Remarks:

The places written with bold characters in the text show the marked places in the Route-Altitude diagram.

You can find detailed hiking maps about this section of the Blue Trail in the Map Chapter.

I have taken more dozen panoramic views along the more than 1100km long route of the National Blue Trail. They are collected in the chapter named Panoramic views, but I put links to the pictures in the text. If you click on the links, the views will open in a new window.

There are short videos about the medieval condition of the Hungarian castles, fortresses on the Youtube. I have collected them in the Castles, fortressess chapter, but I put links to the videos in the text, as well. If you click on the links, the videos will start in new windows.

If you click on the small pictures in the text, they will open in bigger size.

People ask me often, where does the Blue Trail begin in Hungary? My answer is the following: it doesn’t have any start or end, because it goes round the whole Hungary! Its route is divided onto three big sections: the oldest one, the Országos Kéktúra (National Blue Trail) is 1160 km long according to the latest survey, the lenght of the Dél-dunántúli Kéktúra (South-Transdanubian Blue Trail) is 541 km, and the Alföldi Kéktúra (Blue Trail of the Plain) is 846 km long. If somebody completes these three sections of the huge Kék Kőr (Blue Circle), he/she really gets to know Hungary! I'd like to introduce the National Blue Trail on these pages with the help of many photos and descriptiones.

The western trailhead of the National Blue Trail (more simple: Blue Trail, because this is the oldest one, the “original” one among the sections of the Blue Circle) is located on a grassy clearing at the Austrian-Hungarian border, close to the top of Írottkő Mountain, where it meets with the path of the South-Transdanubian Blue Trail. This point has a good accessibility from Velem village, which is located at the foot of the mountains. There are many possibilities to approach the summit from the village, but I think, the most beautiful route is the following:

Let's start from Velem village, bus turning place on the narrow asphalt road towards the hills! There are a huge net of such narrow roads among the Kőszegi-hegység (Kőszeg Mountains), so we will meet with many parts of this system during our hike. You will see and marks on the trees beside the road, meanwhile it ascends mildly and passes the closed Hotel Avar. The first hairpin bend of the road will appear after a few minutes. The signs turn onto a path here and the climb of the trail will be steeper. We will reach the Szent Vid-kápolna Chapel after a quarter hour long, strong climb at the end of stairs. Generally the chapel is closed and the panorama is limited from its clearing, but we can rest a few minutes on the benches beside the small church.

We walk farther from the chapel following the signs. The marked wide promenade goes straight on the ridge of the Szent Vid-hegy (Szent Vid Hill) and passes the Monument of the National Blue Trail. This small memorial stands on the right side of the promenade and it shows that place, where the trailhead of Blue Trail was located before the regime change. In that time the Hungarian-Austrian border wasn’t accessible because of the strong military protection, it was the well known „Iron Curtain”. Of course it has changed, since 1992 the trailhead of the Blue Trail is located on the top of Írottkő Mountain.

We cross an asphalt road after the memorial, and the hard climb begins again in the mountainside. The path cuts a big hairpin bend of the road on a steep climbing route through the forest and we will meet again with the asphalt strip at the next resting place. The climb finishes here, the signs lead farther on the road and we reach the Hörmann-forrás Spring after a few minutes. The spring is located on the right side of the road, among trees. The marked path of National Blue Trail arrives here from the peak of Írottkő (it is signed with marks), we could follow it from this place, but we have to visit the summit, if we would like to stamp into our small booklet, where we collect the stamps of the Blue Trail!

The signs cross the asphalt road and go left on a narrow path, which leads steeply towards the summit. After a half an hour we get to the ridge of the mountain and the ascent becomes softer. The Austrian-Hungarian border runs exactly on the ridge, in a few meters distance from us, we walk on its Hungarian side, and reach the clearing under the peak soon.

The path of the South-Transdanubian Blue Trail arrives to the clearing from left, but an unmarked path goes on until the summit, where the lookout tower of Írott-kő stands. The lookout tower is located exactly on the border, if we enter the building, we will see the border stone in the middle of the vestibule room. Let's climb to the top terrace of the lookout tower on the stairs! The closer peaks of the Alps are visible from the Austrian side of the terrace, and the wide plain of Kisalföld (Little Plain, or Little Hungarian Plain) with small villages on the Hungarian side.

