ManVanNoPlan Visits RMK Karpi, Parnu, Tallinn & Tartu
ManVanNoPlan Visits RMK Karpi, Parnu, Tallinn & Tartu
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Day 27 – Sunday 30th of July
Riga to Karpi Camping (57.938785, 24.391036) (76 Miles)
Today was another momentous day for us as we are heading into Estonia, new country number four for us on this trip. Before that however we had to service Bessie for the journey and it was while filling up with water that we met fellow Brits who were waiting behind us to do the same.
They had set off from Cornwall, driven to Scotland and completed the NC500 before heading to Harwich for the ferry to the Hook of Holland, then to Scandinavia before taking the ferry from Helsinki to Tallin so they were now heading south with three weeks left of their ninety day Schengen allowance. What a trip, and all that distance in an old ‘E’ registered motorhome!
So, what did we think of Riga? Due to the compact size of the Old Town, it is easy to walk around so if you wanted to fly in for a weekend city break it is perfect in that respect. Being a capital city it is fairly cosmopolitan so whatever food you like you will find it here, but the Latvian cuisine is well worth trying. We didn’t drink any alcohol, but beer is widely advertised at € 4 a pint but we noticed in the shops bottles of wine start at about € 7 upwards, which is at least double that of Germany and Poland, so we will wait before topping up Bessie’s cellars on the way back.
The languages of all the Baltic countries of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia are often grouped together due to historical and regional similarities, but each has its own distinct language – and none of these countries’ official languages belong to the Slavic language family, which Russian, Polish, and Ukrainian belong to, but to be honest they do sound a bit Russian to the untrained ear. Most people you come into contact with either speak, or understand, English so there are no problems in that respect.
The currency of all three Baltic States is the Euro so on this trip it is only Poland that still has its own currency, the Zloty, but because there are five Zloty to the pound it is simple to work out the value of everything, as long as you remember your five times table.
Riga is certainly worth visiting, I’m not so sure about the rest of Latvia however as from what we’ve seen so far, it is very flat and featureless!
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Getting out of Riga was fairly straight forward as it was basically the one road out of the city until it turns into a motorway on the outskirts. Even when the motorway ends the single lane carriageway is wide and straight as a die for mile after mile. Although most of the roads are single carriageway there is a narrow hard shoulder and lorries especially drive half on it to let other cars etc get past.
We were heading up the coast to a campsite about an hour and a half north of Riga but I managed to overshoot the left turn into the entrance so we just kept on driving for another 17km to the next stopover we had planned just over the border in Estonia.
It would be an over simplification to say that all the Baltic countries are only covered in forests and wheat fields, but they ARE all covered in forests and wheat fields!
Estonia has an organisation called RMK which is the state owned forestry management organisation, similar to our Forestry Commission and they have many places in amongst the forest where you can camp for free and it’s on one of those sites that we are parked tonight, called Karpi Camping. There are few facilities, although there are loads of metal barbecues scattered about with free wood for burning, and there are some covered picnic tables along with a few huts containing a toilet for campers.
We parked in the main car park at the entrance and The Navigator rustled up lunch while I had a walk to see if the track was suitable for Bessie. Convinced it was, we drove into the forest for a few hundred yards to find a level spot under some huge pine trees. The sandy beach runs for most of the Latvian and Estonian coast and is only about twenty yards from the van.
If you think The Navigator looks concerned in the above picture – she is! We watch a lot of YouTube videos of people touring about in motorhomes and campervans and most take the opportunity to swim wherever they are, be it in rivers, lochs or the sea. I had said to The Navigator that we were going for a swim in the Baltic Sea and this was probably going to be the last opportunity to do so.
We had a walk onto the beach which was deserted now as most people, who were here for the weekend, had left for home. Our plan to take a dip in the Baltic Sea to see if it was ‘Baltic’ as we Scots say, was thwarted by quite heavy rain which is also not ideal if you’re parked under trees!
Maybe we can have a dip tomorrow if its dry, but the forecast is not good for the rest of the week. At this point I will note for the record The Navigator’s reluctance to even dip her toes in the sea!
