Under the spell of karst waters on the Mecsek slopes

Itinerary

• At Abaliget we follow the K mark along the fishing lake all the way to the football field.
• Next to the football field we turn right onto a promenade leading to the Community Center.
• Opposite, we walk along Petőfi Sándor Street until the first corner.
• We turn left onto Várhegy Street, and after the church, right before the cemetery we turn right onto a country road.
• Before the hilltop, we turn left at a gate.
• Before the end of the fence we turn right onto a downhill country road which we follow until the Pécsi Lake beach.
• From the beach we follow the S+ mark (to the left) to the Herman Ottó Lake dam.
• From the dam we turn left (before the lake) onto a path that runs along the shore of Kovácsszénájai Lake.
• We join the S◼ marking that leads to Kovácsszénája.
• In the village, we turn left onto Sugár Street, then before the Photo Gallery we turn right onto the Main Street.
• On the village edge country road we turn left and go uphill, following this until the hilltop.
• Seeing the holiday homes, we turn right onto the forest edge and then forest bike track.
• When reaching a meadow, we turn left there at a hunting lookout.
• At the base of the hunting lookout we turn right onto the country road alongside the electric fence.
• At the corner of the sign we turn left, downhill, and cross the forest back to Abaliget.
• From Bem Street we turn onto the road crossing Abaliget (left) and stay on it until Tópart Street.
• We turn onto Tópart Street then left before the lakes.
• The promenade leads to the entrance of the Abaliget Cave.
• From the cave we turn right, following the Blue Trail K mark to return to the starting point.

Detailed description of the tour

Among depressions lined with karst water

From the bus stop, we start walking along the K mark with our back to the cave. To our right is a fishing lake in a park-like setting, its water supplied by karst water that emerges from the cave, dammed in 1959. After a buffet, we walk along the shaded lakeside, and at its end we cross a road and reach the football field. Next to it, we leave the marking on the right and continue the route on a built promenade through the village houses. Abaliget itself was founded by the namesake clan in the 11th century (prehistoric humans also settled in the cave), and was repopulated in the 18th century after the Turkish occupation by German and Hungarian settlers. We don't linger long on the neat main street because we cross it and continue walking on the opposite street. We soon turn left and reach with a steady climb the late 18th-century Roman Catholic church.

From here we walk towards the cemetery and when reaching a ploughed field, we switch right onto a branching country road. The cemetery is hidden by trees, but on our right broader views open over the gently undulating lower hills of the Mecsek. Above a field of grain, we can glance back at the increasingly distant and lower rooftops and church tower of Abaliget. The local land use is characterized by fields on loess-covered plates, wooded pastures primarily on slopes, and vineyards and orchards on southern faces. During the walk, we can spot the radio towers of Tubes and its slender lookout. We pass a wayside cross (these formerly marked crossroads in rural roads and helped orientation). The bike track becomes concrete slabs and we turn left. The rolling hilly landscape encircles the Mecsek, and we can peek into its recesses from the road winding next to the electric fence.

Along the shores of the Orfű lake system

Before reaching the corner of the sign, at a larger branching we turn right, cross a forest patch, and reach a wooded pasture. To the right in the summer shade lie resting cattle, behind them glimmers the surface of Pécsi Lake. At the end of another forest section, near the beach buffet building, we arrive at the shore of the largest Orfű lake. Before turning to Tekeres on the S+ mark, from the dam we can survey the largest water surface of the valley (and Baranya county), Pécsi Lake, nestled below the Mecsek ridge. It was dammed up in the 1960s, mostly supplied by the Vízfő Spring, with flood control and sport purposes but primarily tourist significance. Its shores include a few beaches, but the numerous jetties extending a few meters into the lake, numbering in the hundreds, are unique. Their condition and appearance vary greatly, with many privately owned remnants from socialism’s decades, many of which are closed. Thus visitors mostly resort to the walking and auto road along the shore, with lake proximity not always accessible.

