Walking in Hungary. Tom Chrystal

Considering the sensitivity of these frontiers during the Cold War it was quite an achievement. The MTSZ installed stamping points along the various stages of the route (they can still be seen today) and a certificate was issued to walkers who completed all 1093km (675 miles).

      Regéc Castle, Zemplén, Walk 17

      In the early 1980s Pál Rockenbauer walked the National Blue Route with a film crew and the outcome was the very popular television documentary One Million Steps Around Hungary. Rockenbauer took the opportunity to highlight the unavailability of basic walking gear and the lack of budget accommodation along the route for walkers. He was also exasperated by signs of rural decline such as vandalism, litter, the depopulation of villages due to the Communist government’s centralisation policies, and insensitive planning by local authorities.

      The political changes in 1988 prompted the MTSZ to suggest a commemoration walk for the 950th anniversary of Saint Stephen’s death and the fiftieth anniversary of the Saint Stephen’s Way. The event was approved and the frontier controls relaxed in order for the two groups of walkers to start at different ends and meet at the middle in Dobgókő as their predecessors had done in 1938.

      In 1995 the National Blue Route was officially connected to the E3, the pan-European long-distance path linking Spain with Turkey. Unfortunately the link is broken at the Austrian and Slovakian borders, where it is necessary to come off route and use an official border crossing via the main road. A few Hungarians do walk the entire National Blue Route, which also crosses the Great Plain, and have the badge to prove it. Many of the stages linking the hill ranges can be boring or involve lengthy road bashing, but if you are interested, contact the headquarters of the MTSZ (see Appendix 4) or visit the Cartographia map shop to obtain a copy of the official booklet, Országos Kéktúra: Útvonalvázlat és Igazoló Füzet. It has spaces to stamp the stages, but take your own inkpad as the ones at the stamping points dry out. Cartographia also publishes Országos Kéktúra, an illustrated guide to the whole route. The text is in Hungarian, but its 1:40 000 maps are invaluable for their coverage of all the stages.

      WALKS IN NORTHERN HUNGARY

THE AGGTELEK

      After the Treaty of Trianon, when Hungary’s borders were redrawn, Jenő Cholnoky, the Hungarian geographer, condemned the outcome as ‘a geographical absurdity, which history will deservedly condemn’. Without adding weight to revisionist claims, the Slovak-Hungarian border, which divides the Gömör- Torna karst in two, is at the very least a geological absurdity. Millions of years ago the hills on both sides of today’s frontier began as sediments covered in a tropical sea. After the water receded, the exposed limestone was eroded, creating a landscape of karst forest, alpine meadows, sink-holes and dolinas. The social and political consequences of the redrawing of Hungary’s borders are still being played out, but the national park authorities in both Slovakia and Hungary have risen above it to co-operate in order to protect this unique region. For an idea of the extent of the whole karst buy the 1:50 000 map Aggteleki Nemzeti Park/Slovenský Kras (published by Paulus), available at the Aggtelek and Jósvafő visitor centres and bookshops in Budapest.