Remarks:

The places written with bold characters in the text show the marked places in the Route-Altitude diagram.

You can find detailed hiking maps about this section of the Blue Trail in the Map Chapter.

I have taken more dozen panoramic views along the more than 1100km long route of the National Blue Trail. They are collected in the chapter named Panoramic views, but I put links to the pictures in the text. If you click on the links, the views will open in a new window.

There are short videos about the medieval condition of the Hungarian castles, fortresses on the Youtube. I have collected them in the Castles, fortressess chapter, but I put links to the videos in the text, as well. If you click on the links, the videos will start in new windows.

If you click on the small pictures in the text, they will open in bigger size.

We stamp in our Blue Trail booklets in the Móritz Pub and begin the hike on the Vasút Street towards the mountains towering in front of us. The marked route of the Blue Trail reaches the railway after a few minutes, climbs to the platform of the railway stop on stairs and crosses the rails at the farther end of the weedy platform (Mátraverebély village, railway crossing). There is a Blue Trail’s stamp in its metal box equipped onto an old tree standing at the railway crossing. If we have forgotten to stamp in the pub, or it was closed, we can do it here. A dirt road begins on the other side of the rails, it crosses a bushy forest patch and reaches the fields soon.

The potholed dirt road continues as grassy wheel tracks, we walk about thousand steps towards a far forest strip. The road crosses it, and on the other side of the trees we have to notice that hardly used path, which branches off and starts towards southeast across the weedy field. We follow it and reach the forest after a few minutes. The path climbs continuously among the trees, we get to the end of the old forest after a quarter hour long ascent at the border of a new forest plantation. It is located on an about fifteen years old huge clear-cut, the trees of the new oak brushwood are already 4-5 metres tall. We continue the hike among them, the dirt road meanders first in level, later it begins to climb in the side of Kőerdő-tető Hill.

The ascent continues at the farther end of the plantation, in the old wood, but later we reach a small plateau, and notice the distant truncated cone shape of the Ágasvár Mountain. We will climb its shoulder! We can rest a few minutes, while we cross the forest of the plateau, but the dirt road begins to climb again, and reach the resting place in the side of Agyagos-tető Hill soon (Agyagos-tető Hill, resting place). It is worth taking a longer rest here, because we are about halfway towards the tourist house of Ágasvár! We stand here at the upper edge of a new oak plantation, a nice view opened towards the wide valley of Zagyva River a few years ago, but as the trees of the plantation grow, the panorama slowly disappears.

The ascent continues after the resting benches and the well trodden dirt road reaches the ridge of Csalános Hill after a quarter hour long climb. We walk here on the upper edge of another new clear-cut and glimpse the forest covered side of the Óvár Mountain (753 m) in front of us. The dirt road passes by the granite tombstone of a hunter, who died here during hunting in 2005, later we begin the final climb towards the tourist house at the branching of dirt roads. The ascent starts still in the old forest, later the road reaches the next clear-cut and the flat top of Ágasvár Mountain (789 m) appears on the left side.

The dirt road gets to the wide col between Ágasvár and Óvár Mountains after a quarter hour long, exhausting climb. Our dirt road joins into a more well-trodden another dirt road, but we only cross it and continue the climb on a narrow path. The ascent slowly disappears, we hike on the ridge between the mountains, but the marks join to us a few minutes later and the path bends right. We cross the wide col in the old forest and reach the grassy clearing of the tourist house after five minutes. The path finishes here, the route of the Blue Trail crosses the wide meadow and gets to the houses soon (Ágasvár tourist house).

The buildings stand alone in the forest far from the closest settlements. They get the water from a nearby spring, and because of the lack of electric net it has an own generator, which works only 2-3 hours after the sunset. The guestrooms are in the storey house, the caretaker with his family live in the smaller one. Hikers can obtain here a cheap accommodation, or they can use the buffet. The wife of the caretaker cooks hot meals on demand. There is a Blue Trail stamp in the buffet, another one is located on an information chart beside the houses.

