To Warsaw

We had made it to Poland. The sun was shining and the roads sealed - except the 10km we rode from the border crossing in the forest to the first village.  We both felt a little surprised that the baltics were over and we had arrived in "mainland" Europe. Things felt different for some reason and we couldn't quite pin down what that was, but there was no point dwelling over that,  we needed to get some local Złoty and buy some treats from a polish supermarket!

Poles in Poland!

Neither of us were too sure what the vibe on freedom camping in Poland was, so our first night we found ourselves a nice spot in a forestry block down some dirt roads that may have had some form of 'no unauthorised access' signage, although it was a little hard to decipher, and set up camp. No one jumped out at us, and no one even came by until the following morning when Calvin was crouched over a hole attending to some morning business. Impeccable timing!

We were aiming for Warsaw and set a vague route along back roads and cycle ways hoping to enjoy some of the newly formed and opened Green Velo route that follows the length of Poland's eastern border. On our way to finding the elusive Green Velo route we bumped into a fellow cycle tourist from Lithuania - Valdis. We joined forces and rode together to the town of Augustow. Not only an enjoyable man to talk and cycle with, he got us onto the Green Velo route, shared his favorite mildly alcoholic, malt drink "Kwas" and introduced us to a delicious spread made of pig fat with chunky crackling. Valdis only had the weekend to cycle and was heading back to Lithuania that afternoon so we waved goodbye after a picnic lunch and continued on our way popping on and off the Green Velo route. We were treated to quiet back roads and some very interesting riding through a wetlands reserve which at times we got rather intimate with.

Our picnic lunch with newly aquired friend Valdis

Cracker with fat and crackling spread. Delicious!

Wet riding through the wetlands

Our campsite that night was along the edge of the wetland area in the small town of Wrocen. We enjoyed a mozzie free night (until sundown) and a basic sink wash as the showers were an additional cost. Calvin got a little carried away and took to washing his under carriage before being caught with his pants half down when an old lady walked in on him. Timing has not been his strong point in Poland.

A day of back country riding, through cornfields and sand roads, brought us to the city of Lomza for the night. We set up camp at the local harbour campsite by the river. At around 9pm, when we were nicely nestled in the tent after a hot days riding three young Polish cycle tourists arrived and promptly set up their tent 50cam from ours. This has proven to be quite common in Europe. Where in New Zealand we look for a spot that will give us the most privacy, Europeans appear to clump themselves together in some sort of pack mentality.

The varying roads to Lomza:

Not sure what is road and what is patch repair

About 2km out of Lomza Kate came to a halt on the hill leading out of town. She turned around only to realise she wasn't wearing her gloves, and in fact there was only one glove sitting on her rear panniers where she had left them when heading into the supermarket that morning. Kate's lost glove will forever be in our memories and we really hope that it found a Michael Jackson fan who will embrace its potential.

We really struggled to find campgrounds in Poland, or places to freedom camp, so that night we stayed in a Agroturistica - a house near farmland. We arrived to an empty house, but after a local woman made a phone call for us, a French speaking Dutchman arrived to let us in. We had a room in a huge wooden house, and there was no one else there. While he was showing us around Kate's bike fell over, her kickstand finally giving in to the weight of the bike and bending entirely in half. The man obviously felt some kind of responsibility, and no matter how much we insisted it was a piece of junk and we had planned to replace it in Warsaw, he insisted, with the help of a phone call to his daughter in Amsterdam who spoke English, that he wanted to get a a new one. We told him it wasn't necessary, and off he went. As Calvin set about removing the stand a German couple arrived, Anya and Frieda, with their 7 year old daughter, Alexis. They were very chatty, and after returning from a quick supermarket shop, Frieda insisted he had made too much food and brought too much beer and vodka, and that we had to join them for dinner. Who could say no to that offer! As we ate, drank and became merry, the Dutchman arrived with a new kickstand. Turns out the one he brought was brilliant.

Our lovely accommodation for the night. New bottom bracket time for Calvin

Out with the broken and in with the new!

