The second part of my August holiday was spent much closer to the hotel we remained at, which meant lower travel time. And it had a bit different appeal.

The fourth day was free to pursue our own points of interest as it was a necessary break for our bus driver. I decided to take a loop starting and ending at the hotel to see the surroundings on an easy hike. Most of it led through the woods, which, eventually, turned the hike into a mycology field day, so to say. Fungi of various types, both edible and not, seemed to grow a lot in the mossy woods.

Roughly a quarter in, I reached a large but empty pond with frequent “no fishing” signs as well as warnings about camera systems. I wondered if these measures failed and the owner just left the pond empty – you can’t steal fish from a pond that has none, after all.

After weaving around for quite a while, I was nearing a lookout tower that was, unfortunately, closed on workdays, so instead of far sights, I could at most stare at the tower from below.

Finishing the loop, I stopped to take a photo of the castle ruin near the hotel, though a tour was planned for the day of departure, so I didn’t go inside.

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The fifth day started in a similar fashion – after crossing pastures, I made most of my way through mossy woods with no shortage of mushrooms.

Above one of the villages, the local kids turned the edge of the wood into an outdoor dollhouse of an impressive size.

Shortly after, I started my ascension towards a major rock formation that was one of the main places to see during this trip.

The jagged twin spires were quite an impressive sight but that was nowhere near all of the rock formation.

The bushy heather plants were probably the nicest touch to the area.

From there on, it was again finishing the loop through the woods and fields.

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The sixth day had me extending the original plan by quite a long detour in search of some nice places. In the early part, I saw several storks striding around the fields, though they were too spread and too far for a decent photo. The area was full of ponds, though they seemed to have been hit hard by the heatwave, the water turning green and, in some cases, smelled foul. Though they made for a nice scenery.

After leaving the smelly ponds behind, I reached a small castle that was relatively well preserved, even though the interiors has some rooms quite bare while others were equipped with furniture from various epochs.

And, as with the previous day, the woods have no shortage of moss and mushrooms.

Then, I turned away from the woods and across fields and villages towards my final point of interest. In one of the villages, I took a photo of this well-preserved house in the traditional local style.

The final area was a strange salty moor with gas geysers and mineral springs. However, the heat wave affected it and some of the salty areas were left dry. Still, even those created a mosaic of different plants and grasses mixed with barren salty soil.

And the lack of water meant the gas exhaust looked like ordinary holes in the ground.

Though the closeup of the salt crystals made for a scene similar to deep-space Sci-Fi.

Eventually, I found one area where the gas exhausts were still partially underwater, bubbling as the gas escaped the ground.

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I remained there for a while, especially as I was lucky and few people were in the area. Especially as, after that, I only had an hour’s worth of walk to the hotel, which would be the end of my hiking for this trip – all that remained was the castle near the hotel, which was still undergoing reconstruction and only some parts were restored, most of them used as a stylized tavern.

The way home was lengthy and with several waves of rain, though, on board of the bus, I paid it no mind. While it was one of the more relaxing holiday trips when it comes to hike difficulty, I enjoyed the calm landscape and seeing the other end of my country quite a lot.

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So, that was my August hiking trip. There was still half of the month left, but that’s a story for another time.