To the southern gate of Bükk on the Turkish road

Itinerary:

• We start on the P+ trail in Oldal Valley and through Káposztás-lápa to Völgyfő House.
• From Völgyfő House, we make a few-kilometer detour to Ódorvár on the PL trail.
• Returning from Völgyfő House, we follow the P trail along the ridge to Ménes-side.
• From Ménes-side, we branch north on the S+ trail, which leads down to Barát Valley.
• In Barát Valley, turning northeast on the S trail, we return to our starting point at the Oldal Valley junction.

Description:

Climbing in the cut between Oldal Valley and Káposztás-lápa

We start from the mouth of Oldal Valley on the P+ trail in the deeply cut valley of the Tárkány Creek edged with meadows. We leave the road leading between the mountains eastwards; our new gravel road behind the Oldal Valley fishpond, alongside old fish breeding pools, reaches the asphalt road leading up the valley. We cover the first more than one-kilometer section upwards on this road, which is closed to public traffic. The road was cut with serious earthworks into the hillside, biting into the steep oak forest with rocky, stony cuts. It was created in the early 20th century to increase logging efficiency for the narrow-gauge forestry railway. From Völgyfő, a ski slope connected it to Hór Valley, transporting timber from the forests around Répáshuta deep in the Southern Bükk. The railway was, with few exceptions, swept away by modernization, as timber trucks still roar through the valleys today.

We leave the asphalt strip, squeezed between the northern beech and the southern oak forest side, at a gentle left curve descending to the creek over a ford. After the wide clearing of the former railway, a path runs on the valley bottom through shaded terrain closed by the canopy of old forest. The creeks and their valleys join in the dense forest at Káposztás-lápa. In Bükk, the lápa means a marshy wetland, though here the road climbs on a dry hillside with increasing steepness until it reaches the saddle of Makkos-peak. From here, we comfortably traverse the brightening oak forest sideways to Völgyfő House, where we arrive at the pass leading to Bükkzsérc as a continuation of the road followed below.

Detour to Ódorvár

The old forestry house of Völgyfő House is now a shelter maintained for hunters' leisure, but the barn, wood chamber, and fruit trees around the clearing tell the story of a forester living far from the village. Here, we briefly follow the asphalt road leading to Bükkzsérc on the PL trail, which we leave on the first steep right-hand bend to the left on the path leading up to Tábornyereg. The curve encloses the Szent Erzsébet spring, which with its considerable output can be used as a sure refreshment point even in the greatest heat for washing or drinking pure karst water. Another branch can also be found at the corner. If you wish to take the road leading to Ódorvár with a comfortable ascent, although double the distance, but definitely enriched with views, here it is worth continuing the climb on the wide bulldozer road on the Z cyclist trail.

The original route leads at the western cliff of Tábornyereg through the forestry-red pine battered by forestry and weather to the saddle, from where, depending on the season, a heavily overgrown path cuts through the young shrub forest on the east side of the hill. Fortunately, we soon join a wider forestry road on which we descend to Ódor saddle, at the curve of the bulldozer road followed by the Z cyclist trail. Here a comfortable campsite welcomes travelers with a fire pit, benches, and tables, and a covered loft suitable for overnighting increases the puritan nomad comfort at the rest stop. On the far side of the campsite, the path climbs steeply in the boulder-strewn forest to the rocky subsidiary peak where the robbers' castle once stood.

Now only the rocky outcrop controlling the area suggests past times. The view is excellent towards Hór Valley, the southern Bükk mountains, and the southern edge of the plateau. Like bastions on the edge of the castle wall, the plateau's peripheral viewing stones, Három-kő, Tar-kő, and Pes-kő rise above us, hinting at an isolated world that sits on the landscape surrounded by mountains, which has the highest average elevation in Hungary. Below us, Hór Valley still breaks through the mountains with one last canyon-like cut to disappear in the endless flatlands of the Great Plain surrounded by much gentler, rolling forests.

Under the cliff, next to the PL trail, there is also a cave opening into a dark depth, where the castle got its name, as the word ódor means hollow or cavity. The mountain block is riddled with significant caves; on the southern side opens the Hajnóczy cave rich in stalactites, which is one of the gems of the mountain range with its passages exceeding four kilometers and halls full of cave formations. A metal railing guards the entrance of the chimney opening from the castle protecting visitors from falling into the depths, as the chimney drops down the dark depth with a nearly vertical fissure.

Back on the Turkish road, in the valley of Tárkány Creek

We return the way we came to Völgyfő House following the PL trail, and upon finishing, we continue westward along the ridge on the P trail following the historic Turkish road. This historical route connected the northern areas of the mountain range with the Eger center during the Ottoman rule, marking the northern border zone of the Ottoman Empire. We walk 3.5 km on this ridge road, which served as a historical corridor, traversing wide forestry roads. Along the way, we pass pleasant oak forests; a few sparser, younger forest patches offer little view. The monotonously undulating ridge and dense forest lull us into a meditative walk on the southern Bükk slopes, but be careful, because at one edge of the clearing, a bulldozer road leads down to the valley of Tárkány Creek to our starting point.

Before turning off to the secondary ridge, it is worth walking another hundred meters on the main ridge road, as from the mountaintop after the turn-off, one of the most beautiful panoramas of the route opens. Under the bulldozer road is a young forest patch, above it a rare old oak forest opens views towards the north. It is worth climbing a little into the old oak forest to see a larger slice of the Bükk region. Much of the plateau's edge is visible from here, stretching from the hills above Répáshuta up the slanted plateau to the truncated peak of Bél-kő, where, as a victim of human greed, white cairns break it, and it finally descends westward. Below us, Lök Valley and numerous of its sisters descend covered by dense forests into the Felsőtárkány Basin.

We return to the junction, where following the S+ trail, we descend two kilometers to the Tárkány Creek, fortunately on a comfortably sloping, winding bulldozer road. Under the ridge, we touch Sáfár-kút, a modest spring with a bench and basin at the edge of the shaded forest. We arrive winding among the most suitable slopes for descent on the secondary ridge into Barát Valley, at whose flat bottom meadows line the way between Felsőtárkány and Oldal Valley. Along the edges of these meadows, a railway track once ran, where we also follow the most comfortable route sideways along the edges of meadows, occasionally entering the trees at the forest edge. Nearly a one-kilometer stretch still leads back to the starting point on the S trail at the Oldal Valley fishpond at the end of Barát meadow, where our circular walk closes.