huge blocks of debris; the ground disappears under our feet and we balance meters above the water surface on the raw dolomite ridge. Earlier we descend (this section becomes impassable at higher water levels); fallen trunks lie across the terrain. The opposite gorge wall forms a vertical block covered in green foliage on its narrow ledges, deeply incised by the creek at its base.

Water slides over small cascades on stone barricades, and in rainy periods the Cuha crashes through with furious roar. The wild rocky ravine is only a few meters long, but the spectacle does not calm up further upstream. Rocks that obstruct the water flow increase again after a ford crossing, indicating we approach another rock gate. Indeed, we have to struggle through yet another breakthrough, which is not an easy task at high water levels.

A smaller “Gaja Gorge”

A large bend and the wide valley floor indicate that we reached the slower section of the creek. Although the valley narrows again upstream, the bed becomes more sheltered, and here we accompany a wide, slowly flowing creek. The sandy, white turf covering the hiking trail softens our steps; the view seems a copy of another Bakony valley, the Gaja Gorge. Finally, the path moves away and tunnels through dense riverside brushwood, then comes to a junction.

The pine forest

A dirt road descends right towards the Cuha ford, but crossing on dry feet is not really possible: we have to cross on a log plank placed instead of the missing bridge - this may cause problems, requiring sure steps. A small clearing with resting benches awaits on the far side (Pakuts resting spot). We are already on the S+ trail, which leads the route into another atmospheric, characteristic terrain. The deciduous forest is replaced by a pine forest, the sand stirs dust in front of our shoes. We roam on the edge of the Fenyőfő primeval pine forest which is truly an ancient forest in terms of presence, as the association is a relic of the much cooler climate period after the ice age ended about 12,000 years ago. The sandy soil poor in humus was unable to allow the deciduous forest to spread, hence the pine forest shows a snapshot of bygone times as a relic. Its precipitation demand is supplied by air masses arriving from the Atlantic Ocean, bursting out after colliding with the slopes of Bakony. Interestingly, contemporary sources do not confirm the continuous presence of this association: in the Middle Ages it may have almost died out (likely due to mining impact), and it may have been replanted with remnants in the early 19th century to bind sand often whipped by the wind. Partly, seedlings were imported from Austria for the replanting (thus it is not a virgin forest, and forestry management continues outside the central part today).

Pine-scented, atmospheric bike tracks lead across the coniferous stand called Tilos-fenyő - presumably a once closed, manorial forest. We cross the railway tracks and one kilometer further arrive back to Bakonyszentlászló at a playground. A long walk among houses awaits us. It is well visible that the former ethnic separation and the shared impact of the terrain created a loosely built village image. Near the center, we pass by the Esterházy summer castle - the public park once belonged to it, with the Bottyán János spring trickling inside. Interestingly, in the past it brought sulfur medicinal water to the surface. Here not to deviate on the trail to the spring, follow the unmarked street. In a few minutes we reach the junction, our destination.