Vésztő sta. – Berettyóújfalu (AK-08)

Itinerary:

During the route, we must follow the K mark all along.

• From Vésztő direction, we walk eastward on dirt roads to Okány.
• From Okány, passing through the area called Tölgyfás, we reach Zsadány.
• From Zsadány, we reach the Begéc Reservoir along the Toprongyos-Korhány canal.
• From the Begéc Reservoir, we go on the dam of the lake, then along dirt roads to Geszt.
• From Geszt, we cross marshy meadows to Biharugra.
• From Biharugra, we walk on an asphalt road, past bird-watching towers, to Szilaspuszta.
• From Szilaspuszta, we walk on the Trianon localization dam to Körösnagyharsány.
• From Körösnagyharsány, we arrive at Körösszakál on the dam of the Sebes-Körös river.
• From Körösszakál, we reach Belec on the dirt roads of the Bihari plain, then on the dam of the reservoir.
• From Belec, we walk on plain roads, then on the asphalt country road to Furta.
• From Furta, passing through Zsáka, we proceed on the asphalt country road and along the dam of the Berettyó to Bakonszeg.
• From Bakonszeg, we reach the end point of the section, Berettyóújfalu, along the Berettyó dam.

Detailed description of the hike:

Vésztő – Zsadány

The starting point of the section is the Vésztő train station, where we should not forget to stamp the official imprint of the Alföldi Kéktúra in our stamp book. After stamping, we can exit on either Ady Endre or Bartók Béla street to reach the K sign. If possible, it is worth taking a walk in the town of Békés County, where several sights ensure a memorable time. The defining building of Vésztő center is the Town Hall built in the early 20th century in neo-Renaissance style, enjoying monument protection. Not far from it towers the dignified form of the Reformed Church built in 1783, together with the Reformed parsonage forming an organic unit. Among the exhibition sites, the Vésztő Ethnographic Collection and the museum showcasing the work of István Sinka, a Kossuth Prize-winning poet, are noteworthy.

We leave the town of Vésztő eastward through Szilér street, passing a small lake decorated with a wooden bridge. We wander between excellent quality "Békés black soil" arable fields, cross the Holt-Sebes-Körös (dead arm of the Sebes-Körös), and the railway tracks leading to Okány. For a while, we walk parallel to the railway, then turn left, more precisely east, onto a straight dirt road. We travel nearly 3 km here before emerging onto a poorly-maintained and lightly trafficked country road leading to Okány. At the end of the pothole-ridden road, the settlement of Okány spreads out by the bank of the Holt-Sebes-Körös. The official stamp of Alföldi Kéktúra is located at the intersection of Kossuth and Köröspart streets, on the National Blue Trail information post in front of the old pub. From Köröspart street, it is worth making a short detour to Iskola Alley, where on the grass of the playground we can see the old tower roof of the Reformed church, adding a special atmosphere to the place.

We leave Okány along the already often mentioned Holt-Sebes-Körös. The watercourse, now degraded to a flood drainage canal, was once the main live bed of the Sebes-Körös, transporting water from the Transylvanian mountains down into the Körös region basin. This branch of the Sebes-Körös, which supplied the huge marshlands of the Little Sárrét, lost its significance in the mid-19th century when the river received a new bed between Körösszakál and Körösladány, about 40 km long. Today, the abandoned branch drains the area's internal waters but supports rich flora and fauna. Among its protected plants are the rucaöröm and sulyom, while notable birds include the little egret and grey heron.

After Okány, the Alföldi Kéktúra route follows the dead branch for a while, then cuts through arable fields between Nagygyanta and Zsadány. We arrive at the edge of forests at the area called Tölgyfás, then among arable fields along the Toprongyos-Korhány canal to Zsadány. The abandoned riverbeds and the small levees rising between them indicate that the current landscape of Kis-Sárrét was once shaped by the Körös rivers and their tributaries.