The name of the meadow, where the houses stand, is Foton-rét (in English: Foton Meadow), it refers to that thing, that young astronomers keep their camp here every year, far from the civilisation, because the observation is almost perfect here, among the mountains, without the light pollution of populated places.

After the tourist house the Blue Trail continues in the southern side of the long ridge of Ágasvár Mountain, but the marks offer an alternative route by the climbing the peak towering above the houses and hike farther on the sharp ridge of the mountain. The marks leave the meadow and lead us in level in the mountainside on a very narrow path. There is a nice view among the trees into the long and deep valley of the meandering Csörgő-patak (Csörgő Brook), and after a quarter hour long hike we reach the place, where the path of the signs joins back to the route of the Blue Trail. It is worth taking a short detour on the path to the closest rock formation named Szamár-kő Rock (Donkey Rock), because a very nice panorama opens from that place towards the wide valley of Zagyva river, from where we climbed the Ágasvár!

Our route leads in the vicinity of the ridge, but the path became more comfortable, later it joins to a dirt road leading in the forest. We notice Mátraszentistván village through a clear-cut, later we reach the first houses of the settlement. The village lies in a wide valley and there is a nice view towards the ski slopes located on the opposite mountainside. We glimpse the tower of a church on the far ridge, beside the ski slopes, it is the Három falu temploma (Church of Three Villages), which is the common church of three neighbour villages: Mátraszentistván, Mátraszentlászló and Mátraszentimre. The name of the three settlements cherish the names of Hungarian kings and a prince, they lived in the 11th century. Szent István (Sankt Stephan) was the first Hungarian king, his son was Imre Prince, and Szent László (Sankt Ladislaus) had a big role in the building of the young Hungarian Kingdom.

Our route descends to the bottom of the valley on the Virág Street, crosses the Hutahelyi-patak (Hutahelyi Brook) among the houses and after a little climb reaches the bus stop located on a small square beside the Vidróczki Csárda Restaurant (Mátraszentistván village, Vidróczki csárda Restaurant). We find a Blue Trail stamp in its box on the lamp post beside the gate of the restaurant. We can keep a short rest on the benches of the bus stop, or visit the restaurant to eat something there. Unfortunately the restaurant is open only on weekends and bank holidays.

After the rest we continue the climb on the asphalt strip of Petőfi Sándor Street, pass by the building of 3 Patak Panzió (Guest House of Three Brooks), we find another Blue Trail stamp at the gate of the guest house. This steeply climbing street leads us until a wider asphalt road, which connects the neighbour villages together. The route of the Blue Trail turns onto it, we walk a few dozen steps towards west and immediately turn left onto the first branching street. We reach the main street of Mátraszentlászló village soon. The Blue Trail turns onto this street and the ascent continues towards the bus turning place of the settlement.

We reach the small square in five minutes, cross it and leave this small village behind us. The Blue Trail turns onto path, crosses ski slopes and climbs in the bushy hillside. A small meadow opens on the right side of the trail after a few minutes, it is worth taking a short detour to the grassy clearing, because a nice view opens backwards to Ágasvár Mountain and the eastern ridge of Cserhát Hills from that place.

Later the path goes together with a middle voltage line, reaches the fence of the observatory and climbs beside the stone fence until the main gate of the Piszkéstető Observatory (Piszkéstető Mountain, observatory). This is the biggest one in Hungary with its 102 cm mirror telescope on this 944 metres tall peak of the Mátra Mountains! The Blue Trail passes the gate of the observatory, and we continue the hike on a wide, promenade-like hiker path. As we walk, we can glimpse the domes of the telescopes among the trees, later the path leaves the long fence and turns into a cut-line. We walk already on a real promenade and encounter with lots of day trippers summertime. It means, we approach already to the holiday resort of Galyatető.

Later we reach the first houses at a small square, glimpse the TV broadcasting tower in front of us and turn onto a narrow asphalt road. This road leaves the square, ascends in the northern mountainside, we follow it until its end and continue the walk on a footpath. Our path leads again in the forest, cross the old beech forest of a wide col, and reach the brand new lookout tower in ten minutes.

