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Well Gordon had wanted a break and Lake Balaton certainly fitted the bill. We found a lovely quiet campsite on the north side of the lake. So quiet we got a spot right by the lake itself with an unbroken view of the turquise water. Well, unbroken apart from the few obsessional fishermen who seemed to spend 24 hours a day catching huge fish avery half hour or so. They must have been selling them as no one family could get through all those fish! Fishing is for the patient that's for sure, for townies like us it was interesting to watch for a wee while but you actually got to the point where their [the fishermans] level of relaxation started to get a bit stressfull for us. By day three watching the same guy sitting at the same spot for hour, after hour, after hour we were actually getting tempted to go over and snap his rod...we restrained ourselves !
It wasn't completely quiet on our first day as we arrived to crowds lining the roads and roaring motorbikes everywhere and then discovered that the International Harley Davidson convention was on just down the road! So the peace was shattered every so often when they roared past our campsite and we certainly weren't going to venture out on our scooter while they were there, but fortunately they only stayed for the Saturday and were gone by day 2.
Anyway, Lake Balaton is a thermal lake and is heated by hot springs to about 25C. Being a scientist I don't quite understand how the largest fresh water lake in Europe could be heated every day by a little water from hot springs so maybe it wasn't that, but it was very civilised not having to spend hours acclimatising to freezing water temperature each time you went for a swim!Though as the air temp was about 35C every day - The lake is in a basin in central Hungary and it gets bloody hot - it would have been quite warm anyway!
Some of the memorable things about it: wildlfe, we had dice snakes living in the rocks along the edge of the lake though they are non-venoumous fortunately, mice which Gordon didn't like very much, rats which I didn't like very much, and lots of bird life which we both liked; As the whole area was formed by volcanic activity - a lot of which is still active obviously for the thermal side, there are lots of amazing geological features and we had great fun on the scooter going through all the little villages trying to find them - the signposting in Hungary leaves a little to be desired! And an interesting attitude to service industry - snack bars closed for lunch!
We really liked Lake Balaton and would go back again but probably a bit earlier in the year as it really was too hot for us to do as much as we'd like - we did try one cycle ride but gave up when we were reduced to soggy mess in about the first 30 minutes! And we planned to go to a second thermal lake but one that is at 38C - really therapeutic. But we just couldn't face the thought of sitting in effectively hot soup when its 35C! So we're now off to the coast for some fresher temperatures and sea breezez!
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