Rush hour

On our last night before Warsaw we aimed for one of two campgrounds 40km out of the city so we would have only a short ride the next day to get maximum time with Calvin's sister (Anita) who was flying in from Edinburgh for a long weekend. We rode up to the gates of the first campground and thought it looked a little strange, so continued on to the next campground 500m down the road. It didn't exist, so we rode back to the first one. It was set up with many cabins, a huge playground, a swimming pool (that we weren't allowed to use), a conference centre, a huge dining room, and... prayer rooms. But it was the nuns and the priest that were the dead give away that we were staying at a Christian Camp. We were the only ones in a tent, and the only solo Travellers - everyone there was either on a summer camp, or helping the nuns raise money for poor families. Although we were blatant outcasts, everyone was kind to us and the nuns were over excited to hear about our travels.

Baltic Country Statstics

Lithuania

Crossing the border

There we were crossing the bridge into Lithuania and Calvin hadn't even realised until Kate yelled out to ask if he wanted a photo crossing the border. Calvin looked up and in clear white writing that we couldn't pronounce, "Lietuvos Respublika". We had arrived in Lithuania?

Why don't we call countries by their correct local name? Especially english spelt ones. Then we would all understand each other and know if we had arrived somewhere. Maybe we should learn more than one language to become better educated? Everyone in Europe seems to speak at least 3 languages. Okay, a little off track and getting pretty deep (we get a lot of thinking time on the bike), we'll continue on.

We wheeled into Lithuania's border town of Skuodas expecting to find it bustling with people but found the streets empty and most shops closed. Not being too sure where a good campsite may be Kate approached some locals who pointed us in the direction of a lake just outside of town to try. After setting up camp just beside the track that circumnavigates the lake, Calvin set to work cleaning our extremely gritty chains. (Note to anybody cycle touring or cycling in general: do not use Muc-Off wet lube. It is so sticky, wet or dry, that even on sealed road it manages to collect gunk - better to be named Muc-On). At that moment a Lithuanian woman and her tiny dog named Puppe ('Bean' in Lithuanian) wandered passed trying to find her husband who was fishing. She gave us an insight into the current economic condition of Lithuanian. She was struggling to find work as there were apparently no jobs, Latvians who head to Lithuania to find work (as their economic situation isn't any better) turn around once they realise there is nothing, and on top of that, the average monthly income is around €300 - thats $470 NZD! We were both shocked at this as we had assumed that being in Europe and part of the EU would mean living was relatively comfortable.

Finding a campsite in Skuodas 

She also informed us that we had arrived on a public holiday, the celebration of the old King's birthday or death, we couldn't get a clear answer, and we spent the evening listening to the celebratory concert across the lake.

From here we beelined our way towards the coast. We were enjoying a beautiful sunny day and we stopped relatively early (4pm) beside a lake just north of the city of Klaipeda to get some much needed laundry done and rest in the sun. Around 6pm a man turned up on his bicycle with his fishing gear, and although we couldn't speak he excitedly announced "fish" to us after every successful catch.

The following morning we headed to Klaipeda and caught a four mintue ferry across the lagoon to the Coronian Spit. This spit is pretty special as the southern end that is joint to the mainland is Russian, but the rest of it is Lithuanian. It means Lithuanians can only access the spit by ferry. Our plan was to cycle the length of the Lithuanian section, enjoying the sunshine on the beach, maybe a swim in the Baltic Sea and stopping to look at the sights along the way. As per usual our plan didn't go accordingly and at around 1pm the sky opened up and released heavy rain. We were adamant not to let it stop us seeing some of the sights on the spit. The Hill of Witches was a highlight of the day. It consists of pathways through a forested hillside, with wooden carvings along the way. Some depict traditional stories from the spit, others show witches and devils making trouble. Afterwards we spent the rest of the afternoon cycling in the persistent rain to the only campground at the end of the spit.

Playing cards with the devil and a witch

Chilling out with his buddy

It was here that we realised the whole weekend was a public holiday and the campground was chocka full - with a fair few cycle tourists scattered amongst them.

We squeezed into a spot near another tent and delegated jobs while the rain had receded; Kate setup site and Calvin shot back to town and try to find out if it was possible to catch a ferry back to the southern mainland the next day. While setting up the tent Kate got talking to the neighbors who turned out to be an incredibly chatty young couple from Vilnius. They were so interested in what we were doing, and so friendly that Calvin and I both wish we could have made time to visit them in Vilnius.