The reconstruction of the old, more than fifty years old tower happened in 2015, the new tower is more than 10 metres higher, than the old one was. A beautiful round panorama opens from the top level of the tower, we can see the whole Mátra Mountains, and the villages laying at the feet of the mountains. It is worth throwing a glance in eastern direction, towards the Kékestető, which is the tallest peak of Hungary with its 1014 m height. This mountain will be our next target!

There is a Blue Trail stamp on the top level, equipped onto the lightning rod (don't use this stamp during thunderstorm!), but there are two others in the close Turistacentrum (Hiker Centre) beside the main gate of the building and on the yard, at the restaurant. The Hiker Centre is located beside the route of the Blue Trail, we can rest here, buy something in the buffet, but there are a long row of different buffets and restaurants beside the centre (Galyatető Mountain, stamping place). The multi-storey building of the Nagyszálló (Grand Hotel) towers on the other side of the square of the always crowded car park, it is perhaps too expensive to the wallet of a hiker, but we can find cheaper accommodation in the Hiker Centre. The lookout tower offers the cheapest one, because there is a sleeping place in the building. It is not free, hikers must pay its cost in the centre.

We leave the busy car park on a small road descending among the building, and get to the asphalt square of the lower (and generally almost empty) car park after a few hundred steps. It is less busy, than the other one, but we have to find the narrow path starting at its northern edge. We leave the crowded Galyatető behind us here, descend a few hundred steps in the thinned beech forest and reach the junction of hiker paths. The and marks turn right, towards south here, but we keep our heading and follow the marks and continue our walk in eastern direction. The route of the Blue Trail sinks slowly, but continuously in the forest of the ridge, we reach a wooden shelter and a resting place after a twenty minutes long comfortable walk.

We glimpse the big hairpin bend of the asphalt road leading towards Galyatető, but we don’t turn onto it, we continue our hike on the path. After a few hundred steps the footpath leaves the forest, and a nice panorama opens in front of us from the ridge towards the northern feet of the mountains. We continue the long descent on the upper edge of a huge clear-cut, the end of this slope is at the asphalt road. The path escorts it a little while, we have a permanent panorama to the small Parádsasvár village located at the feet of the mountains, later we climb a hillock beside the asphalt road. The path turns away from the road and after a small descent climbs the next mountain, the beech forest covered top of Vércverés. We have to watch the side of the forestry dirt road, because the metal box of the Blue Trail stamp is equipped on the pole of an information chart (Vércverés Mountain, stamping place).

The dirt road descends on the eastern side of Vércverés through a new clear-cut, later the Blue Trail follows the wavy ridge on paths and finally it climbs the forest covered back of Csór-hegy. There is no panorama from the top, but a very steep descent comes from the mountain to the road junction of Mátra-nyereg (Mátra Col). Here joins the asphalt road coming from Galyatető to the busy main road number 24, which crosses the main ridge of Mátra Mountains here. We walk through the big asphalt triangle of the junction and look for the path starting on the western side of the main road. This path escorts the busy road in a few metres distance, we reach the tourist house named Vörösmarty in ten minutes. This house is a cheap accommodation for hikers, its big advantage is its closeness to the Blue Trail. The box of the Blue Trail's stamp is located on the fence of the house, beside the gate (Vörösmarty guesthouse).

The route of the Blue Trail crosses the main road again in front of the house, so we continue the walk on the right side of the asphalt strip. This path escorts the road for a while, later it begins to descend into the deep valley of Nagy-Hidas-patak Creek. We cross the creek on a wooden pedestrian bridge at the bottom of the valley and climb back to the level of the asphalt road. The path reaches the road again at the border of Mátraháza village. While we visited the bottom of the deep gorge, the road went around with a big hairpin bend! The first house of the settlement is the building of the bus station, we find the Blue Trail's stamp on its terrace, at its right corner.

Mátraháza is a holiday resort, summertime it is crowded with hikers, day trippers and people spending their holiday here, among the mountains. The route of the Blue Trail runs straight after the building of the bus station in the junction, where the asphalt access road of Kékestető starts towards the peak (Mátraháza holiday resort, stamping place), and we arrive after a few dozen steps the big car park. The asphalt covered area is surrounded by pubs and small restaurants, it is worth keeping a short rest here, because the next climb to the peak of Kékestető will be very hard! There is a second Blue Trail stamp on terrace of the Mátra büfé (Mátra Buffet). The building of the buffet stands at the southwestern corner of the car park.