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If we finish the rest on the top terrace of the tower, we can go back to the clearing (Írott-kő Mountain, stamping place). The grey steel box of the first stamp of the National Blue Trail is mounted onto a pillar of the shelter at the resting place. Later we will meet with dozens of this small boxes! There is a QR code on the box, it will contains information about the stamping place and later it will help the “on-line stamping”, but it doesn't work yet. Currently we have to collect the prints of the stamps into our small Blue Trail's booklet. Generally the stamps are equipped onto the end of long chains, here we can stamp into the first place of our Blue Trail booklet! After this procedure we can go back on the marked path to the Hörmann Spring. From this time we will follow only the marks on our long hike through Hungary!

We cross the narrow asphalt road and step into the forest again. Our path passes by the Hörmann-forrás Spring and after a few dozen steps we reach the asphalt road again, because we cut down its hairpin bend on the path. We cross it again and walk farther on another footpath, which descends in the forest until the next asphalt road. The signs of the Blue Trail follow this meandering road for a long time, meanwhile we pass the small group of Stájer Houses on a clearing, finally reach the Vörös kereszt Cross.

The red wooden cross (its name: Vörös kereszt means Red Cross in English) stands in the centre of a junction of six forestry roads, among six great oak trees. There are wooden resting benches and desks in the shade of the trees, we can rest a few minutes here comfortably. When we go on, we will get to the Lookout point of Óház-tető Hill soon through the forest covered back of the Irány-hegy Mountain. A beautiful panorama opens from the terrace of the tower towards Kőszeg, and the plain of Kisalföld! (Link to the panoramic view) This lookout tower is the renovated dwelling tower of the ancient fort named Óvár or Óház (Old Castle or Old House). The ruined walls of the former castle surrounds this building.

After the lookout tower the path of the Blue Trail descends steeply in the northern side of the Óház-tető Hill into a deep valley. We get to an asphalt road there, and reach the Hét-forrás Spring (Its other name: Hétvezér Spring, it means Seven Leaders’ Spring) on it. A short path with stairs leads to the spring from the asphalt road. The name of the spring commemorates the seven leaders of the conquering Hungarian tribes. The second stamp of the Blue Trail is located on the pillar of the shelter at the resting place.

When we go farther, the last climb will come towards the flat top of Pintér-tető Hill, and then the trail descends until the Calvary Church of Kőszeg. Underway we can take a short detour following the signs to the Trianoni kereszt (Cross of Trianon). A beautiful panorama opens from the cross to the closest settlements of Austria. Generally the Calvary Church is closed similar to the Szent Vid Chapel, but the panorama is nice towards Kőszeg town from the stairs of the church. If we continue our hike, we will reach the first houses of Kőszeg on a steeply descending dirt road beside the sculptures (stations) of the Calvary.

The Blue Trail goes across the town, we will reach the historical downtown of Kőszeg with a small walk. The Blue Trail runs in front of the old castle of the settlement, which was defended successfully by Jurisics György against the Turkey Armee in 1532, later we get to the Jurisics tér (Jurisics Square) and the Heroes’ Gate. Kőszeg is a stamping place of the Blue Trail, the official stamps are located in the Tourinform office (address: 2 Fő tér, Kőszeg) and in the Kék Huszár Restaurant (address: 60-62 Várkör, Kőszeg). But it is accepted the stamps of any museums, the castle, or every other places, which show the name of Kőszeg town.

The National Blue Trail leaves the Jurisics tér through the Hősök Kapuja, goes along the short and narrow Városháza utca (Városháza Street) and turns left on the Főtér (Main Square). We cross the square, take a few steps on the Kossuth utca (Kossuth Street) and turn left onto the street of the market. We pass the building of the fire department through a small park, where a huge plane tree stands. This small park is a nature reservations area. We reach the Táncsics utca (Táncsics Street) on a narrow pavement, the marked path turns left here. We pass the new Calvinist church, and go till the end of the street, where we turn right, onto the Kiss János utca (Kiss János Street) and cross the Malom-árok (Malom Stream) on a bridge. The marked route turns left here, onto a promenade, which leads between the Malom-árok and the Gyöngyös-patak (Gyöngyös Stream) through a small park. At the edge of the park we turn right onto the Dózsa György utca (Dózsa György Street) and reach the border of the town soon.