We also got chatting to our other neighbors who were an older couple from Riga away for the long weekend. He was an ex-international volleyball umpire and both had reached retirement age. They let us ask them loads of questions about Latvia and shared their thoughts on being under Soviet rule for so many years - most of their lives. They said it was all they had ever known so they had happy lives, but because they were a young nation their pension system was poor so they were living off very little income. The last people we got chatting to at the campground were two Polish cycle tourists. The rain had returned and heavy as ever and they had come in to the kitchen just standing at the door staring at the pouring rain (they had arrived and set up tent in) making little comments in Polish. After a few minutes we asked them if they were okay and they told us they were trying to decide what to do. They were four days into their 6 week cycle tour from Poland to Finland and back, and they weren't enjoying the Lithuanian roads, or the wet weather. It was like was like music to Kate's ears. Even though we had missed the evening downpours, enjoyed hot showers, and had filled our bellies with a delicious one pot wonder meal, the consistently crap weather was taking it's toll on us so it was nice know other cyclists were finding it a bit crap too.

The next morning with the few bits of information Calvin managed to find out about ferries we found one to take us from Nida back to the mainland at Ventaine. It was a relaxing hour and a half boat trip, doubly as joyous because we made progress without having to pedal! It was a beautiful day and upon arriving back on the mainland and on our bikes we had the wind at our backs. As we made our way along the roads we passed a solo cycle tourist going the other way slowly battling away. We smuggly gave him a wave and whizzed on by relishing our time with a tail wind.

Bikes secured on the ferry

 After a night camping with vicious mosquitos, we made our way along the Newman River, very close to the Russian border, towards Kaunas. There were plenty of castles to stop and admire, and with tired legs from the previous few days we found ourselves being overtaken by two cycle tourists going at top speed. We set up camp near the river and were treated to heavy rain, thunder and lightening in the early hours of the morning.

The next day we were up early to try and make Kaunas before the next forecast storm. We made it to Kaunas in ample time, and attempted to find some much needed wares before the storm hit. After an hour and a half of navigating our way through Kaunas, and Kate taking a mighty but unscathing fall when her tyre got caught in a railway track, we made it to our accommodation just as the rain began to pelt down.

We had been looking forward to Kaunas. We had rented a small studio apartment out of town for two nights. Once we arrived a massive laundry blitz in the world's smallest washing machine ensued. Five loads later and everything was washed. We even gave the bikes a clean up in the shower.

As we only had one full day to be tourists, we chose to go to the Ninth Fort. This was a spectacular history lesson as the fort had been used since the 1800's as a fort to protect Kaunas, a hard labour prison for locals (run by both Lithuanians and Soviets), and was the site of Nazi executions totalling around 30,000. Sobering stuff. We also ran into the two cycle tourists who had passed us two days prior and got to have a good chat to them. They were Australians living in Switzerland, and they too had spent the previous day out-cycling the storm to Kaunas.

The cold and darkness inside the fort

We managed to conquer the local bus system and get ourselves back into town to have a quick wander through the old town before we headed home to relax for the evening. We woke up the next day to the forecast rain. We pulled ourselves out of bed and began the pack up routine, aiming to get riding a little later once the weather had subsided. We were absolutely shattered, and the thought of riding in the rain made our legs feel like lead. So with a quick phone call we managed to book ourselves in for another night and spent almost the entire day inside relaxing.

Wandering the old town of Kaunas

Our second to last days riding in Lithuania was both our worst and our best. Taking off from Kaunas was pretty easy, but about 20km out we turned on to the 130 road heading south. It was narrow, there was a 20cm shoulder that had chunks smashed out of it and often disappeared entirely. Cars would pass us at great speed, often crossing the centre line on to the other side of the road and into oncoming traffic. The side of the shoulder was sharp and dropped down onto sand so if you were forced off the road you would be a little out of control, potentially hit the lip and come crashing off your bike, under the wheels of the cars speeding by. It may sound like an exaggeration, but we were both pretty damn scared on that road and grateful when 25km later we found an alternative route through the village of Balbieriskis.