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If we continue the hike, we walk through the big car park, leave it at the southeastern corner and turn onto the main road number 24. We walk only a few steps on the busy asphalt strip and turn left at the first juction. A narrow asphalt road begins among the trees, which passes the building of a sport center and the football pitch, finally we continue the hike on a well trodden dirt road, where the asphalt finishes. The road descends to the small valley of a creek (its spring is close to this place), cross it and escorts a little while the creek. Later our road bends left into the wide valley of the Somor-patak Creek and runs in level among the hillsides.

We walk continuously in the shady beech forest of the more and more narrow valley, the dirt road leads already beside the gurgle brook, and we reach the head of the valley in a quarter hour. The dirt road finishes here, our path crosses the creek and begins to climb very steeply in the mountainside. It is a hard and long upward slope, but later it becomes milder, finally we cross a well trodden dirt road and reach the asphalt road leading to the top of Kékestető. The asphalt strip climbs meanderingly in the side of Kékes, but we cut down the hairpin curves of the road on footpaths and reach the car park beneath the summit in a half an hour. We follow the arc of the road, the climb doesn't finishes here, finally we glimpse the TV tower directly in front of us. We pass by guesthouses and the terrace of a restaurant, the asphalt road leads until the fence and gate of the yard of the TV tower. We turn left here onto a dirt road, follow the metall fence and reach the summit of the Kékestető after a few dozen steps. A painted marker stone shows the highest point of the mountain, if we get to it, we can say, that we climbed the tallest peak of Hungary, the 1014 meter (3326 feet) (Peak of Kékestető Mountain)! .

The peak stone stands beside the fence of the TV tower, at the long row of nick-nack shops. If we have enough time, it is worth visiting the panorama terrace of the TV broadcasting tower, because it is located in 45 metres height, and we can take here a few photos for our photo album, because we are standing here really on the highest point of Hungary, which is accessible for a hiker! If the weather is clear enough, we can see almost the half Hungary from that place! In western direction appears the Börzsöny and Pilis Mountains, and if we turn towards east, the far Zemplén Mountains is visible, where the Blue Trail terminates! If we glimpse to south, the wide Great Hungarian Plain is visible with the silver strip of Tisza River, from the northern side of the terrace we can admire the far ridge of the Tatra Mountains in Slovakia. There is an espresso beneath the lookout terrace, the view is similar, but we can admire it behind the windows. The official Blue Trail stamp is located on the wall of the Tető Étterem (Summit Restaurant) in front of the gate of the TV tower, and we can find another one at the porter house of the sanatorium beneath the TV tower at the bus turning place. We can reach this second stamp with about a five minutes long walk from the peak.

Before I continue the description of this section of the Blue Trail, I would like to draw your attention onto two things. First, we hiked until the Kékestető among villages and holiday resorts following the marked trail, but this will be the first section, where we have to walk about 22 kilometres far from any populated places! There is no accommodation until Sirok village, there is no permanent springs in the forest, where we can fill up our flasks with potable water! Beside the mentioned things we reached the sawteeth-shaped eastern ridge of the Mátra at the Kékestető, where we have to climb many steep peaks. These two things make the eastern ridge of Mátra to a relative difficult section on the route of the Blue Trail! Don’t embark in this section unpreparedly, please!

The path of the Blue Trail follows the fence of the TV tower for a while, later it stays alone in the forest. The meandering path begins to descend in the mountainside, passes by rock formations, later the slope became harder and we reach the grassy meadow of Erzsébet-szikla (Elisabeth Rock) after a twenty minutes long walk. We have lost more than hundred metres from our elevation! We pass by a wooden cross, if we glimpse back here, we can see the TV tower already high above us. We can take a short rest here, if we have enough time to complete this section.