Day 28 – Monday 31st of July
Karpi Camping to Pärnu (58.385294, 24.525600) (50 Miles)
I’m not sure if it rained during the night or not as I fell into a deep sleep after lights out. Because there was no wind to speak of there wasn’t any rustling sounds coming from the trees all around us but you could hear the waves lapping onto the beach nearby. All in all a great place to camp.
So much for the weather forecast! The expected rain has not materialised and the sunrise is casting a dappling effect through the trees. As it was dry, if not exactly warm, I informed The Navigator that I was going for a dip in the Baltic which, against her better judgement it must be said, she decided to do as well. Only one of us can swim, and it’s not me, so the dip was really only going to be walking into the sea, and probably straight back out again, especially if the Baltic lives up to its reputation for being freezing cold.
And that’s exactly what happened. Straight in to waist level and straight back out again! In Scottish and Irish slang we use the word ‘Baltic’ to denote a freezing cold windy day and although this was the last day of July and quite mild, the water was ‘Baltic’ in all senses of the word.
A hot shower revived us followed by breakfast and a relaxing morning. After lunchtime we set off for the City of Pärnu, about an hour further up the coast. Just before we left, I went over to examine a wheelchair that had sat since yesterday apparently abandoned and I thought it strange that if you are in a wheelchair it would not be the sort of thing you’d forget to take with you!
It was obvious that it had been there for some time by the condition of it but what made me laugh was the above drawing on a piece of card that someone had left on the seat. It reads, “Jeta & Rasmus, Nils & Karl, Madli & Vallo, then below, Heidi No Man only ugly.” Judging by the drawing the wheelchair looks as though it might have belonged to Vallo, but we will never know…
“Pärnu is the fourth largest city in Estonia and is situated in the southwest of the country, some 128 kilometres (80 miles) south of the Estonian capital, Tallinn. The city sits off the coast of Pärnu Bay, an inlet of the Gulf of Riga, which is a part of the Baltic Sea and the Pärnu River drains into the Gulf of Riga at this point, bisecting the city.
“Pärnu beach is the reason that the city is visited by hundreds of thousands of tourists every summer. It is the biggest and most beautiful beach in Estonia. In 2018, Lonely Planet included Pärnu in its list of top ten lesser-known beach cities in the world. With its warm (?) and shallow water and sandy beach, and thanks to the good conditions, Pärnu beach has been named one of the Scandinavian tourist paradises.”
Yesterday we left the main road and travelled up a country road for about 5km to the parking spot in the forest, crossing a border point from Latvia into Estonia as we did so. Today we are retracing our steps to get back onto the main road, so crossing the border back into Latvia, before then heading north on the main road and through another border crossing into Estonia!
An hour later we were in what looked to be a brand new Lidl and it was pretty busy. Food prices were on average higher than at home, but one bargain was a bag of frozen meat filled Pierogi which cost all of € 2 and will probably make three meals, one of which we had later.
The campsite was easily enough found and it was well situated on the banks of the Pärnu River. The girl on reception said there were only two spaces left as most pitches were reserved so we settled on the best of the two she showed us. We sat out in the shade created by Bessie and over the course of the next couple of hours we watched the same girl show about a dozen vans into the area we were on for unreserved vans. By the evening all one hundred of the pitches were taken and a Conservative estimate is that at least eighty of them are taken by Finnish vans.
As we are pitched next to the entrance to our section, everyone passed us and we had chats to three of the Finnish campers especially one man who spoke very good English as our Finnish is a tad rusty. Estonian is the sixth different language we have encountered on this trip and we’ve managed to be understood so far thanks to English (with a Scottish twist) being the universal language.
The campsite is right on the river and we had an evening stroll before the approaching deluge of the next few days arrived.
Day 29 – Tuesday 1st of August
Pärnu (0 Miles)
Pärnu is a beach resort, which means it needs to be bright and sunny to be seen at its best. Unfortunately it poured down all night and showers were forecast for most of the day.