From then on the road was quiet and passed through rolling hills as we got closer to the regional park surrounding Lake Dusia. We set up camp beside the lake and took a brisk dip in the waters to clean off before settling in for the night. At around 3am we both got up to pee, and with her pants down Kate heard Calvin yell-whispering "A cars coming! There's a car! Quick get in the tent! Hide! Hide!". Pants were hitched up quick smart and Kate dived into the tent. Calvin, not wanting to wait for the tent to be unzipped, had rushed out of sight behind the tent. Kate asked, "Were you still peeing?". "No", came the reply. "Then why are you hiding? They know we are here, there's a tent!". The car got to the end of the dirt road, did a five point turn and headed back away from the lake. Both the car and Calvin's reaction to hide still remain a mystery to Kate.

On our last day riding we realised that Poland used Zloty's, not Euros, and neither of us had transfered any money over in order to get cash out when we crossed over to Poland. So, after finding only one disappointingly tiny store on route to the border we took a 10km detour to the nearest town with a supermarket in order to stock up with food for a few days while we sorted our money. It was the strangest supermarket we have found in Europe, mainly because of the constant coming and going of drunk people, one of whom even fell down the front steps to the store. From there it was a mixture of sealed roads and dirt roads as we wound our way south through farmland to cross the border into Poland.

The road to Poland 

Latvia

Our first stop in Latvia was at the home of our Warmshowers hosts Aldis and Dace in Valmiera. They happily squeezed us into their two bedroom apartment and gave us great company over the two nights we stayed. They shared with us some of their countries history and how the Soviet occupation had effected their grandparents and parents (Dace's mother geing born in Serbia where her parents had been deported to). We had intended to wander the town for most of the day, however our bikes were in need of a good clean after the rain, and to be honest we stunk after 9 days camping in Latvia and needed to clean both ourselves and our clothing before we ventured any further than the apartment.

Some Latvian history

Once we finally made it out we wandered two blocks and conveniently found an outdoors store that stocked Brooks bicycle saddles. Kate had sworn that if she saw one she would buy it in another attempt to battle saddle sores. Purchase complete and returned to the apartment, we had an hour to wander along the river before our host would be home for our promised home cooked meal. After being distracted by slalom kayakers practicing their sport we rushed home to create a simple stir fry - something we eat so often at home but have not eaten in months.

AMAZING new saddle - people say leather is brilliant because it is!

As Kate now had to break in a new saddle, and because we had had so many long days in Estonia, we decided to take the next few days slowly and do our best at being tourists, not just cyclists. It was a quick 35km ride down to Cesis, a cute wee town that boasted a castle from the Latgalian days. One tower had been beautifully restored and we got a real buzz from finally feeling like we were in Europe.

King of the castle

The next day was Calvin's birthday, so again we had a leisurely ride (although much more dirt road than anticipated) to Sigulda. We set up camp before the forecast rain, had a quick birthday lunch complete with cake and candles, and then set off about being toursits again. First stop Gutmanis Cave. This cave has a tragic romantic story linked to it about the Rose of Turaida and her commitment to her betrothed. After this we headed to the Turaida castle and were once again enthralled by the fortifications and clever technologies such as the heating that the castle boasted.

Hiding from the rain for birthday celebrations - cake and bread!

Cellars of Ligatne on the way to Sigulda

Gutmanis Cave with old and new graffiti. One inscription dates back to the 1600's AD  - but we couldn't find it.

We rode back to our campsite in the rain, and it continued raining heavily all throughout the night. It took us a while to get started the next morning, neither of us wanting to take on the rain, but we were eventually motivated by the fact that we had Aldis's friend waiting for us in Riga who could offer us a warm shower and a place to dry our gear. Once we hit the main road to Riga we discovered it was a classic Latvian highway squashing both lanes of traffic and us on our bikes to a road with no shoulder, while cars overtook us at great speed and with little berth. After about 2km of cars screaming past in the rain we scouted out a much quieter side road and enjoyed some space again. On joining the highway again we only had another few kilometers before the roadway split lanes, widened and gratefully had a generous shoulder to ride on - perhaps Latvian roads won't be the death of us. Approaching Riga we were kindly presented with a cycle path all the way to town. We had a brief and well timed stop at a bike shop on the outskirts to try a get a replacement front pannier rack as part of Calvin's had broken and was being held together by tape. We had no luck but we did get a great bargin on a drink bottle with free electrolyte tablets and missed a thunderous downpour of rain while we yarned away with the increasingly interested salesman about our trip. Rain stopped, sun out, photo taken by salesman of "New Zealanders at our shop!" and we were off again.

