“I don’t think I’ve ever eaten so much in a week”

10/10/08
Met my fellow travellers at Edinburgh Airport, at 5.30 in the morning; Mary Legg and Kirsty Rosie are Highland Council Rangers in Caithness; Kim Safianoff works for the National Trust for Scotland in Edinburgh, and Tess Maclean works at the Satrosphere in Aberdeen. Uneventful flight to Gatwick, then the usual hassle of going through security…flight to Budapest. Met at the arrivals gate by a fellow with a sign saying “ICHI”…all shook his hand and introduced ourselves, turned out he was just a taxi driver, who drove us to Ipelsky Sokolec. We arrived at the Honey Farm Hotel, where we were staying, and no-one seemed to be expecting us; there were three coachloads of Hungarian tourists buying honey and getting the grand tour….eventually Arpad, the owner, arrived and handed us our room keys. Got settled into our rooms then went for dinner, and Arpad explained that the hotel was actually closed for the season, but his friend Josef had arranged for us to stay. Next door to the hotel is a small industrial unit, where Arpad imports honey from all over the EU, and packages and distributes it. Slovakia is due to join the Euro zone in December, though Hungary and the Czech Republic are not…Arpad is a bit worried about this; at the moment he accepts Hungarian Forints as well as Slovakian Crowns, and seems to think the Euro will complicate things. At this point Josef and his daughter Ida arrived; they were to be our guides for the week. They arranged to pick us up in the morning, then left.
We went for a short walk in the gathering dusk, spotting a stork’s nest…apparently every village has at least one; they erect special poles for them to nest on, to keep them from using electricity poles.

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11/10/08

After an enormous breakfast Ida arrived with a driver in the minibus, and we set off for Banska Stiavnica. This is a former mining town, which produced gold and silver, but the last mine closed a couple of years ago.
First we visited the mining museum, outside the town. Here they have an excellent collection of mining machinery from various periods; a big pumping machine used for removing water from the mine, which was in situ, and other bits and pieces from other mines in the area. There was also a collection of tiny vehicles; diggers, bulldozers and a wee engine and trucks, all designed to operate in a six foot high tunnel.
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A series of information boards relate the geological history of the area, and in fact the history of the Earth; it would take hours to read all the information on them. Sadly we did not have time to join the full tour, in which visitors are issued helmets and waterproofs and taken down into the actual mine.
We then headed into the town to meet our guide, Tomas, who spent the next hour and a half guiding us around the town, starting in the main square, bordered by 16th century houses which belonged to the German mining experts who developed the first mines in the area. These are being restored to their former glory after years of neglect.
Tomas showed us the old fort, built to repel the invading Turks, the ‘knocking tower’, which was used to signal shift time in the mines, and the synagogue, now abandoned.
As Tomas explained, now the mines have all closed there is not much industry left in Banska Stiavnica, so they hope to build up the tourist industry. People from Bratislava have begun to buy up holiday homes here.


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We walked around the town, visiting the botanical gardens, and the new fortress on top of the hill, and had lunch in a traditional Slovakian restaurant, which was full of Hungarian mining students, all in uniform. After a brief look at the ruins of a Dominican monastery, recently excavated while building a new hotel, we headed up the valley to a reservoir, one of several in the valley, rather reminiscent of West Yorkshire, where every valley was dammed to provide water to power the mills; the same here, the water power was to drive the pumps in the mines. The reservoir is now a tourist attraction where people swim in the summer.
Back to the hotel for dinner



12/10/08

Today we visited the Bukk national park, on the Hungarian side of the Ipel watershed, to see the Fossil Nature Conservation Area at Ipolytarnoc. Outside the brand new visitor centre are five enormous fossil tree stumps, excavated from a coal mine near Bratislava, and carefully preserved and moved here. We met our guide, Imre, a park ranger, who led us (and about thirty imageHungarian visitors) along the trail, pointing out features of notice. Firstly marine sediments deposited as the ancient Tethys ocean closed, then the volcanic tuffs left by the eruptions that buried the area 20 million years ago, burying and preserving a whole landscape of tropical forest.
First we saw the silicified tree, 100 metres tall, which has been excavated, then in a specially constructed building was the real  treasure, an ancient land surface revealed by removing the volcanic layers…a waterhole, with footprints of extinct rhinoceroses, sabre tooth tigers, giant hyenas, three-toed horses, deer, and birds.