Kőszeg is a very nice town, it is worth spending a day here, and visiting the sights of the town. Of course, the most popular sight is the castle. The place and the ancient fort were mentioned first time in documents in 796, 100 years before the Hungarian Conquest, which happened in 896. This place is inhabited since the Roman times. The modern castle, or rather fort was built after the big offensive of the Tartars in the second half of the 13th century. The town and the fort are located close to the Austrian-Hungarian border, the position of the fort was very important beside the busy road from Venice to Vienna, so this place was always object of battles between the two countries.

The most significant episode was the Turkey attack in the life of the fort. Soliman sultan moved against Vienna in 1532, and the fort of Kőszeg stood in his way. The Turkey troops began the siege with 60.000 people and it lasted 25 days. Miklós Jurisics was the leader of the small defender group, they were able to keep the fort against the significant overpower. After the unsuccessful siege the Turkey Armee had to turn back, because of the approaching cool winter of Hungary, so they couldn’t attack Vienna. The Austrian Emperor Ferdinand gave the fort as present to Jurisics, because in that time the fort and the town were Austrian property. (Video about the medieval condition of the castle)

It is worth visiting the medieval centre of the town with the Jurisics Square. Here stands the 700 years old City Hall, it is the centre of the administration of the settlement continuously since its construction. We can find the Arany Egyszarvú Pharmacy Museum on the Jurisics Square, as well. If you have enough time, climb onto the terrace of the Hősök Kapuja (Heros’ Gate), a nice panorama opens from the tower onto the centre of the town.

The Blue Trail crosses the main road Nr. 87 at the border of Kőszeg, and continues on a wide, dusty dirt road following the painted marks. This road ascends mildly, after a few minutes we reach the last homesteads. If we turn back here, we will have a nice panorama towards the downtown of Kőszeg and the surrounding hills. We can see the Kálvária Church and the lookout tower of Óház-tető on the peaks. After the last houses the dirt road runs straight on, we reaches the Hungarian-Austrian border after a quarter hour again, and notice the painted posts and marker stones on the left side of the dirt road. Later we get to a power line in a wide cut-line. We turn right here and go a few steps on its dirt road. We reach soon a “T” junction, where the marked route of the Blue Trail turns left (Beginning of the long cut-line).

A long and straight, excellent gravel road begins here in the forest. We walk about 3.5 km on it! Underway we cross the busy asphalt road leading to Horvátzsidány and pass by an old, ruined military object, which was a shooting range before the regime change. Later we turn left at the end of this road, at the wooden cross with a picture and we go farther on a similar road. Our route becomes more varied: we take about rectangular turns among the parts of the chessboard-like forest. The good quality road finishes at a “T” junction, where we turn left and go farther on an ordinary, potholed dirt road. After about 1.5 km the marks turn left and lead us on a path, which descends into the valley of the Ablánc-patak (Ablánc Brook). The path meanders for a little while beside the brook, we walk at to foot of the hill of Ilonavár soil rampart, which is the remain of an ancient soil fort. Later the path leads back to the dirt road. We reach Tömörd village on this road after a ten minutes long walk, meanwhile we pass a small Szent Ilona sculpture standing in the forest in 50 steps distance from the road.

We turn left onto the main street of the settlement and go on towards the church of the village. The stamp of the Blue Trail is located on the pillar of a shelter at the left side of the road, beside the Catholic church (Tömörd village, stamping place). We go farther on the street of the village, climb onto a small hill, pass the ruined mansion of Chernel family, and leave the settlement. If you need food, or some drink, you can find the shop and pub on the other end of the village!