Navigating the next 20km of cycle way, roads and footpaths (where one way roads appeared from nowhere) was slow and we weren't so lucky missing the next downpour. We wound our way over the Dauglava River and along the never ending Slokas iela (road), passing through ever changing areas that felt like you were travelling along a timeline from 100 years to finally reach our host Janis's small Soviet style apartment, complete with walls and roof. The only minor setback was there was no Janis. Twenty minutes later a car came flying towards us, slammed on its brakes and out popped Janis. Everything was carried up to the top floor and there we were, stepping back into Soviet era living. It was small, basic and concrete but it worked and you could imagine the regimented and limited life that would have inhabited the place previously. Janis quickly set to work cleaning out his room so we could sleep there (giving himself the foldout coach), took us out for dinner (we had offered to cook for him but he insisted) and then gave a little tour and history lesson of the area. A very generous man!

We spent the next day exploring the Old Town of Riga and all of its varied and wonderful architecture. We randomly stumbled upon the opening day for the Gum Ball 3000 race from Riga to Greece with an impressive array of flash cars and motorbikes. We then took in a very sobering and well presented history lesson at the Occupation Museum of Latvia. Neither of us had known much about the Russian/German/Latvian history and after picking up little bits of information earlier in our travel it really pieced it all together. It should also be noted that we caught the local tram in and out of town all by ourselves!

Taking in the old buildings of Riga

The biggest zebra crossing we have ever seen. Kate is thrilled because she got a free incense stick from the Hare Krishna man. She lost it after 10 minutes.

Leaving Riga was much easier than arriving. 500m down the road and on to a cycleway that lead us all the way out to the coast. We passed through many quaint seaside villages along the way and enjoyed the quieter roads the further we got away from Riga. Our lunch stop was going to be at a peaceful public picnic spot but this turned out to be someone's campground, Ivo's to be correct. Maybe he was Latvian as he lived there. Maybe he was German as he spoke quite a bit of it the language. Maybe he was Russian as he had served in The Red Army on the far side of Serbia against the Chinese. We weren't too sure, but he liked Schnapps and had probably had some already that morning. There was a bit of confusion if we could eat our lunch there but once that was established he offered us "real" coffee, cups, cutlery and Schnapps. Throughout our meal we found out that he owned 500m up the beach and 1km down the beach; it was €5 to camp; if he found us there without paying he'd call the cops who would then knock us on the head; freedom camping outside his area was bad because of all the bugs; it was 100km to Kolka (Northwestern tip of Latvia) which was very nice, and he would rather hang himself than cycle out there; he had either used a machine gun, fast rifle shooting or bombs on the Chinese and then laughed a lot while in the army (we didn't laugh at this point). This was all communicated in German, some English and some fantastic charading. A very entertaining lunch.

We continued on around the coast and began our first attempt at wild camping in Latvia - about 40km from Ivo's. We succesfully found a possie but later found out that there were hundreds of tiny little midgies come dusk and we were eaten alive.

Wild camping attempt #1. We camped on the knoll to the left.

The next day, when we hit Talsi for lunch, we came to a point where we were undecided where we wanted to go next. A storm was showing on the forecast but had eased a little and we were keen to start heading south to border. The options were discussed and re-discussed; pedal on south and camp somewhere with the possibility of packing a wet tent and riding in rain until the next town to find somewhere to stay and dry out in, or turn off here and head towrds the lake area of Spāre and get a basic cabin to sit out the potential storm. With our combined aged wisdom we took the appealing option of sitting in a cabin and watching a potential storm go by.

"Nah we should just camp and keep going south rather than detour."
"Yeah-nah, I thought we just discussed this. We've turned off now anyway. Nah, the lake sounds nice."
"So what are we doing?"
"The Lake!"

