Day 3
One final stop-off in Romania to see Corvin Castle, which translates as Raven Castle, and then we were on our way towards Hungary.
Along the way, we passed a graveyard unlike anything I’d ever seen. It went on for miles, packed tightly with graves. I joked to my husband that you’d need to hire a bike or horse to find your relative’s grave. And a map.
Once we passed over into Hungary, what we noticed instantly was how flat it was compared to Romania. Fields stretched for miles, with no mountains framing the journey. Birds of prey sat watch on hay bales beside the motorway, while vast fields of sunflowers, now fully mature, all faced eastwards. Their heads were bowed, as though they were mourning. Perhaps it was the combination of their blackened forms and the way they stood in their thousands, but there was something strangely funereal about them.
Aside from these roadside quirks, this wasn’t the most inspiring leg of the journey.
Eventually, though, we arrived at Bükk National Park and our third campsite near a village called Répáshuta.
I’d read that Hungary doesn’t have the same stray dog issue as Romania, so we prayed for a peaceful night.
After dinner, August’s full Sturgeon Moon shone down on us.
We watched the sky, picking out planets and constellations, satellites and planes, and listened to all manner of comings and goings in the forest all around us, most of which we had to imagine because we couldn’t see what was making the noises.
There wasn’t a whisper of wind. The clear sky lent the night a freshness, but not coldness.
It was beautiful.
Then our hopes of a peaceful night were shattered by The Barkening.
Apparently, lots of villagers have dogs that are triggered by wildlife wandering in and around their property – and oh boy do they like to notify each other of such security breaches.
Around the same time, a Eurasian Scops Owl decided to give us several demonstrations of its extraordinary clown-whistle call. Maybe he was grumpy about The Barkening too.
At this point in the trip, sleep deprivation was beginning to feel like par for the course.
R. H. DIXON 