The plan was to cycle into the town and the beach but not while it’s chucking it down. We had breakfast and watched the exodus of most of the Finnish vans who were heading for the Tallin to Helsinki ferry this afternoon.
There was a brief respite from the rain around about 10am so we dressed appropriately and headed off cycling along the riverside cycle path. We came first to the town gate and a parkland area before arriving at the mouth of the river.
Pärnu has always been an important harbour. To prevent sand build-up at the mouth of the river, in the 19th-century merchants ordered the construction of breakwaters and jetties made of logs to be built.
After they collapsed, local farmers brought large stones from their fields and the two-kilometre long jetties have remained unchanged and have become popular walking destinations for holidaymakers. The jetty on the left bank of the river has even become the symbol of Pärnu. You can walk there along the boardwalk from the beach park. At times, the jetty may be completely underwater, but when the water level is low, you can see the ends of the wooden poles of the previous structure.
According to one legend, walking to the end of the jetty and kissing there brings good luck to couples. Needless to say that never happened in our case as sadly the sea was breaking over the stones so we could not get out to the end…
From there we cycled along through a well kept park to the beach but although it was very mild, bordering on warm, the threat of rain meant not many people were there today.
The town centre of Pärnu is not particularly impressive. There is one long pedestrianised street and for some reason wool shops are in proliferation, maybe its the long dark nights! What is also in abundance are restaurants and cafes with outside seating areas and a few hardy souls were sitting out under big umberellas or awnings. What is remarkable about the rain is it goes off for a period then it instantly becomes torrential.
The Navigator was on the lookout for an authentic Latvian restaurant for lunch but we passed a pizza restaurant which had a picture of a pizza in the window which intrigued her as it was a salmon and avocado pizza, two of her favourite foods, but the restaurant was closed. Plus, she could not reconcile the fact that the avocado might be hot, so we moved swiftly on.
We then found a restaurant, the Nikolai Lehtla, that ticked all the boxes, a great menu and sitting outside under an awning. We both ordered the same thing, ‘Mandli Paneeringus Kanafilee’ which is translated as, chicken fillet in almond crust with turmeric and chilli sauce on a bed of carrot and potato puree. It was a taste sensation, and along with my birthday lunch in Gdansk, was a very memorable meal.
The description of the restaurant says, “By the way, folklore says that Tsar Nicholas II’s gazebo once stood on this spot, where he quietly sipped beer on hot summer days. Nicholas II is said to have been a gentle man, and we also have a lot of respect for him, not as a ruler, but as a person who liked good food and drink.”
If we had been staying over another day I’m convinced The Navigator would have been back for another Mandli Paneeringus Kanafilee which I would not have objected to, but at least she has promised to recreate this meal when we get home, and I’ll hold her to that promise!
Following another walk around the town again, sheltering from the rain at some points, we headed back to the bikes and cycled back to Bessie via a huge new looking shopping complex where I bought a delicious cake to have with a cuppa later.
The bikes were stowed in the garage right away on our return as another shower was not far away, and in fact it rained most of the evening and through the night.
Day 30 – Wednesday 2nd of August
Pärnu to Saue (59.330573, 24.540223) (72 Miles)
Tallinn, the capital of Estonia is not well served with places to park a motorhome officially, apart from normal car parks, which we would never use in a city, so we are staying at the Vanamõisa Caravan Park, which is to the south west of the city in the countryside and the plan is to explore Tallinn for two full days making use of the train connection from the village.
After servicing the van in Pärnu between rain showers, we headed off northwards on the E67 which is a great road to drive, having a good smooth surface and long straights. It’s single carriageway most of the way and only turns into dual carriageway about fifteen miles from Tallin. The scenery is not particularly interesting, just flat fields and forests, but at least it looks to be well managed.
About ninety minutes after leaving Pärnu, we arrived at the campsite on the outskirts of Saue. It was only opened in 2015 after the owners toured Europe in their own motorhome and noted the best features of the campsites they stayed at to incorporate in the campsite they were going to build.