It was a great indecision decision. We found the Lake Usma Kempings that we had seen advertised for a cheap cabin and met our very friendly campground manager, Dace (pronounced Dat-zay). She offered us a two person cabin cheaper than we had expected then quickley changed her mind and offered us a little private house next to the lake with cooking element, fridge, beds, cutlery, crockery, fan, table and chairs everything you could want for an even cheaper price! Awesome. She then loaded us up with a 5 litre bottle of water, some sparkling water and a heater "you'll be cold, you use this...but maybe not all night." She thought we were a bit of a novelty coming from so far away and turning up at her campground and shared this with other locals staying there. Every time we saw her she would say "do you have...(coffee/food/towels/anything)? I give you ...!". She worked at the campground two weeks at a time, then had two weeks rest ("I am pension, I am old!") back in Riga. She took such good care of us!

Lovely sanctuary at Lake Usma

Lake Usma pre storm

We had decided to stay an extra day to hopefully miss the impending storm but woke to calm weather and sunshine. We were rather surprised but happy to see the sun so took the opportunity to take a dip in the lake and wash ourselves. Thunder was echoing in the background but it never felt as though much would come from it. We felt a bit lazy not deciding to contiue to ride south, but the sleep in and relaxing was great. Four hours later thunder, lightening, rain and then hail arrived. The friendly local cat (we named him Tips for his white tail tip) very conveniently arrived at our door step just as the storm started so in he came and made himself comfortable on the bed. We were all dry and all happy not to be outside. Tips was later inspected by Kate for fleas and ticks which came back positive for ticks so he was back outside. Poor fella, but we let him come back for some more pats later.

Leaving our lakeside paradise was a little sad; Dace had been incredibly accommodating to us and gave us both a big hug as we left, Tips would be missed and the serenity of the place was going to be hard to replace. The sun was out though and we headed off down the gravel/sandpit road, fish-tailing as our laden bikes sunk into the sand traps. Sealed road finally arrived much to our relief, as well as the rain much to our surprise! By the end of the day we had dried out and found a very nice lakeside camp spot (about 5km north of the township of Skrunda) with sunshine, tables and no mozzies. Freedom camping attempt #2 in Latvia was much more succesful - although Kate found a tick on herself and then tent.

Wild camping attempt #2 - less midgies, more ticks.

Border day and it started in sunshine, quickly turned to storm clouds, then rain heavily. Wet weather gear was donned only to have the sun come out shortly after. Throughout the day as the sun and rain fought for the sky we were left creating a tropical sweat storm underneath all our wet weather gear. We found out the hard way that half of our route to the border was along sandy gravel roads. Of course the rain poured when we were trudging through this section and our bikes sounded like rusty chainsaws trying to grind all the grit through the gears. We may have  complained about the weather a lot, but by the end of that day we came out in sunshine and found the whole situation quite funny. Rain had mostly dominated our time in Latvia so why would it subside now? As a bonus we got to enjoy hidden away castle ruins, church ruins and many stalk nest sightings!

Hmm, which way? Sand, sand or sand?

Hitting sealed road again was a luxury even if it was a bumpy patchwork of seal repairs. On the way to the border memories were shared of our time in Latvia and an account of rain versus sun days.

Rain:  8.5 days

vs.

Sun: 2.5 days 

(but who's counting anyway!)

We had sunshine and hoped it would be a sign of many sunnier days to come in Lithuania.

Estonia

After 40 hours of flights and waiting and sleeping in airports from Kunming to Beijing to Frankfurt to Tallinn we had made it to Estonia by 1am or 11pm Frankfurt time or 6am China time or 10am NZ time. Whatever the time was we were ready for a bed and some much needed shut eye but first we had to queue for a taxi with everyone else from our plane, rush hour!

The first few days back in the western world felt a little strange as we could finally understand everything happening around us although we were still a little confused with the language barrier. Bread was very quickly acquired along with cheese, peanut butter, salad and meat. Even though baozi and endless exotic fruits were missed it was nice to be tasting european food again.

Piecing our bikes back together we discovered Kate's rear pannier rack had sustained an injury (a welded joint had cracked). It was not a big drama and still held together ok but our luck with previous panniers was not great so we added it to our shopping list. Our shopping didn't turn out completely successful and zip ties ended up being our answer. Not all was bad though as Kate scored herself the ideal secondhand riding shirt (long sleeved, not too heavy that it gets too hot, not too light that you end up sunburnt and of course a fashionable baby blue colour), new shorts, riding gloves and we replaced a couple of leaking drink bottles.

