In the recent period, the trips of our Hiking Club were washed out by rain twice, but now, defying the obligations of the written graduation exams, the weather finally turned favorable, and we aimed for a previously unvisited area of the Zselic. It was a good opportunity to combine pleasure with utility, as on May 9, a festive service departed from Almamellék to Sasrét with the Zselici Csühögő narrow-gauge railway. Perhaps we owe the kind Reader a bit of an explanation regarding the regional words: well, the csühögő—called pámvádli in other regions (in some places the word pánvádli is used for the very same vehicle running on rails)—is actually a narrow-gauge railway. The Zselici Csühögő is one of the most interesting Hungarian narrow-gauge railways for several reasons. Its greatest uniqueness is that its track gauge is only 600 mm. This is considered very narrow: in Hungary, the majority of forest railways are 760 mm, so the one in Almamellék is one of the narrowest-gauge passenger narrow-gauge railways operating on a regular schedule in the country. And on such a track, cars were first pulled by horses, then animal power was quickly replaced by locomotives. Yet, because of its speed, the Southern Transdanubian regional word csöszörgés is perhaps the most fitting expression for the progress of the narrow-gauge railway. The other interesting fact is that from the very beginning, the rail-running train carried not only timber but people as well. The line, built in 1901, was originally created for the forestry of the Biedermann estate, but locals used it too: for example, children going to the Sasrét school traveled with it. This was not customary for every forest railway.
Our tour guide, Máté Varga, once again possessed an abundance of information about the Biedermann family, who developed the infrastructure with unique social responsibility at the beginning of the last century, greatly easing the everyday lives of those living in the area. The descendants of the wealthy landowner family are still alive; a gap-filling cultural history book is being prepared with their family member living in Switzerland, written by Piroska Simonné Pallos, retired associate professor and cultural historian of the MATE Rippl Rónai Faculty of Arts (whom, to our great joy, we actually met at the May Day celebration organized for the 125th anniversary of the narrow-gauge railway). The story of the tiny train running on narrow rails starting in 1901 is quite old and winding; it is special to this day because of its atmosphere, as it travels among the beautiful hills of the Zselic, passing by fishponds, forests, and ancient beechwoods to its terminus, Sasrét. Which, however, was previously known as Sásrét [Sedge-meadow], but according to legend, the word sas [eagle] was considered much more prestigious by the locals than sás [sedge], so with the accent mark worn away, the nature reserve located on the border of Baranya and Somogy counties became known by the name of the noble bird of prey. In Sasrét, there is also a hunting lodge and a forest school; and our destination is also located here, the beautiful, centuries-old ancient beechwood. The area received the name ancient beechwood from the Biedermanns, who planted a forest around the trees that were already old back then, out of respect for them.
The tour warranted a presence from all of us, we missed it very much! It was good to escape the everyday graduation exam stress. Our weekend outing was informative once again, spent in an unadulterated “hiking club” atmosphere, together with parents and friends. We were happy to see each other, we talked, we laughed, we tried the handcar, and we looked at an exhibition on the history of the area. We watched with admiration the dog demonstrations by foresters and hunters with their wonderfully clever four-legged friends. We drank spring water, from the Alma Spring, which is responsible for the water supply of the flora and fauna found in the area. We wandered and even got lost on the Wonder Deer educational trail (nothing like this has ever happened to us in history so far if Máté was there) and looked at the centuries-old beeches in awe. We stood around a small grass snake, trying to herd it off the path to protect it.
With my dear fellow musician, our “adopted groupmate”, Tomi, the drummer of Könyvespolc [Bookshelf], we also managed to (almost) clarify such important questions as whether our band should cover the song “Adj valamit” [Give Me Something] or the opus titled “Nekem nem elég” [Not Enough for Me] by Zorán in our next project.
And which lyric is better? I am putting it to a vote—you decide! We couldn’t manage to during the hike either…
“Give some of the joy, which is only as much as you reaching the finish line too” – our Saturday hike abounded in joy, it was good to experience it with the team.
“A smile is not enough for me, silence is not enough for me, for me the only thing that is enough is if it means tranquility” – we all returned home with perfect inner peace.
We are looking forward to the next one! The photo report of our trip can be found in the gallery.
Levente Sipos