Bükk National Park – Vel’ká nad Ipl’om

Got up at 5am to watch the sun rise from the top of the lookout tower.

From Bankut down to Mályinka was a pleasent 10km downhill ride. Then the terrain was rolling hill-ish, but the road mostly followed the valleys. Cycled towards Ozd on roads that weren’t in OpenStreetMap yet.

Turned south-west in Ozd, to follow the Hungarian-Slovakian border. Crossing it was my primary goal, but there were no paths or roads going to Slovakia for quite some kilometers there. It wasn’t even noon yet but temperatures had already peaked at over 37°C.

At 12:30pm and after exactly 80 kilometers of cycling I finally ended up in the neighbouring country. The border is easy to miss, though. Both countries have implemented the Schengen agreement and there is no visible border anymore (safe for a ‘Welcome to Slovakia’-sign).

Slovakian backroads seem at least as quiet as the hungarian ones, a bit more deteriorating, maybe.
Had a late lunch right outside Fil’akovo. 10 Euros for 3 starters, 1 main dish and drinks – not too bad. Had no Euros and paid in Hungarian Forint – and was ripped off.

Turned south and looked for a lake to have a swim. The first one shown on the map didn’t exist in reality. The second one did, near the village of Vel’ká nad Ipl’om. There’s lots of angling folks here but I managed to find a lovely secluded spot right at the shore. Unfortunately, I don’t have a fishing rod. Anyway, pasta with pesto is yummy, too!

Distance: 130km

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