With chores completed we enjoyed the remaining 15 hours of summer sunshine taking in the sights of Old Town Tallinn. We managed 3 hours of sightseeing then we were keen for dinner and bedtime! Dinner was easy but trying to sleep in broad daylight at 10pm is a challenge so duvet covers were hung over the blinds to darken the room. Sunset is around 10pm, last light doesn't really exist and sunrise is around 4am. We had not anticipated such outrageous daylight hours. However after applying our geograhpical knowledge it did makes sense since we were so far north.

Our solution to the backtracking over the cobbled streets of the oldtown

We had no plan of where we were going to cycle but Kate had found loads of information on RMK (Estonian nature and conservation organisation) campsites all over the place. At 6 hours past sunrise we were on our bikes and leaving Tallinn. Hopping between footpath, cycle route and road (not really too sure what the etiquette was for where cyclists were meant to be) it took a bit of navigating to find our route out of town. It was a long day but in heading along the coast it made a pleasant sight to see the ocean after 3 months. Upon finding our RMK campsite around 7pm in full sunlight, we found it was free of charge and had clean and well looked after facilities (including enclosed fire pits with rotating cooking rack) - the only drawback being you need to source your own water. Although daylight never seemed to cease we climbed into our tent and attempted to sleep - Kate wearing a bra over her eyes as an eye mask, something she has done every night since. We woke up to our surprise at 8am the next day and well rested.

Leaving Tallinn

10pm at the beach with the sunshine beaming

From our sea side camp we set off south towards Saaremaa Island with a stop off overnight camped nestled between two boat sheds on the bank of a river (and Calvin's worst mosquito experience ever).

Boat sheds camp - not sure if we were really allowed there, but the two fisherman on their boats didn't say a word about it

We took a quick 30 minute ferry ride over the strait and arrived on Mohu Island. From this island you can cycle 25km and then cross a man made causeway over to the bigger Saaremaa Island. Saaremaa island was a calm sanctuary for us. We rode along the coast and camped both beside the ocean and beside a small lake. As long as we weren't on a road that led to the main city then it was quiet riding with very little traffic. We were even in such a calm zone that we ventured to use the fancy log splitter beside the woodpile which left Calvin battling for 10 minutes to get a piece of wood unstuck, and we tried our hand at cooking pork belly over the campfire (delicious!).

Crossing on the very fast ferry

"Finally, toast!"

Making kindling

A feast of pork belly and grilled veges

But all good things must end and we ended up leaving the island on the first day of the summer festival holiday. We were lucky to be heading southeast as the masses of holiday makers flocked to the island for the long weekend. As we rode across the countryside that weekend we saw many a smouldering bonfire from the celebrations and encountered one especially drunk man at the supermarket who informed us, "I ride motorcycle! But my bike is with police. I am an anarchist. Are you with Swedebank? You like sauna [pronounced sonar]".

The next three days were spent taking many dirt and gravel back roads to the southern border with Latvia. We camped at old castle sites (Soontagana) from 1200AD, sites of ancient villages (Lohavere) and on the shores of a lake (Soontaga) always surrounded by the forest.

Searching for moose

Hoping like hell that our campsite would be at the end of this track

We have been treated to seeing many weird and wonderful things in Estonia; foxes darting across the road ahead of us, storks (not carrying babies though, to our surprise) and their insanely huge nests, bright blue beetles, green spiders that hide very well in the grass and many small snakes, mainly dead on the road with the exception of one hanging out of a storks mouth. We were incredibly surprised at the vast regions of forest and a huge number of neglected farm buildings which we assume are relics of the Soviet times.

Storks nest - often on olfactory power poles, or abandoned chimneys

Estonian roads are incredibly flat, but they offer a nice shoulder on the sealed roads, and are mostly compacted dirt roads that make for fast riding. The flat roads were a nice change and a relief to start with, but we eventually got a little bored of riding along flat roads through the never changing forests.

Once again in the south we found ourselves heading in to the wind, and the day we crossed over the border we found ourselves both battling strong headwinds and heavy rain into the unknown land of Latvia.