8th April 2013
Balaton Lake has a
split personality – the southern side is loud and brash with high rise hotels attracting
those looking for a lively club scene whereas the northern side is more refined
suiting the more mature market (that’ll be us then!).
A large proportion of the northern side sits within the Balaton
Uplands National Park with strict restrictions on building and access. The park
authority has developed a number of attractions for tourists, they just seem to
have forgotten to signpost them, a problem we’ve found throughout our travels so
far in Hungary! The three we did manage to eventually find were Tapolca Lake
Cave (£2.78 entry fee), the Hegyestϋ Geological Site (£1.66 entry fee) and the Sea of Stones in Salfold (free).
The Lake Cave in Tapolca was a laugh – you get your own
little aluminium boat to paddle around a short cave system, ducking and diving nimbly
under the very low arches. We spent a
little time setting the compact camera on self-timer on various ledges to try
and get a picture of both of us in the boat, not so easy with low light and
unstable subject! By the time we paddled back to the starting point there was a
queue of about 10 people waiting - I dread to think what happens if/when a bus
load arrives.
The Hegyestϋ Geological site
lies in an area of Europe which was the most crowded volcano field in Europe 8
million years ago. The whole north coast of the lake is a geologists heaven – its
at times like these I wish I had spent more time listening in class when I did
my Geography ‘O’ level! When we arrived we were the only people there – a
couple more cars arrived as we were leaving.
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