And they have thought of everything and we can honestly say it’s the best equipped campsite we’ve ever been on and for € 28 ( £ 24.08) it is far better than UK Caravan Club sites at twice the price. It rained on and off all afternoon and I used the strong wi-fi and power to finish off the week three blog.
A few of the vans that came in after us we recognised from the site at Pärnu including a Finnish couple. We had talked to the woman, who spoke good English as she passed our van but she was not a happy bunny and was complaining about the mosquitos and rain in the east of Estonia where they had toured. As things hadn’t really improved for them in Pärnu they had booked a ferry from Tallinn to Helsinki tomorrow, although I’m not sure either the weather or mosquitos will be any better back in Finland!
Our neighbours are Finnish YouTubers and he came to ask questions about touring England as they are heading there for a month’s holiday soon. The couple have two cats with them and it’s always an odd sight to see people walking cats round a site on a lead.
We had a walk around the site in the evening and saw outfits from almost every northern European country except the UK and that was the case on our last two stopovers as well. This is the furthest point away from home and according to Google Maps we are 1,468 miles from the Hook of Holland and our return ferry, while it’s only 246 miles to the beautiful city of St Petersburg in Russia. I wonder if the political situation in the region was ‘normal’ would we have been tempted to make the five and a half hour drive to visit it. We will never know now!
Day 31 – Thursday 3rd of August
Saue (0 Miles)
Tallin – Day1
Today we are heading into Tallinn for the first of our two day visits to what we’ve been told is the prettiest of the capital cities of the three Baltic States. The forecast isn’t great and its meant to rain at some point later in the day but we are togged up and prepared for whatever the heavens may throw at us. The problem with that is that although we have prepared for rain, it’s still very warm so the added waterproof clothing doesn’t add to the comfort of walking around a city centre.
The train station is a good fifteen minute walk from the campsite and its not really a ‘station’, just a platform with no buildings and no ticket machine. Once on the train a conductor helped me figure out the ticket machine and it cost £ 4.44 into central Tallin for both of us. The machine did not issue a ticket and if she hadn’t been standing beside the machine when we got on I’m not sure how we would have convinced her I had bought the tickets!
The train looked brand new and was smooth and almost silent. It had a huge toilet compartment and hooks above one window which baffled us until someone got on with a bicycle.
It took about half an hour to get into Tallinn as it never really got a good head of steam up (boom boom) as it made stops every few miles. Transport in Tallin is well coordinated as the train terminus is next to stops for both busses and trams.
Across the road from the station is a state of the art market on three levels with fresh fruit and vegetables on display and a food court that we would return to later on. Once we had a look around we headed into the city centre and the Old Town. This is the second of our Baltic State capital cities and it will be interesting to see how Tallinn compares to Riga and with Vilnius still to come next week. One of the guide book states,
“All three cities have unique offerings and cultures and it can be tricky to decide between visiting Tallinn or Riga or Vilnius. Tallinn has the medieval charm of the Old Town and fantastic craft beer, Riga boasts incredible Art Noveau architecture and an elegant and cosmopolitan vibe while Vilnius has one of the largest Old Towns in Europe and an inviting laidback culture.”
Well, we are not here for the craft beer, so the Old Town would be our main focus of attention, and to be honest it was a slow burn. There are many old buildings and those of any significance had information on a clear plastic notice on it with details like who built it, what was it used for etc, etc.
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The first building we went in was St Olav Church which has a substantial tower which you could climb for € 5 or visit the church for free, and we chose the latter option not surprisingly. We would go on to count five church towers that could be climbed in Tallinn and we resisted the temptation at every one!
It was only when we reached the Raekoja Plats (main square) that there was a genuine wow factor and you had to sit in the conveniently provided seating in the square centre to appreciate the old town hall and all the other historic buildings.
By the time we were in the heart of the Old Town it was lunch time but although some of the menus looked tempting, they were priced to fleece the tourists so we decided that our pensions could be better spent back at the market near the train station and that’s where we headed.