The slope disappears here, we walk on the narrow ridge, beside rock formations for a while, later we glance the rocky peak of Sas-kő (Eagle Stone) on the left side of the path (Sas-kő Rock, path to the memorial). If we climb the rock, we arrive to a monument. This stone piramid was erected in memory of those hikers, who died a hero’s death in World War 1. There is a nice panorama from the small terrace of the monument, we can see the wide Great Hungarian Plain at the feet of the mountain with the cooling towers of Mátrai Erőmű power plant. This power plant makes electricity from the locally quarried lignite. The cooling lake and the opencast quarry are good visible beside the power plant, at the edge of the plain.

If we continue the walk, we follow the ridge a little while, later we descend into the northern mountainside. Our well-trodden, but meandering footpath gets around in level the northern ridges of the Kis-Sas-kő, in the first minutes we have a nice view among the trees towards the Kékestető. We will reach the wide col of Markazi-kapu Col together with the marks. There is a big junction of paths and dirt roads in the col, the Blue Trail goes on towards southeast on the left side of a well-trodden dirt road. We walk above the forest cultivating road in the mountainside, the path meanders together with the road, we can see it through the gaps of the trees. The path waves about twenty minutes in the forest, finally descends to the next col.

We cross another dirt road on the path, there is a small wooden shelter in the junction, the metal box of the Blue Trail's stamp is located on a pillar of the roof (Hármashatár forester's lodge, stamping place). The name of this place is Hármashatár (Three Border), there is a small forester’s lodge in a few hundred step distance from this resting place. It is worth taking a longer rest here, because we walked already almost two hours from Kékestető and the hardest section of the hike is waiting for us here!

A very hard ascent begins after the stamping place, because we have to climb the Nagy-Szár-hegy Mountain! The path leads us first in the forest, later we reach the grassy, bushy back of the mountain. The winding trail reaches the summit, we can rest there after the exhausting climb and admire the panorama. The downward slope is a little bit less steep, we reach the next col after a comfortable walk, it is the Cserepes-nyereg. We don’t have much rest here, the trail crosses a dirt road in the col, and the path begins to climb on the side of Cserepes-tető Mountain. We don’t touch the top of the mountain, the route of the Blue Trail crosses only its forest covered back and descends to the col of Selyem-rét Meadow. We glimpse the regular cone shape of Oroszlánvár Mountain from this small, grassy field.

The climb is short but very hard to the peak of the Oroszlánvár, there is a meadow on the top, where we can sit in the grass and keep a longer rest (Top of Oroszlánvár Mountain). A very nice view opens backward, we can see the already far Kékestető with the TV broadcasting tower on its top on the right side of the Cserepes-tető. We are halfway between the Kékestető and Sirok village, hiker teams coming from the opposite directions use to meet here, on the top of this mountain. Modest ruins stand on the top, they are the remains of an old castle. We cannot realize, where finish the rocks and begin the walls, but the former trench is good visible among the trees. Oroszlánvár means Lion’s Castle in English.

The eastern side of the Oroszlánvár is the steepest slope on this hike, we must descend carefully on the meandering path to the Domoszlói-kapu, which is the next col in the row. A narrow forest cultivating asphalt road goes across the col, we only cross it and begin the next climb in the side of Jagus Mountain on a well-trodden dirt road. We reach a green hunter’s lodge on the long back of the mountain, the Blue Trail turns on a path and pass the wooden house, while escorts a fence. A huge clear-cut lies on the right side, we follow its chain-link fence for a while and sink into the next col. Later the fence turns away from the path and we begin the last big climb to the forest covered top of Szederjes-tető Mountain.

Unfortunately there is no panorama from the summit, but we can keep a little rest among the trees. If we continue the hike, the marked path sinks in the forest and crosses fenced clear-cuts, it reaches a well-trodden dirt road after a long slope. We turn onto this forestry road and after a few steps pass the Jóidő-kút Spring. Generally it dries out summertime, but if we have good luck, we can fill up our bottles with the cool water of the spring. The dirt road leads us up to the col of Jóidő-nyak, we turn right here in the junction of roads. This will be an easy section: we walk on the meandering road and loose slowly a little elevation. We reach the grassy meadow of Remete-rét after a one and a half kilometre long comfortable walk.