We walk on an old asphalt road, its surface is pretty worn out, and has a lot of potholes. This is the old road among the villages, but since the new one is finished, the traffic don't use it. We reach the new, wide asphalt road across the fields and forest patches in a half an hour. The trail crosses it and the old, deserted buildings of Kincsédpuszta farmstead appear in front of us. Until 2017 the Blue Trail crossed the farmstead, but now we have to get around the fenced area! The narrow and worn aphalt road branches out from the wide access road of the farmstead behind the small building of the shelter of the bus station. We follow it and turn right together with the asphalt strip at the corner of the fence. The road passes dwelling houses, here the aphalt cover finishes and we walk farther on dirt road. We turn right again at the next corner of the fence and reach a wide dirt road at the third corner. The straight dirt road runs out to the fields and continues without any shade! This section is an about three kilometres long, straight gravel road, the last third part of it leads in a narrow alley, but this part of the route is very neglected, so we can't use it because of the high weed and overgrown branches. It is recommended to walk on the right side of the alley on the edge of the arable fields until the corner of the forest, where we can go back to the dirt road.

We continue the hike on dirt roads along the cut-lines of the Szapári-erdő (Szapári Forest), later we reach a big, neglected clearing. We walk around it and cross the Ablánc-patak (Ablánc Brook) on a small wooden pedestrian bridge. The narrow, meandering path crosses a big, weedy clear-cut, and after the fenced chalets of a closed camp we reach the closed Ablánci malomcsárda Restaurant on a dirt road. The restaurant is closed for many years, because of the inadequate quality potable water of its well. We can find the steel box of the stamp on the gate column of the yard of the restaurant.

The Blue Trail follows for a little while an asphalt road in north-eastern direction from the car park of the former restaurant, but after a few minutes we turn right and climb onto the ridge of a small hill. The path crosses an old fence (we have to unhook a wire to open it), later the path leads into a dirt road. We hike farther on this gravel road, at a „T” junction turn left and after a few minutes we get to the railway underpass. After the bridge we turn right onto another path and continue the hike in the forest. After about twenty minutes we reach a wide gravel road leading towards Szeleste village, but we will leave it after one and a half kilometer and walk again on cart tracks in the forest. Some sections of this way are very neglected, we have to fight with the high weed and owergorwn branches, finally we arrive to Szeleste village in a half an hour.

The road runs beside the outermost houses and reach the Catholic church. We enter the garden of the church through a small gate, and the marks lead us to the main street of the settlement. We walk along the pavement on the right side of the road, and reach the house of Máté vendéglő (Máté Restaurant) soon (address: 84 Berzsenyi Dániel utca, Szeleste). The stamp of the Blue Trail is located here (Szeleste village, stamping place).

The Blue Trail leads us on the right side of the main road of the village, on the pavement. We pass the fenced park of the Festetics mansion (the park is a nature reservations area and the mansion works as a hotel), later the second Catholic church on the same side, too. We go farther straight on a small road, when the wide asphalt road turns right. This street of the village leads towards the railway station of Szeleste, which is located beyond the border of the settlement, on the fields. This road leaves the village and reaches a roudabout, here we go straight farther, and climb the bridge over the new route of the motorway number 86. Our road get to the second roundabout at the other side of the overpass, we cross it and turn right after about 200 steps onto the narrow asphalt access road of the railway station (Ölbő-Alsószeleste railway station).

The Blue Trail passes the buildings and goes father on a dirt road at the edge of cultivated fields. We turn right after about thousand steps, cross the field and walk on at the edge of the forest. If we turn back here, we can see distant mountains, they are the Ság-hegy (Ság Mountain) and Somló-hegy (Somló Mountain). Both of them are extinct volcanoes, and although later we will get closer to them, but the Blue Trail doesn’t visit these mountains!

The dirt road leads at the edge of cultivated fields, after a few minutes we turn right at a “T” junction into the forest. After a second “T” junction, where we turn left, the dirt road goes across the forest and after a while we reach a straight gravel road at the another edge of the wood. We turn left onto this wide and staight road and go on towards south. This road crosses an abandoned military area, the fence is already removed, only the columns of the former gate show, this area was closed a few decades ago. After a twenty minutes long walk we get to the main road number 87 (crossing of main road no. 87, we take about 200 meters on it in south-eastern direction, and turn right onto another gravel road.

This meandering road crosses a forest and at the far side of the wood we notice Bögöt village after a half an hour long walk. We reach the narrow asphalt access road of the village, turn onto it and visit Bögöt (Bögöt, road to stamping place). The stamps of the Blue Trail are located in the food shop (at the bus turning place) and on the wall of the Mayor's office (12 Tóth György út, Bögöt). Both of them are in the vicinity of the Catholic church in the centre of the village.