Another layer reveals an ancient beach covered in shark teeth. Interpretation boards explain all the geology, in Slovak and Hungarian as well as English.
We then went to the mountain village of Holloko for lunch. This is a UNESCO World Heritage site, and as we arrived a wine/harvest festival was in full swing, folk in traditional dress, bands, horses and carts…after lunch we climbed up to the castle, before heading back to the hotel. 
               
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The main impression of the countryside is of huge, prairie-like fields, full of maize, sunflowers and oilseed rape; this is a result of the collective farms established by the communist authorities. After the collapse of communism these farms were returned to the landlords, and many have become owned by agribusiness firms and Danish pig farms. The villages are composed of traditional houses, close together but each with a long strip of garden or smallholding; everyone seems to grow vegetables and grapevines. Apple trees everywhere loaded with fruit; Walnut trees also abundant, even planted as avenues along roads, and we saw several people filling bags with the nuts….


13/10/08

First a visit to the Traditional Skills Centre at Salka, where young people are taught the traditional rural skills which are in danger imageof dying out; local old people come to teach these skills; at first voluntarily, but now they are paid for their time. We saw girls making ‘corn dollies’, and were given a demonstration of rug weaving on a traditional loom.


They also make baskets, hurdles, jam, pickles and felt. We also saw the new house the Ipel’ Valley Tourism Association has bought, and is rebuilding to expand the centre.
After lunch we visited a bee farm near Sahy, and were guided round by the beekeeper¸ Alexander. First he insisted we drink large quantities of his home made honey wine, then showed us round his hives. He has about 84 hives, 9 million bees, and they are not at all aggressive; he led us into his bee wagon, with 56 hives and a corridor in the middle. He opened a hive and took out some frames to show us the honey in cells. Without smoke or any protective gear…surprising to a Skye beekeeper! He gets acacia honey, mixed flower honey and ‘forest’ honey, depending on the time of year.
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Forest honey is good for anyone allergic to pollen, as it is produced by the bees from aphid sugar secretions, not flowers. Alexander also breeds and sells queens- 1200-1500 a year, and produces, as well as honey, propolis, (an anti-fungal substance the bees secrete and coat their hive with), beeswax, royal jelly and even bee venom for medical use.
Back to Ipelsky Sokolec and another huge dinner.


14/10/08


A walk through a forest to the ruins of Cabrad castle. We started in Turkey Oak forest (Quercus cerrus) and as we descended the valley the trees turned to Hornbeam (Carpinus betulus) and Beech(Fagus sylvatica) forest. We were on a forestry trail; these woods are managed for timber. Arriving at the castle, which was built to deter Turks, but was burnt down, we had lunch, provided by Erika at the hotel….another big meal! The woods are full of deer and Wild Boar, and signs of their rooting around were everywhere. Apparently this is a very popular destination, though we saw no-one, it being too late in the season. A youth group has spent the last few years tidying up the enormous ruin of the castle, cutting back scrub, and they are re-constructing the gatehouse. It is hoped that this walk will form part of a 35km trail for walkers, cyclists and horse riders and attract more tourists to the Ipel’ area.
    
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15/10/08

After an early breakfast we travelled north for 2 hours to the Vydrovo Valley (‘otter valley’) to see the forest trail at Cierny Balog, near Bansky Bystrica. In 1944 this area was the focus of an uprising against the occupying germans, which was ruthlessly crushed, but was a big factor in kindling Slovakian nationalism after the war.
The forest trail is an excellent introduction to all aspects of the forestry industry, and the ecology of the forest. So far there are 60-odd information boards, in Slovakian and English, describing everything from the role of trees in producing oxygen, to the latest harvesting machines. They also have a small enclosure with (not very) wild boars, who looked rather well-fed. Unfortunately the forest museum was closed, and so was the narrow-gauge railway which used to carry logs out of the forest, and which nowadays carries tourists down the valley.
On the way back south we stopped to see the 17th century wooden church at Hronsek.
This was built at a time when Slovakia was being ‘recatholicised’ by the Jesuits, having embraced Lutherism in the previous century. They were only allowed to build a church under the following conditions: It was to be of wood, using no iron nails; it was to be outside the town, have no entrance from the main street, and have no tower. It also had to be built in one year. All of these conditions were met, and the result is an amazing construction, almost like an upturned boat .
There were originally five of these wooden churches in the area, but the others were burned down during WW2.