The Blue Trail leaves the dirt road here, it goes across the meadow and beside the wooden memorial column of Péter Ozsvárt steps into the forest again. Unfortunately I don’t have any information about this man, only the carved text of the column: he lived 29 years and the monument was erected by his friends. A short ascent begins at the wooden column among the outermost trees, the path climbs the Cseresnyés-tető Hill, goes across its flat plateau and reaches the rocky northern edge of Gazos-kő Hill (Gazos-kő Rock, lookout point) after a few minutes.

It is worth taking here a longer rest and admire the beautiful panorama opening from that place. We can see the hilly country at the northern feet of Mátra Mountains, small villages lie in the valleys, and if will turn in eastern direction, we will glimpse the far Sirok village and the ruins of the castle beside the settlement. The distance is more than five kilometres until Sirok as the crow flies, the walk will takes about two hours, but we can see already our target!

We continue the hike on the meandering path, which crosses the forest of the flat top of Gazos-kő and Átrád-tető Hills, finally we reach the north-eastern edge of Kalapos-tető Hill. We notice the big clear-cuts at the foot of the hill, the marked footpath goes for a while at the edge of the plateau, later turns left and descends from the hill. We reach the bushy, weedy old clear-cuts, this is already the end of the long ridge of Mátra Mountains, the winding trail crosses this area and reaches again the old forest. The path crosses many dirt roads, but the marked trail follows insistently this footpath.

After an hour long walk we get to the weedy clearing of Sólyom-kút Well, unfortunately this spring works periodically, similar to the previous ones. The marked path turns right at the wooden shelter and resting place, later joins to a dirt road and after a few minutes we reach the edge of the forest. We walk across this bushy, weedy area and get to the asphalt road after ten minutes. We turn onto this asphalt strip and continue the walk in northern direction. The former building of the railway station of Sirok village appears on the left side of the road at the old railway barrier after a five minutes long walk. This railway line was closed in 2007 because of its uneconomic work, however the station master live with his family in the house. There is a Blue Trail’s stamp in its box equipped on the fence of the garden, at the left side of the building (Sirok, former railway station).

The railway station is located far from the settlement, we must walk almost three quarter hour to reach the centre of Sirok. First we continue the walk on the asphalt strip until the “T” junction, where this road joins to the main road number 24. We saw it already at the Vörösmarty tourist house and Mátraháza village, it is as busy here, as it was earlier, among the mountains. We take the distance till the border of Sirok on the roadside, fortunately there is a sidewalk from the first houses of the settlement. We walk along the Nyírjes Street, after twenty minutes cross the Tarna Stream on a bridge and get to the centre of the settlement. Sirok is a Blue Trail walker friend settlement: we find a well-stocked supermarket in the centre and there are many guesthouses and motels in this small city.

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We turn left at the junction beside the supermarket and continue the walk on the Petőfi Sándor Street. The marked route of the Blue Trail pass by the Hunor vendéglő Restaurant (Sirok village, stamping place), where we can find another stamp, and the Vár panzió és vendéglő (Vár Guesthouse and Restaurant), here we can find good accommodation. After a few minutes long walk we turn right onto the narrower Dózsa György Street and glimpse the ruins of the medieval castle in front of us. We reach the car park of the castle on the climbing asphalt covered streets of the settlement. A narrower road starts towards the castle at the upper end of the car park, we cross the gate of the castle there and climb to the ridge of the Castle Hill on the road.

The path of the Blue Trail goes straight towards northeast through a grassy field, but if we want to visit the castle, we must follow the road farther (Road to the ruined Sirok Castle)! The paved road gets to the ruins after a small climb, but its attendance may limited because of the renovation works! The first fort was built on the end of the ridge before the Hungarian Conquest in the 8th century by Slavonic tribes. The name of the settlement refers to this thing: “Sirok” means “wide” in the Slavonic languages. The stone castle was built in the 14th century and the Turks occupied it after the fall of the neighbour fort, Eger in 1596. They kept this castle during the next century, the united Austrian-Hungarian troops occupied it back only in 1687. After the lost Rákóczi independence war the Austrian troops destroyed the castle in 1713, similar to other Hungarian castles and forts. The curiosity of the castle is, that it is partly carved into the rocks of the hill. (Video about the medieval condition of the castle)