Our tour following the S+ mark reveals the distinctive villagescape of Tekeres, now administratively part of Orfű. The historic-looking, late 19th-century built, many with barns and stables, single-storey houses lend a somewhat urban (and surprisingly unified) appearance to the small settlement – its inhabitants were exclusively Swabians who were deported after World War II (replaced by Slovak Hungarians). We soon leave the winding creek-named village behind, reaching a forest road shaded with rain shelters at its edge. Below to the right appears the mirror of Herman Ottó Lake, worth visiting. The elongated lakebed surrounded by reeds and forest is a fish and bird reserve established with all Hungarian native (lake) fish species reportedly introduced at damming, many still present – also home to many rare birds and otters.

The path turns away from the water under increasingly closing foliage, and at a fork the marking invites to the right (still on S+). Before crossing the dam, we turn left on a barely noticeable, dense cutoff trail, arriving at the shore of Kovácsszénájai Lake. Along the narrow trail, a lush alder swamp habitat unfolds, with a footbridge over it. The otter especially favors such spots, which nestles among the crooked roots of lake-bending trees and has an entrance facing the water. It is an omnivore, eating nearly everything, including the only native turtle species in Hungary, the common marsh turtle here. Near the northern end of Kovácsszénájai Lake once turned a mill on the creek, but its remains were submerged by the 1970 dammed water – according to rumors, even recently the pine stumps rose above the surface. Walking along the lakeside equipped with covered fishing spots, we see protruding fallen tree trunks in the lakebed – swimming is no longer possible, but fishing is especially popular thanks to the idyllic surroundings.

Slalom among the holiday homes

By the boat rental at the landscaped corner of the lake, we reach an asphalt road, where we join the S◼ mark. This leads into the valley side up to Kovácsszénája. The village’s prettiest part opens up winding upwards on the (unmarked) Sugár Street, then turning onto the Main Street we arrive at the Photo Gallery. The strikingly beautiful settlement had almost become depopulated but in the last 1-2 decades more people started buying holiday homes here. Since Orfű and its surroundings were popular among Dutch and German tourists from the 1990s, they discovered the secluded village and some settled here. Kovácsszénája still preserves the characteristics of a clustered structure, resulting in winding streets.

At the end of the Main Street we reach a field and climb along a country road to the forest – we can glance behind at the low rolling hillocks. A sharp left turn is soon followed by a right bend, and after leaving a few smaller meadows, we reach a summit – opposite is the higher part of Mecsek, below the blue mirror of Pécsi Lake is visible. Here, at the clearing corner, we turn right alongside the forest, following a dirt road winding behind holiday homes enjoying the panorama, shaded by trees. Near abandoned and used small houses, later continuing forward by an electric fence in a shallow ditch for many minutes. At a pine-studded meadow, the bumpy forest road bends right leading to another open area. We walk along its left edge to the end of the forest belt, where turning left by a hunting lookout, we reach previously seen agricultural fields. We then follow the electric fence downward to the next branching (a wayside cross is almost hidden by a tree crown), where we take a left turn. Finally, we emerge from the trees among the houses of Abaliget, the street soon joins the main road. We start a long ascent on it, following the neat Kossuth Street. We cross our previous trace and turn right on Tópart Street to visit the lakes.

The kilometer-long wine cellar

In minutes we reach the boating lake, along whose shore to the left, next to the beach, a promenade leads to the natural formation making the settlement famous: the entrance to the Abaliget Cave is visible behind the reception building at the base of the rock wall. The longest cave system in Mecsek exceeds 1.7 km, of which nearly 0.5 km is accessible to the general public. At the entrance, there was once only a cavity beside the exiting creek where the village priest used to cool his wines – thus it was known as Pap’s hole. Then in the 18th century a miller and his small team first entered the passage following the whims of the cave water that drives the mill, discovering the cave. The cavity system was created by the karst water seeping into the limestone and sediment-laden precipitation (Katya Creek), and from the 19th century progressively greater interventions were made by increasingly curious people. Tourism was already present then (it was one of the world’s 100 wonders in a 1900 Paris publication), but organized tourism started after infrastructure was built in the 1950s. Though not especially rich in stalactites, it became famous as a dripstone cave, with air possessing healing effects – also an important refuge for bats and several other animal species.

Walking further on the K marking from the cave exit, the building visible on our left houses today the Bat Museum, which earlier operated as a tourist house. A few meters ahead at the parking lot the circle closes, ending our tour.