There is a good selection of places to choose from, and being a food court you could mix and match your choice. There were many tempting foods on offer and we decided first to share a Pierogi type with a salmon and shrimp filling which was superb and The Navigator rated it the best she’s tried on this trip. After that I had a Honey Chicken dish and The Navigator had Noodles with Shrimp, again both were excellent and at least half the price we would have paid in the Old Town.
We then headed up to the district that’s on a hill top with great views over the city, the harbour and out to sea in the distance. There were four huge ferries in the harbour and we watched a Viking Lines ferry depart for Finland. Out of curiosity I priced a sailing to Helsinki tomorrow for us and Bessie one way and it was only £ 118.00 which is not too bad for a two hour crossing.
The stand out building in this part of the city was the Aleksander Nevski Kathedraal, a hugely impressive Russian Orthodox Cathedral with a very different look on the outside with its black tiled domes and mosaics. Inside was stunning with many golden objects on display, but oddly no pews to sit and take in the magnificent interior. There was a strict no photograph rule which was enforced by a caretaker who watched everyone carefully, and rightly threw out a man who refused to take his baseball cap off.
As we left the Cathedral the forecast heavy rain started to fall so our umbrellas were pressed into service. We had walked up a steep street to get to the view point and Cathedral but came down a very steep set of stairs made treacherous by the rain making them slippery. The steps brought us down through a part of the old city walls and impressive they were.
It was three o’clock by this time and the prospect of trudging round in the teeming rain was not appealing in the least so we headed for the station, but got drawn back to the market where we had our usual three o’clock cuppas and a shared honey cake which was probably the most expensive cake we’ve had, but probably the best as well. I mentioned previously the Europeans reluctance to actually make tea for you and this picture highlights that fact!
It wasn’t raining when we got off the train at Saue, but we just made it back to Bessie before the most incredible torrential rain came on and lasted for a couple of hours.
Day 32 – Friday 4th of August
Saue (0 Miles)
Tallinn – Day 2
The intention today was to take the train back into Tallinn and see some of the Old Town we missed out on yesterday, only it was raining rather heavily, so Plan A was on hold until the rain eased. The third blog in this series was almost ready to go online so this morning I finished it off and The Navigator checked it before I uploaded it at lunchtime.
The rain gradually eased and by the time we were ready to set off for Tallinn there were blue skies and it looked as though this afternoon would be dry for walking around the city centre. The trains are pretty frequent on this line and one turned up within ten minutes of us arriving at the station and off we went. There is an easy to use ticket machine which can be used in English and credit card only, however it doesn’t issue a printed ticket or receipt as I found out yesterday.
There is a conductress on board and we were unsure how we could prove we had bought tickets from the machine so we waited to pay her as her machine printed a ticket, and gave us a discount for being seniors! Within half an hour the blue skies of Saue had given way to grey skies in Tallinn but our first stop was indoors, the superb indoor market to have lunch again. We thoroughly enjoyed what we had yesterday and the temptation was to have the same again but we both chose something different. I had a very tasty kebab meat with chips of a sort (not very Estonian I know) but The Navigator over compensated for my lack of culinary adventure by having two Estonian courses, the first was Borsch, a beetroot based soup followed by Pierogi again, this time with a lamb and garlic filling, which was good, just not as good as yesterday’s salmon and shrimp filling.
Duly fortified we headed off to explore the city but had to linger at the exit of the market as the rain was lashing down. The rain showers back home seems to last longer and phase on and off, where here they are fairly violent and shorter in duration, so within fifteen minutes we could leave the confines of the market.
First stop was to take in the impressive city walls where the oldest sections were started as far back as the 13th century. During the next three centuries, it became one of the largest and strongest defence systems in entire Northern Europe. More than half of the magnificent defence system has been preserved as a city wall – this includes 1.85 km of the wall, 26 defence towers, 2 gates and fragments of two front gates and a number of towers are open for visitors.