The Blue Trail leaves the village on the long Deák Ferenc utca (Deák Ferenc Street), after the last houses we cross the fields on rarely used wheel tracks. The trail reaches a small asphalt road after a narrow forest strip and crosses two single track railway lines (Railway crossing) through railway barriers. We go on along the straight asphalt road about 200 meters, then turn left into a cut-line of the forest and walk until the second cut-line crossing. The Blue Trail turns right here, goes till the next crossing, where we turn left. We walk again until the next crossing, the marked path turns right here and after a few minutes long walk we reach another asphalt road at the edge of the forest.

We get to Csénye village on this road after a 20 minutes long walk, cross the settlement on the winding asphalt strip, pass the Catholic church (Csénye village, church) and go on along the road. This road leads into the busy secondary road between Sárvár town and Ikervár village at the small Csényeújmajor farmstead. There is a pub at the junction but we don't find the stamp of the Blue Trail there, it is located at a small chapel beside the main road in 100 meters distance from the junction in southern direction on the route of the Blue Trail (Csényeújmajor farmstead, stamping place).

After stamping we go on beside the abandoned buildings of the former farmstead towards the bridge of Gyöngyös-patak (Gyöngyös Stream) beside the busy road, but we don’t cross the stream on the bridge, we turn left onto the wheel tracks leading on the embankment. We saw this creek already in Kőszeg, but now it is much bigger than before. A long hike begins here along the dam without any shad, across the fields. After 1.5 km we get to a water gate and bridge (Bridge over Gyöngyös-patak), we turn left here, go down from the embankment, and after 150 steps turn right in a junction. This road goes back to the Gyöngyös Stream, and we get to the embankment again.

After a kilometer long walk we reach another bridge, and turn left onto that road, which crosses the stream here. This is the long and straight Esze Tamás utca (Esze Tamás Street). We reach the first houses of Sárvár town after a few steps and walk on this asphalt road until the traffic roundabout, where the marks turn right onto the Nádasdy Ferenc út (Nádasdy Ferenc Street) and lead us to the castle of the town. The marks go on straight towards the railway station. If we don't want to finish the hike in Sárvár, it is not necessary to visit the station, we can follow the marks across the town. If we visit the station, we can ask for a stamp into our Blue Trail booklet at the ticket office of the station. If we walk farther, we can find the official stamp of the Blue Trail on the wall of a public toilet(!) at the car park of the Nádasdy castle (Sárvár town, castle), but we can stamp into the booklet anywhere in the town, in shops, in the post office or in the castle.

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After stamping it is worth visiting the old castle. The castle was mentioned first time in 1327, it was the property of the Hungarian king in that time, later it was owned by other noblemen. The castle became the property of the Nádasdy clan in the 15th century, they developed it, and defended the castle successfully against the Turkey troops many times. After the Turk times the owner of the castle, Ferenc Nádasdy got involved into the conspiracy against the Austrian Emperor (because the Turk occupation was followed by an Austrian occupation). But the conspiracy unfolded, Nádasdy was executed and the castle was sequestrated from the family. The owners of the castle changed often again, but didn't happen bigger renovation works on the walls of the fort. Similar to Kőszeg the castle of Sárvár is one of those forts, which survived successfully the Turkey times, and the Austrian occupation. The name of the town: Sárvár means “Muddy Castle” in English, and refers to the fact, that this fort stood among the bogs of the wide floodplain of Rába river, so it was not easy to occupy it! Now we can find many historical exhibitions among its walls. (Video about the medieval condition of the castle)

The Blue Trail passes the fort and crosses the park (it is located in the former, wide moat of the castle) on gravel promenades under big plane trees. Later we turn again onto the streets of the town at the far side of the park and after the old, abandoned building of the watermill we reach again the embankment of Gyöngyös-patak. We walk a little while on a promenade along it, later cross the stream on a bridge. We stand at the edge of a building estate here, we turn right at the first building and cross a grassy meadow beside the houses. We pass small football and tennis courts, and a few minutes later reach the Csónakázótó (Rowing Lake) at the far side of the field and continue the hike on the gravel promenade at the shore of the Rowing Lake.

