Woke up in the hay! Such a fantastic experience, even though it wasn't the best sleep I ever had. In the early morning I could hear the dawn chorus and the sunlight penetrated through the broken roof tiles. I was awake for a while before I emerged at 10am, reading my book and appreciating the surreal opportunity of sleeping on a massive haystack.

We started the day with scrambled egg mixed with onion and cheese, cooked over the fire. At about 11am, we left to go hiking in the Vargyas Gorge.

The hike to begin with was fairly easy, up a gently inclining slope. After stopping at a spring which was too dirty to drink, we turned left to face a very steep slope which involved mostly rock climbing! Although challenging and hard work, the view from the top was breathtaking. We could see the entire valley, which had been carved out after the Last Glacial Maximum, when water levels rose again. We could also see caves in the gorge, as well as the river itself.

Just as we were about to descend, Laszlo caught sight of a couple of Green Lizards! We managed to get very close to them to take many photos. For the next couple of hours we walked through forest on the steep valley slope, travelling parallel to the river. The vegetation was extremely lush and there were many bear warning signs! We crossed over a couple of rock fall piles which were a little disconcerting. At one point, Simon and I got the fright of our lives when Michael lept out from behind a fallen tree and roared! Simon's reaction was fantastic and was caught on Laszlo's camera.

Much of the forest consisted of beech trees, interspersed with oak, spring flowers and forest floor flora. Eventually we reached the river and walked along the bank. We came across another freshwater spring that was flowing straight into the river, from which we gratefully filled our bottles up. Not long after, we found a huge rock which we climbed up and sat on. Behind us was a cave which we ventured into! Kate got a bit claustrophobic but the rest of us pushed in as far as could go. We turned all the torches off to appreciate the pitch black darkness! With torches back on, we spotted a roosting vampire bat on the ceiling. Thought we ought to leave him to it.

Back outside, the boys stripped down to their underwear and jumped into the freezing river! Bit of a shock to them; Michael swam once around the large rock while Simon managed a couple more circuits. Kate and I watched on, amused, while Laszlo snoozed.

We moved on upriver, crossed it and hiked up the slope. We found a cave that had eroded back to the point of collapsing at the back. All this hiking was made a lot easier with naturally sourced walking sticks!

Growing a bit weary from lack of lunch, we headed back in the direction of the campsite. We had a long way to go though. Crossing over the river one more time, we climbed an incredibly steep slope which sapped the life out of us! Thankfully at the top we recognised the path which led back to camp. On the way, we came across an injured Swallowtail Butterfly (its top wing was damaged) and loads of drying pools of water. The tadpoles in them were writhing around as they were slowly being baked to death.

After five hours, we got back to camp at 4pm. We had a quick lunch with the leftover food and packed up.

When we got back to the village, the boys stayed at our house. After a little nap, Ibolya presented us with food. So we had a second lunch! Even though we weren't hungry, we ate it anyway. Had a well-earned shower then chilled out. At 7.30pm we all watched the cows come home for the last time. The younger cow seemed a bit grumpy today! The goats remained tightly herded by a couple of shepherds, so no dawdling for them.

Later in the evening at about 9pm, Ibolya unexpectedly served us dinner. So we all ate again! Still polished our plates clean though, especially as there were potato wedges to be eaten.