From there we gravitated back to the Central Square which was seemingly busier today, before continuing on along a wide pedestrian street called Harju, which had been heavily bombed in a Soviet air raid back on the 9th of March 1944, although for the next fifty years the Soviets disputed that it was their 280 aircraft!
Over 700 people were killed and 20,000 were made homeless overnight as 5,100 buildings were pulverised or subsequently demolished. Today, one side of the street has been left as gardens and an area to rest and remember those who perished here. Further on there is a large open space with the St John’s Church, a 19th century Lutheran Church on one side and the War of Independence Victory Monument, which is impressive, but apparently more so at night when it lights up.
Also in this area close to the Cathedral is a monument to Eduard Vilde, a revered Estonian writer.
By this time it was late afternoon, and as the skies were darkening over again we headed back through the main square and on to the station where a train was waiting to take us back to Saue. This is our fourth train journey to and from Tallinn and every journey has had a ‘mature’ conductress with dyed ginger hair, which hopefully is their choice and not a condition of their employment!
Reflections on Tallinn. Weather plays an important part in your memories of a place and it was not as kind to us in Tallinn as it was in Latvia’s capital, Riga.
Tallinn is the capital city of Estonia and was first established in the early medieval era, today’s Tallinn is an impressive mix of old and new and with it being such a compact capital city, you can cover a lot in just a couple of days.
Tallinn Old Town is one of the best preserved Hanseatic town centres in the world but there is also a modern business centre with glass towers and luxurious hotels, trendy neighbourhoods and large shopping centres, although we never made it out to these areas. Another area we never made it to was Tallinn’s coastline which is dotted with promenades and sandy beaches. Tallinn is the first point of entry to Estonia for most visitors, and regardless of you arrive by motorhome, plane, train or ferry, it is well worth at least a two day visit. To think Estonia has only been independent from Russia since 1991, it has come a long way to come up to western standards since then.
Day 33 – Saturday 5th of August
Saue to Tartu (58.369505, 26.743348) (116 Miles)
From Tallinn it is all down hill from here and the start of our journey back to the Hook of Holland, although we still have 52 days left of this trip and ambitious plans to see a lot more places we have never been before. Today we head south east to Estonia’s second largest city, Tartu. No, I’ve never heard of it either, but Estonia is more than its capital Tallinn and visiting the country’s second biggest city will give us a more rounded view of Estonia.
The site we were going to didn’t accept arrivals until 1pm according to its website so there was no need to leave at the crack of dawn, so it was just after 10am before we left the site at Saue. The Vanamõisa Caravan Park must be one of the best sites in Estonia and it was the perfect base to explore Tallinn via the nearby railway line.
Today’s journey was fairly straight forward as the capital and the number two city are connected by a great road system, or, it will be once its finished! The motorway / dual carriageway looks to be fairly new and is a road that the Roman road builders of old would be proud of as its as straight as a die for mile after mile.
As per the rest of the Baltic States the scenery is dead flat and a mix of forests and massive fields, mostly in wheat. The only thing that made us pay attention as we trundled along were the regular signs warning of Elk potentially leaving the cover of the forest to wander onto the road. Apparently there are 12,000 wild Elk in Estonia but there were none to be seen in the fields, forests or on the road which is a probably a good thing as you wouldn’t want to hit one at speed as they are a big old beasts.
The pictures and YouTube videos I’ve seen of Tartu concentrate on its Old Town but as we approached the outskirts and drove through the city centre it was surprisingly modern and bustling, but given it was a Saturday lunchtime that shouldn’t have been a surprise.
The Karlova Harbour Caravan Park is half Caravan park and half marina for the small armada of speed boats that ply the inland waterways here. Probably because it was a Saturday and very warm there were dozens of people out on the water, either fishing or just cruising up and down.
We had a barbecue washed down with a fairly decent bottle of Riesling and sat out until eight o’clock when a combination of midges and a few spits of rain forced us indoors. The rain was forecast and not as severe as we’ve had and continued overnight before it cleared up to another warm sunny day.
