Hunting Trips: When I can I run away from home. Not that my house feels bad, but you know how it is, the neighbor's grass is always greener, especially when it comes to hunting. My latest adventure? In Hungary, by a very fortunate case of fate.
Destiny even before I was born decided to make me a happy man. I was born in Cagliari, a seaside city where good hunting is not disdained. On the other hand, the Campidano and the whole island offer suggestive hunting ideas that I, when I can, follow more than willingly. In my family there is no shortage of hunters: my grandfather and my uncle were the first to pass this passion on to me, and now I do everything to follow it. Exactly one year ago, while I was surfing online looking for some information about my city, for a research I am not going to tell you about, I came across something interesting. I discover that very far from Cagliari, another city is called the "city of the sun". I think it must be a really nice little place: it is Szeged, 160 kilometers from Budapest, Hungary. This intrigues me and I decide to deepen. I discover in a few clicks that not only in Szeged, just like in Cagliari, the sun reigns supreme, but also that hunting is the main attraction there. The more I read the more my eyes shine.
I make it short, in a few weeks the trip was as beautiful as it was organized and the group was formed. It was the end of April when we arrived in Hungary. Davide had already been there a few years before, Damiano and I had only heard about him. < > Davide kept saying, wondering if the new "modernity" had not ruined the fantastic hunting paradise he remembered having lived long ago.
The arrival at the hunting lodge erased all our doubts. Hungary is still a small temple devoted to nature, well attended by hunters from all corners of the world. The hunting lodge I was saying: a real gem enriched with local craftsmanship and a good scent of meat. The cook immediately told us about at least two spas not far from the place. < >, he tells us. It seems that the cousin works in one of the two. Let's say yes with our heads and wait for it to pamper us with its tasty cuisine and intense flavors. I feel like I'm at home. In the early afternoon Cesare joins us. He is our local contact. His homeland is Puglia but he escaped from Italy: now he lives like a hermit in Hungary, goes around the game reserves and takes enthusiasts like us to hunt. I hope that fate holds something like this for me. < >, he tells us immediately, accompanying the description of the hunting tour with a very good beer.
The rest is history.
The first day we dedicated ourselves to the smaller, but perhaps better kept private game reserve: 4 hectares of groves with a surprising amount of roof terraces. We reached them by wagon. You may not believe it, but the wagon is still widely used as a means of transport, especially within game reserves. There was certainly no lack of game. At the end of the first day, however, I had a bad taste in my mouth: no trace of the elf of the woods.
The second reserve, belonging to a political friend of Caesar's, was 7.500 hectares large. Here I spotted the first roe deer. It is no coincidence that they are called elves of the woods. They are magical, stealthy, funny and enchanted creatures. They are so enchanted that the first sighted deceived me and disappeared. He must have warned his friends because the day took place among fallow deer, wild boar and deer, and all in all it didn't go badly.
On the third day we explored an immense reserve: 20 thousand hectares of forests and open territories inhabited by a surprising amount of animals. Here I finally met my elf. Met and shot down thanks to my rifle and the new trajectory compensator which is a real marvel. We even found time for a visit to the spa and I believe that the association of nature, hunting and spa is a winner.
I greeted Hungary and Cesare with melancholy in my heart: to invite me to come back on the last evening, he told me about a reserve that is the dream of all hunters: 11 thousand hectares, hunting on foot with roe deer hidden in every corner, deer and wild boar. < > we greeted him and we were not lying.