Zsadány – Biharugra

We enter Zsadány via the aptly named Attila King boulevard, where the official stamp of Alföldi Kéktúra is located on an information board at the junction with Mezőgyáni street. The K sign leaves the village southward, but if our time and mood allow, it is worth detouring to the dignified whitewashed Reformed church, a symbol of Zsadány. The Kéktúra route follows the country road towards Mezőgyán until it approaches the previously mentioned Toprongyos-Korhány canal. Here we turn left and continue along a dirt road following the canal through wooded and then forested areas. Soon, we reach the "beetle-crest" asphalt strip heading to Kis-Váty and, after a right and then left turn, we find ourselves on the Kisváty nature trail. Walking through muddy meadows in rainy periods, still along the Toprongyos-Korhány canal, we finally arrive at the dam of the Begéc Reservoir. Here is a single-storey wooden lookout tower and information boards, together with the Alföldi Kéktúra stamp in a box attached to the lookout. The structure is actually a birdwatching tower from which we can observe the wildlife around the reservoir. In medieval times, the place of the water surface was the village of Begéc, destroyed by the Turks. The marshy lowland area was developed between 1962 and 1967 into the numbered lakes of the Begéc Reservoir, now a cherished gem preserved by the Körös-Marosh National Park Directorate. Among its rich wildlife, many protected bird species stand out; the lake system is an important nesting and resting place.

From the lookout, the Alföldi Kéktúra route leads southeast along the dam of the lake system. After leaving the reservoir, we cross beautiful wooded areas and arrive at the ancestral home of the Tisza family, Geszt. Our sign first passes Békés county's largest cemetery, the Tisza crypt built in 1902. This building houses the graves of 33 Tisza family members, including three prominent Hungarian statesmen: Kálmán Tisza, Count Lajos Tisza, and Count István Tisza. From the crypt, the hiking trail reaches Szabadság street corner via Cemetery and Liget streets, where the next official Alföldi Kéktúra stamp is fixed to a National Blue Trail information post. Here we turn north, but it is not worth leaving Geszt without a detour to the Tisza castle and the Arany János Memorial House - there is also a stamp place at the inn building. By spring 2024, the entire castle complex built in the 18th century has been renovated. In 1851, the so-called "Hermit of Geszt", János Arany, who taught briefly at the Tisza family, lived in the garden pavilion of its park.

From Geszt, the Alföldi Kéktúra route leads out on the continuation of Szabadság street towards Biharugra. After a few kilometers' walk, we encounter the remains of the Csörsz ditch, which we had also touched north of Körösladány. In this small-Sárrét landscape dotted with arable fields and forest patches, the filled ancient earthwork ditch functions as a flood drainage canal. After leaving the Csörsz ditch, we proceed north between marshy areas, between the Begéc Reservoir and the Hungarian-Romanian border. Along the way, we can climb a birdwatch tower to again observe the water birdlife of the surroundings. After a long trek, we reach Biharugra.

Biharugra – Körösnagyharsány

While walking through the village, it is worth keeping your eyes open. On the wall of the Reformed parsonage, a memorial plaque informs us that Sándor Petőfi stayed in this house on the night of July 18, 1849. Not far from here, on the opposite side of the street, stands the beautifully renovated Bölönyi castle. The building initially built in the 19th century in a classicist style was remodeled in romantic style at the end of the century, gaining its present form. Continuing onward, in front of the hospitality unit called Makk Hetes, the official Alföldi Kéktúra stamp is on the column of the outdoor seating area. If time allows, after stamping, we can detour into Szabó Pál street to visit the birthplace of the folk writer. We leave the village along the long Szilas street.

Our section towards Szilaspuszta follows the northern edge of the Biharugra fishponds, where we can observe the rich birdlife of the protected natural area from birdwatching towers. The low-lying marshy area was purchased in the early 20th century by Dezső Chorhus, a Budapest engineer, and his brother, aiming to create artificial circular fishponds. These were constructed in several stages between 1910 and 1944 by local manual labor. The asphalt road ends at Szilaspuszta – where we find the next Alföldi Kéktúra stamp fixed to a road sign. On the Trianon localization dam, we set off north and march long towards Körösnagyharsány. From the marshy plain, looking east, the western ranges of the Erdélyi-Szigethegység (Transylvanian Island Mountains) can be nicely seen.

