The Hortobágy is Hungary's great grassland, the puszta, a flat, wide, open plain in the east of the country, and it is unlike anything else in central Europe. Nearly eight hundred square kilometres of it is protected as a national park, which was the first in Hungary, and it is on the World Heritage list too. What you see from the road is grass, sky, horizon, and then, if the light is right, something odd shimmering on the horizon, which locals will tell you is the fata morgana, a mirage that has fooled travellers for centuries.
It looks wild, but it is an old working landscape. Shepherds and cowherds have grazed the puszta for hundreds of years, and the animals are still here: long-horned grey cattle, curly-horned racka sheep, and horses of the Nonius breed. You will see the tall wooden well sweeps that were once used to draw water, standing alone like crooked cranes. In the village of Hortobágy, the nine-arched stone bridge, completed in the 1830s, is the longest in Hungary, and beside it stands an old inn, the csárda, where you can try the local speciality of savoury meat-filled pancakes, which are filling and cheap.
For a rider the plain is easy but not entirely relaxing. The roads are straight, flat and long, with very few bends, and the main challenge is the wind, which comes across the grass without anything to stop it, and can push a bike sideways. Watch for farm vehicles and for wildlife, especially at dusk, when hares and the occasional deer cross the road. The best seasons are spring, when the grass is green and birds are everywhere, and autumn, when tens of thousands of common cranes stop here on their way south, and their calls fill the air at dawn.
Hortobágy village is small and its services are limited, so for fuel and a wider choice of food the best bet is Balmazújváros, about fifteen kilometres away, or Tiszacsege. Bring water in summer, because there is almost no shade, and sun cream, because the sky is bigger than you expect.