The Blue Trail goes around the western part of the lake system, cross the canals on small wooden bridges, later cut through a little forest patch and arrives back to the shore of the Rowing Lake again. The trail leads farther at the lakeside, it goes around the easternmost lake, pass by the fence of the camping and turn right at the first dwelling houses onto the Markusovszky utca (Markusovszky Street). We reach the main street at the end of the Markusovszky utca, turn right here and walk on the pavement beside the fence of the spa.

The Blue Trail leaves the town at the bridge of the Rába, we cross the river and after a few steps reach the roundabout at the car park of a Tesco hipermarket. We can fill our food and drink reserves here for the next days. After shopping we continue the hike along the main road. Fortunately there are marked cycling lanes on both sides of the road, because it is very busy! We walk across the wide floodplain of Rába, later we get to the foot of the first hill. The small church of Hegyközség stands here, we turn left at the junction of asphalt roads and slowly climb the hill on the minor road (Hegyközség village, road crossing). After a quarter hour long walk we reach the very busy new main road number 84 (Crossing of the main road no. 84). Our minor road crosses it, but unfortunately there isn’t any crosswalk or traffic lamps in the junction! We have to cross the main road very attentively!!

Our narrow asphalt road continues in the forest beyond the junction, and after about ten minutes we get to a crossing dirt road. We turn right here, pass the metal barrier and go farther on the dirt road of the long, straight cut-line. We walk until the end of the cut-line and reach the fields at the far side of the forest about a half an hour later. The dirt road unexpectedly finishes here, the signs lead us left, at the border of the forest and the arable field. Initially we follow the painted signs on the edge of the cultivated area, later wheel tracks begin beside the trees, our heading is approximately eastern here. The dirt road cuts through another forest patch, meantime we cross the embankment of the closed and demolished Sárvár-Batyk railway line. The route of the former railway is hardly visible among the trees, but our map show it exactly. Later we will cross it still many times during the hike.

After a few minutes we leave the forest, turn right after the outermost trees and continue the walk at the edge of the woods and a wide, flowery meadow without any path or tracks. We reach an asphalt road at the far edge of the grassy field, walk a few hundred steps left on the road and at the next junction turn right onto a well trodden dirt road. This road runs on the border of the forest, there is a wide meadow on its left side. After a few steps we have to leave the road following the painted signs located on the trees and climb a small, grassy hillside. The small Calvary Chapel of Sitke village and the Ság-hegy (Ság Mountain) appear in the distance above the roofs of the settlement.

The marked path descends across the grassy field to the chapel (Sitke village, Calvary church), the marks are painted onto the lonely standing trees on the meadow. We reach grassy wheeltrackes at the fence of the chapel (generally the gate of the chapel is closed), turn onto this road and after some steps we enter the forest. The dirt road climbes back onto the low hill among the trees and reaches a junction of dirt roads at a small shrine. We go on straigh, and reach the edge of the cultivated fields soon. The dirt road runs at the border of the fields and the weekend gardens of Hercseg-hegy (Hercseg Hill). After the next junction of dirt roads we pass the spoil-banks of the Alginite mine on the right side, cross the fields on the embankment of the already mentioned former railway line, finally we reach the first houses of Gérce village in a quarter hour. We can stamp into our Blue Trail booklet either at the Mayor's office, where the box of the stamp is located on a lamp post (address: 49 Kossuth utca, Gérce) or in the yard of the food shop and restaurant named Kismackó (Gérce village, Kismackó grocery) in the centre of the village (address: 91 Kossuth utca, Gérce). Both places are on the route of the Blue Trail.

We continue the walk on the main street of the village, after a few minutes the marks turn right, on a narrower street, which climb onto a small hill beside the cemetery of the village. If we turn back on this road, we can see the Ság-hegy (Ság Mountain) in the distance. Unfortunately the Blue Trail doesn’t go closer to this mountain, but we will meet with similar extinct volcanoes later, with the mountains of the Tapolcai-medence (Basin of Tapolca) at Lake Balaton. After the cemetery the asphalt surface finishes, the dirt road passes the football pitch of the village and we hike on it until the main road.