If we go back to the marked trail, we continue the hike on the long ridge of the Castle Hill. The path passes by rhyolite tuff rocks, we can visit them by short detours from the Blue Trail. There is a nice panorama towards the castle and the ridge of Mátra from the Apáca és Barát-szikla (Nun and Monk Rocks) and the Törökasztal (Turk Table). After the rocks the marked path stays on the ridge, this is a very comfortable section of our hike. The well-trodden footpath meanders and waves in the shady forest, later it joins to a dirt road. We reach big, former clear-cuts after a half an hour, the trees of the young forest already higher, then we. The dirt road climbs a hill at the border of a newer clear-cut and our route turns suddenly towards southeast, into the old forest. We walk on the flat top of the hill for a while, later the cart tracks descend in the forest to the clearing of Rozsnakpuszta forester’s lodge.

We cross the meadow, the Blue Trail’s stamp is located on a lonely standing wild pear tree beside the rickety sheepfold (Rozsnakpuszta forester's lodge, stamping place). The marked trail turns onto the narrow asphalt access road of the forester’s lodge, which starts at the gate of the house, we escort it until the main road, meanwhile we climb a small ridge and descend on the other side of it. The Blue Trail turns onto the wide asphalt strip, we walk about 300 steps on its roadside and turn left onto the narrow access road of Bátor village (Asphalt road junction). The road runs across a big cultivated area, later it gets to the forest and crosses the Laskó-patak Creek. After the bridge we turn right onto the first dirt road leading on the bottom of a wide valley. Later the road turns right, crosses a small brook and begins to climb in the side of Gilitka Hill.

The well-trodden forest-cultivating road reaches the bare, clear-cuts covered top of the hill after a half an hour long ascent, and we turn left at the junction of dirt roads (Gilitka Hill, junction of dirt roads). This road still ascends a little bit, later we leave the big clear-cuts and step in the forest. This dirt road reaches the bushy meadows above Szarvaskő vallage after a quarter hour long comfortable walk. Our cart tracks join to a much wider dirt road, we turn right there, onto this well-trodden road and walk in southeastern direction on the wide ridge of Hegyes-kő Hill. We go about a quarter hour on this road, pass small farms and weekend houses on the left side, finally turn left sharply at the junction of dirt roads.

Our dusty road sinks among the houses and we turn right at the next junction of dirt roads. After a few dozen steps we leave the last houses, step in the forest, our path descends continuously in the hillside. We descend about ten minutes on this shady foothpath, when the steep climbing path of the marks starts right, back to the lookout tower of Majoros-tető Hill. If we have enough time, don’t miss the view opening from the tower towards the valley and the village (500 m long detour with 90 metres climb) (Link to the panoramic view)! If we continue our hike on the Blue Trail, the end of the sloping path is at a street of Szarvaskő village and it leads until the main road number 25, in the centre of the settlement. There are two Blue Trail’s stamps in Szarvaskő, the first is located in the Vár presszó Pub (Szarvaskő village, stamping place), beside the main road and the second one is at the railway stop, on the fence of the station building.

We stamp into our booklets and with this procedure we finish our hike through the Mátra Mountains, at the foot of the Castle Rock of Szarvaskő. The summits of the Bükk Mountains are waiting for us on the other side of the narrow valley of Szarvaskő!

I mentioned already Eger town and its famous old fortress in the chapter of the Pilis Mountains and Buda Hills, when our route touched the remains of the scenery of Castle of Eger, which was built for a Hungarian movie in the 70's of the previous century. The original Eger town is located only in ten kilometre distance from Szarvaskő village! Because it is difficult to find accommodation in the small Szarvaskő, I recommend to travel with public transport bus (they come really very often) to the neightbour Eger, where we will have many opportunity to find an appropriate lodgement for us! I think, it is worth to do this small detour and get to know the sights of Eger, while we spend a resting day there!

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