16/10/08


Another early breakfast, then we walked down to the local school, and met the English class. We were expecting 8-10 year olds, but evidently junior school goes up to 15, and we had the oldest class. Each of us gave a short talk on our work in the UK; I talked about the sea eagle reintroduction project, Mary and Kirsty about Caithness, Kim about the work of NTS, and Tess was going to demonstrate a nice messy experiment involving a bottle of coke and some mentos, but we ran out of time. The teacher, Zuzsa, translated for us, and some of the kids asked questions

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Then we went with Ida to see the Kingfisher Centre, the headquarters of the Ipel’ Union. This was a Pioneer camp under the communist regime, but has been neglected since the collapse. The Ipel’ Union have renovated a series of wooden chalets, and are starting on the half-built big concrete building which it is hoped will be a conference venue and environmental education centre. We walked up the hill through a turkey oak wood to the watchtower, which has a splendid view over the Ramsar site at Poiplie


This is the last remaining untouched stretch of the old meander system of the river Ipel’, the rest of it’s course having been canalised in the 1960s. There is a gap of 6 km in the railway network here, removed for military reasons in the 60s, and the Ipel’ Union have been campaigning to have it rebuilt, to relieve the road congestion and heavy traffic through the area, and restore a direct link between Budapest and Krakow. So far they have met with political disinterest, compounded by the fact that the E77 motorway has been built along one km of the old trackbed.



17/10/08

We said goodbye to Erika, provider of our stupendous breakfasts, dinners and packed lunches, and travelled with Josef and Ida to Esztergom, a medieval town on the Hungarian side of the Danube. The bridge here was blown up by the retreating Germans in 1945, and was finally rebuilt with EEC help in 2001! Until then there was just a ferry.
We spent a couple of hours looking round St Stephen’s cathedral, paying 250 ft to climb the spiral staircase to the cupola, for a grand view of the Danube.

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We also visited the treasury, which as well as sumptuous robes and mitres belonging to the clergy, contained various relics of saints…the skull of St Stephen, and thighbones, arm bones and sundry bits of holy men….including a bit of Thomas Beckett. All in exquisite gold cask
 
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After a final meal in a traditional Hungarian restaurant it was time to head to Budapest and the airport, where we said goodbye to our hosts, Josef and Ida.

CONCLUSIONS

In Skye I work for RSPB for part of the year, at the Aros Visitor Centre in Portree, Showing people sea eagles. I also work as a tourist guide several times a year, taking people from cruise ships round Skye on a coach.
Some aspects of tourism are very different in the Ipel’ valley….in Skye we have a small, well defined area to work in, easily covered in a day or two. The Ipel’ watershed contains a large number of different attractions, not to mention the fact that it is part of two different countries!
In Skye we have a very small fossil museum at Staffin, largely run by one enthusiastic local; ( www.staffin-museum.co.uk ) whereas the fossil site at Ipolytarnoc is clearly a much larger enterprise, and attracts many more visitors.
Tomas in Banska Stiavnica was in a similar situation to mine; he only does tourist guiding part-time, and has a regular job as a translator. He clearly enjoys the guiding, and is very proud of his Slovakian heritage.
The Ipel’ Union is an impressive organisation, trying to co-ordinate environmental issues in the area…We have the ‘Skye and Lochalsh Environmental Forum’ which is doing the same sort of thing, but we are not having to tackle the legacy of 50 years of communism!
It was very useful to see how things are done in a different part of the world, and I hope we will have the opportunity to repay the hospitality some time, and Josef and Ida can come to Skye for a visit!