We cross again the busy highway number 84 (we already met with it at the border of Sárvár town, and its traffic is the same here), and go farther on a narrow asphalt road, which begins on the other side of the highway. This road leads towards the Farkas-erdő (Farkas Forest, it means Wolf Forest) and we reach the Rózsáskerti forester’s lodge after a few minutes. The lodge stands at the border of the forest beside the road. We can find the small steel box of the Blue Trail’s stamp on the corner of the fence beside the road.

After stamping we continue our hike on the asphalt road through the Farkas-erdő. After about 500 meters the marks of the Blue Trail leave the road and visit the tomb of the Scherg married couple on a short path. Lőrinc Scherg was a German forester, but he spent the bigger part of his life here, in Hungary and founded the Farkas-erdő with his work on the former grassy pastureland of Kisalföld (Little Hungarian Plain).

After the tomb the path turns back onto the narrow asphalt road and here begins its four kilometers long, straight section across the forest. After a quarter an hour we reach the next place of interest: the Clearing of Banya Trees. The 300 years old oak trees felt down in 1995 in a huge storm, their remains lie on the grassy ground of the clearing. It is interesting, that they stood here on the grassy plain already 200 years before the establishment of the forest and they gave shad for the shepherds!

If we continue the hike from the clearing, we will get to the former Hidegkúti hunter’s lodge after an hour long walk. The straight, narrow asphalt road finishes at the gate of the well-kept garden, we can see the big buildings of the new conference centre far among the oak trees. The small box of the Blue Trail’s stamp is located on the wooden fence after its corner, close to the gate of the grassy yard.

After stamping we continue the hike on dirt roads of cut-lines in the Farkas-erdő. We change our directions many times among the parts of the chessboard-like forest, sometimes we cross barriers of electric fences. Foresters protect the young trees with this type of fences against the animals of the forest. The electric fence is feeded with high voltage pulses in every 5-10 seconds. The solar panel and the control electronics are usually on a high tree beside the fenced area. Touching of this type of fence is not dangerous, but very unpleasant! We can operate these gates very easy with the isolated black handles of the electric lines (unhook them and after the crossing of the fence back). We reach the gravel road leading towards Káld village at the remains of the Fallen oak named Avasi (Avasi öreg tölgy). It lies beside the wheel tracks and it is an interesting thing, that the diameter of the trunk is bigger, than the height of a grown man! We turn onto the gravel road after the fallen oak tree and get to Káld village after an hour long walk.

First we pass the football pitch and the cemetery of the settlement, later we reach the centre on the long and straight József Attila utca (József Attila Street). We turn right onto the main street, and arrive to the house of Korona Pub (Káld village, korona Pub) after a few steps. The metal box of the stamp is located on the wall in the pub, in front of the bar. If the pub is closed, there is another stamp in its box on the fence of the elementary school of the village (address: 1 Rákóczi Ferenc utca, Káld). After stamping we continue our walk and leave the village on the Rákóczi Ferenc utca (Rákóczi Ferenc Street), which is parallel with the József Attila utca, but our direction is opposite of the earlier, we walk towards southwest now.

At the last houses of the settlement we enter the forest again, but after a half an hour long walk we reach the grassy fields. The dirt road goes farther in a straight line, but we have to turn left here (Road junction at the fields), towards south onto hardly visible wheel tracks. These tracks cross the field and reach again a forest after twenty minutes. Here we turn onto a wide gravel road and climb a low hill in the forest. After a little col we climb another hill, later the road turns towards south and leaves the woods. We reach a wide, cultivated area, our straight dirt road crosses it, and after a half an hour long walk the first houses of Hosszúpereszteg village appear in front of us. We go along the Arany János utca (Arany János Street) and ten minutes later we get to the busy main road number 8. We have to cross it in the junction, unfortunately there isn’t any crosswalk here! The street of the settlement continues on the other side of the highway and we reach the Catholic church of the village soon (Hosszúpereszteg village, road crossing). The grey steel box of the stamp is located on the fence of the church.

