By Thursday we had reached our last full day of camp. As before, we had a wide range of experiences and knowledge, with hunting andgame species, native bird species, and floodplain life and farming being the main topics of our programmes. Today we paddled again on the Danube, and in the morning we took a canoe trip on the Outer Béda to learn about the characteristics of wetlands, for example, how much of Béda-Karapancha is covered by water, which species Ferenc Móra wrote his poem The Shoes of the Cinege about, and how the flytrap spreads mistletoe. We heard and saw many interesting things, but to highlight just a few of the species we saw, we also had the chance to see buckbeaks, grey herons, cormorants and shore swallows. The competition that unfolded a few times between our boats during the paddling further enhanced the good atmosphere and the sense of community. After the paddle, we returned to our accommodation where we were joined for lunch and our afternoon activities by Dr. Miklós Radoszáv, the Csányi Foundation's Operations Director.
We started the afternoon programme by analysing the images from the wildlife cameras that were deployed on Monday. We were delighted to catch a wide variety of wildlife over the past few days, including badger, chuska, wild boar, roe deer, red fox, black and white stork and grey heron. Afterwards we gave our campers two more quizzes. First, a quiz entitled "Who is the wildest ace?", asked the children about their knowledge of hunting, hunting traditions and game species, and then we asked them about the interesting facts they had heard about wetlands. It was a great feeling to see how much knowledge and information the campers had absorbed from the programmes.
On our last evening together, we gathered around the campfire, where we closed another enlightening and enjoyable day with a cosy and upbeat sing-along.
The next day, we were joined by new guests at the closing event. Our founder, Erika Csányi, the chairman of the board of trustees of the foundation, Dr. Gyula Sándor, two members of the board of trustees, Dr. József Szőts, and Dr. Miklós Heltai and his wife Anikó Heltai visited us. The event gave the children a chance to showcase what we have been up to this week, but with a twist. The campers took on the role of game masters and invited our guests to a three-stage game, during which the players could get stamps on their time sheets by solving different thematic tasks. The tasks included a quiz on wetlands, a board game on bird species, a memory game on wildlife species and animal sound recognition. Our guests successfully took on the varied challenges, and we ended the programme with a well-deserved big lunch together at the end of the game, our first summer camp on nature conservation.
We are confident that the camp provided many unforgettable experiences and new knowledge for our campers and we are delighted that the love of nature is a common value in our community, which has come together during the week.
The good mood of the camp was greatly enhanced by the kindness and attentiveness of our hosts and of course the always delicious food, for which we are grateful to the team of the Békáspuszta Hunting Lodge! Thank you for offering us a really special place close to nature for our first camp!