After a long, meditative section, we arrive at Körösnagyharsány, whose whitewashed Reformed church waves at travelers from afar. The Alföldi Kéktúra stamp can be found on the building of the local government in Kossuth square, at the edge of the bulletin board. Through Vasút street, we soon find ourselves on Rákóczi street, turning north at its end along the avenue of trees. We cross densely overgrown railway tracks and a few hundred meters east we could see a buffer stop and a sign with Körösnagyharsány. Here was once the village's railway station, from which trains ran all the way to Nagyvárad before Trianon. After 1944, this became the terminus of the railway line, but in 2009, the stretch remaining to Vésztő was also closed. Körösnagyharsány was the only station in the country functioning as a terminus without a turning possibility.

Körösnagyharsány – Berettyóújfalu

Leaving behind the tracks raised by weeds, the Alföldi Kéktúra route soon reaches the dam of the Sebes-Körös, which it follows all the way to the Count István Tisza bridge near the border of Körösszakál. The predecessor of the stone bridge was built between 1927–1928 but was blown up by Russian troops in 1944. Until its reconstruction in 1947, locals built a wooden bridge in its place; the piles are still visible in the riverbed during low water levels. Körösszakál, proud of both its Reformed and Orthodox churches, has the official Alföldi Kéktúra stamp on the wall next to the entrance of the hospitality unit named Milán Ivó.

We leave the settlement among the houses of the long Sas street and walk northwest. We pass along arable fields by a fishing pond and then encounter abandoned riverbeds and meadows. Here we are no longer in Kis-Sárrét but in the Bihari plain region, wandering the former pathways of the Sebes-Körös and its tributaries which shaped the surface of this microregion. The land surface chiefly consists of deposits from the abandoned and silted arms and oxbow lakes of the Sebes-Körös. Among forest patches, we soon reach the dam of the Körmösdpusztai or Beleci reservoir. Due to dry summers, most of the reservoir, which no longer has open water, is covered by reeds. Along the dam, we can climb several birdwatching towers made of wood, from which we can thoroughly observe the surrounding landscape. The official Alföldi Kéktúra stamp is placed on a curious cylindrical birdwatching tower column on the northwest side of the lake.

After leaving the dam of the reservoir, a long section awaits us, walking between marshy meadows and arable fields in rainy weather, to the country road between Komádi and Furta, then walking along it to Furta. The Reformed and Roman Catholic church-bearing and embroidery-famous Bihari village also hosts an Alföldi Kéktúra stamp place: the box containing the stamp is attached to an information post in the village center opposite the town hall. Furta has almost merged with Zsáka on the opposite side of Route 47, whose most prominent sight is the Rhédey castle built in 1858.

In the center of Zsáka, we turn onto the country road towards Bakonszeg and unfortunately walk about 5 km on it until we turn onto the dam of the Berettyó. From here, the settlement and its Reformed church can be nicely seen on the other side of the river. Crossing the bridge of the Berettyó, which originates in the Réz Mountains of Transylvania, we arrive at the shady Nadányi park to turn right onto Hunyadi street, where two sights invite a stop: the Nadányi-Miskolczi manor built in 1800 (Hunyadi street 83), and the Bessenyei György Memorial House on the edge of the village (Hunyadi street 103). György Bessenyei (1747–1811), the so-called "Hermit of Bihar", was a prominent poet of the Enlightenment era who also served for a while in Maria Theresa's Vienna bodyguard. His drama "Ágis tragedy" marks the beginning of the Enlightenment in Hungary. Bessenyei lived in Bakonszeg from 1785 until his death; his memorial museum can be visited by appointment in a mud-walled, thatched peasant house. The official Alföldi Kéktúra stamp is located in its garden on an electric pole.

At the end of the memorial house street, the K sign turns onto the Berettyó dam and leads all the way to Berettyóújfalu, the endpoint of our section. Here, on Berettyólapos street, in front of the gate of TIVIZIG (Water Management Directorate of the Upper Tisza), we find the stamp.