After a short rest we can go farther. We continue our hike on the main street of the village, after the last houses of Hosszúpereszteg the asphalt road climbes a hill, passes the water tower of the village and enter the forest. Some minutes later we turn right onto a good, well trodden dirt road. Strange, fish-shaped road signs show the appropriate direction towards the Szajki-tavak (Lakes of Szajk) here (Turning away from the asphalt road). The road descends softly from the hill, finally we reach a „T” junction. The Blue Trail turns left here and we walk farther till the small settlement of Szajk on the dirt road. There are many pubs and restaurants in the centre of this small holiday resort, we will find the small metal box of the Blue Trail stamp in the centre of the settlement on a lamp post (Szajki forester's lodge), beside the gate of the Szajki tóvendéglő és fogadó (Lake Restaurant and Inn of Szajk).

The lakes are well-known among the Hungarian anglers, the bigger part of the lakes is for the fishing, but there is a lake for the rowing and swimming, as well. The eleven lakes were created with the damming of the small Csörgető-patak (Csörgető Brook) in year 1931, but at present only the northern six lakes are maintained, the southern part is abandoned, here the lakes are already covered by reeds, the nature recapture slowly that area. If we continue our hike, we get around the big, fenced garden of the forester's lodge and walk back to the wheel tracks leading on the shore of the southern, abandoned lakes. The rarely used road leads among the outermost trees of the forest, sometimes we can see the water of the lakes among the reed fields.

Later we turn left and here begins our long hike in the cut-lines of the Szajki-erdő. We take rectangular turns among the parts of the chessboard-like forest similar to the Farkas-erdő, this is the main feature of the Hungarian artificial plain-forests, which are planted to protect the soil against the strong winds. We take the bigger part of the distance through the forest on wheel-tracks, rarely we turn onto dirt roads or narrow asphalt roads. The distance is about 14 km between Szajk village and the border of the forest, we can complete this section in four-five hours. The painted marks are rare on the long, straight sections of cut-lines, but they show exactly the turning points on the corners. We reach the very worn, potholed, narrow access road of the former railway station of Ötvös village at the far side of the forest (Worn asphalt road).

We turn left onto the worn asphalt road here and get to the minor road between Ötvös and Szalapa villages after a ten minutes long walk. We turn onto that road, cross the railway on a bridge, and after a few hundred steps we turn left onto wheel track, which leads into patch of the Dergecsi-erdő (Dergecsi Forest). We can find the stamp of the Blue Trail on an oak tree standing on the right side of the tracks after a few dozen steps (Külső-erdő Forest, stamping place). After stamping we cross this forest patch on its cut-lines, after about a half an hour we will reach another asphalt road at the far side of the woods.

This asphalt road follows the border of the forest, later it reaches the cultivated fields. If we have good luck and the weather is clean enough, we can notice the far Castle of Sümeg, if we see in south-eastern direction! The distance is about ten kilometres until the Castle Hill of Sümeg as the crow flies (and about twelve on the route of the Blue Trail), but we can see already the target of our long hike! After about one kilometer we turn right from the asphalt road onto a straight dirt road, which crosses the arable fields. We will reach another asphalt road after a half an hour long walk, here we turn left onto it and walk towards the distant houses of Mihályfa village. We walk only a few hundred steps on asphalt, still before the village we turn left, onto another dirt road at high poplar trees and continue the walk among the fields. Now we are on the original, bare plain of the Kisalföld, the whole county was similar before the planting of the forests! If we turn round, our look can’t find any obstacle until the far horizon!

Finally we reach the small Kisvásárhely village after a half an hour long walk. We find the box of the Blue Trail's stamp on its small box, which is mounted onto the wooden belfry of the settlement (Kisvásárhely village, bellfry). After the village we continue our hike on dirt roads, between forest patches and cultivated areas, if we turn left, we will see often the Castle of Sümeg and the Castle Hill already in their full beauty. After a half an hour long walk we reach the main road leading towards Sümeg and we continue our hike beside this busy asphalt strip. (Asphalt road to Sümeg). The highway leads exactly towards the high Castle Hill! As we walk beside the road, we get to closer and closer to the castle and we can see more and more details of it. Finally we reach the first houses of Sümeg, cross the railway line and turn right onto the first street of the small town. This road leads to the building of the railway station, where we can put a stamp into our Blue Trail booklet (Sümeg town, railway station). The metal box of the Blue Trail's stamp is located on a wooden pillar at the platform side of the building. We finished here the hike through the wide plain of the Kisalföld, the next one will be the hilly country of Balaton-felvidék (Highland of Balaton) in the following chapter.

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