Countrywide Blue Tour in Hungary - The Validation of The Completion

The Validation of The Completion

Of course everybody can complete the whole route or its sections for amusement without any validation. But the completion of the Blue Tour is a very important thing in the life of Hungarian hikers, so generally they have their own personal completion brochure (its price is 1000 HUF, about 4 Euro in 2007).

There are 147 checkpoints (stamping places) on the route of the Blue Tour. The participants have to validate the completion of the tour, the reach of every checkpoint. They can do this usually with dating and stamping of the appropriate box in their personal completion brochure. It is needed to stamp at every checkpoint. If this is not possible, it is accepted the stamp of the closest place to the route which is not marked in the brochure. The Countrywide Blue Tour has its own stamps with the name of the appropriate places. They are located in pubs or shops in the villages, on railway stations usually in the ticket offices, but many times they are in the forest in their standard blue-white boxes equipped on trees or on the fences of forester’s lodges.

As can be seen on the picture in the left side, there are different types of stamps along the route of the Blue Tour. This picture is a sheet from a personal completion brochure, which is already validated by stamps.

The stamp of Koldusszállás is located on a tree in its small iron box beside the access road of the hunter's lodge. It is a simple rubber stamp with the name of the place.
At the Gerecse üdülő (Children's holiday resort of Gerecse) the metall box of the stamp is equipped on the corner of the fence. This stamp is an iron stamp with chiselled letters.
The stamp of homestead Pusztamarót is similar to the stamp of Koldusszállás. Its box is on a pinetree at the edge of the great meadow.
The stamp of Bányahegyi erdészház (forester's lodge of Bányahegy) was stolen in the date of the hike, so the participant had to find another place to obtain a validation in his book. This was the pub named "Hubertus" in village Tardos - its distance is about 3 km from the original stamping place. There are two similar stamps, because the hiker finished here a hike and began another one later (explanation later).

Usually the hikers have to start or finish a trip at a checkpoint. So they have to stamp twice at same checkpoint: at the finish of a section and at the start of the next section if these are in two different date. If this checkpoint is at the limit of an official Blue Tour's section, there are two boxes at this checkpoint in the personal completion brochure. In other cases there is only one box, but the hikers have to stamp twice: first in the box and later above or below it - where they can find enough place. Of course if somebody only reaches a checkpoint and goes further, one stamp is enough.

Photos are accepted, if in them can be clearly recognised the place and the person together. After the completion of the whole path of the Tour it is necessary to take the personal completion brochure to the competent nature friend committee in Budapest or in the country, where the completion will be checked and validated, and then they will hand over the badge.