“Tartu is the second largest city in Estonia after Tallinn. Tartu has a population of 97,435 (as of 2023). It is 186 kilometres (116 miles) southeast of Tallinn and 245 kilometres (152 miles) northeast of Riga, Latvia. Tartu lies on the Emajõgi river, which connects the two largest lakes in Estonia, Lake Võrtsjärv and Lake Peipus. From the 13th century until the end of the 19th century, Tartu was known in most of the world by variants of its historical name Dorpat.”
The overnight rain gave way to a bright sunny morning and the plan today was to cycle into the city to see the Old Town Square in particular as it is the photograph you see if you Google Tartu. There was no point going in too early as, this being a Sunday morning, most places will be slow to open. This is how the Old Town Square should look like…
It was an easy enough cycle in as there was a combination of cycle paths and wide pavements which was a relief for The Navigator. We cycled straight to the Old Town Square and, oh dear, it was not looking its best for two reasons.
First. There was an open air film festival on here last week, finishing last night, so workmen were busy taking down all the seating and equipment as well as the frames of stalls that catered for the crowd.
We had a walk about the historic area just off the main square and crossed the river to see some statues in a park. It was a pleasant area and it would have been better if we had come to see it yesterday afternoon when all the activities were on, but we had no idea it was on, and we needed the relax after two fairly hectic days sightseeing in Tallinn.
It was a scorcher today and as it was now lunchtime it was getting busier with people making the best of the weather and the chance to treat themselves to lunch as we would do too. We only needed a snack as The Navigator was making a meal later so we chose to eat at Hesburger, a major rival to McDonalds in all of the Baltic States, although they hail from Finland. The meal was excellent and the chips in particular got a five star review from The Navigator.
There was a farmers market on beside the river but it didn’t detain us as it was mostly flowers and fruit and vegetables and we were not needing any today so we continued cycling back to the campsite. We were the only van there when we left this morning, everyone else having moved on, but there were another five vans beside us when we returned.
The temperature had really cranked up and it was sweltering as we sat in the shade of Bessie and we had our regular video call with the family who were also enjoying good weather in Leeds and Northern Ireland. We had dinner outside then I sat out until nine o’clock but a wasp took a particular liking to The Navigator so she retired indoors.
We packed away the chairs and bikes as we are moving on tomorrow and crossing into Latvia again.
Day 34 – Monday 7th of August
Tartu to Zorģi (56.563543, 24.168013 ) (184 Miles)
We were the first van to leave the site today and that’s a statement I don’t often make. Now the first far from mundane thing to occur was with Google Maps. Previously I had checked today’s route and it was just over two hours door to door but when I entered our destinations coordinates this morning, the time to get there was going to be nearer four hours!
It turns out that because we were parked at a marina right on the river bank, for some bizarre reason Google thought Bessie was a boat and was on the river Emajõgi and that we had to ‘sail’ to a slipway in completely the wrong direction towards the Russian border before we could get back on dry land and a road.
Within a few yards of driving out of the marina Google twigged its mistake and re-routed us and pointed us in the right direction. Today was one of the best drives we’ve had in the Baltic States as it was on a great surface and through some very scenic countryside, and surprisingly, through rolling countryside. Estonia wins hands down for having the best road surfaces
The site I had picked was in the Gaujas National Park and looked a superb site from the brochure we had, but we were going to be there just after 11am and I thought that it would be a waste of a day to stop this early in the morning, so I kept on driving in the general direction of Riga where we’d skirt round the bypass to head south.
We came to a fairly large town called Varga which had some interesting old wooden houses with some in a better state of repair than others. As I turned a right hand corner The Navigator informed me we were now in Latvia as I had missed seeing the standard country roadsign which was really strange as when you cross what was a border between two countries you usually see the dilapidated buildings that used to house customs and other border officials, but in Valka as it was now called in Latvian, there was nothing like that at all.
I should have guessed we had crossed into Latvia as the road instantly became rougher and had pot holes which had to be avoided. When we were through the town and back out into the countryside we hit road works which would last more than twenty odd miles for resurfacing work to be carried out.
The outside temperature gauge on the dash board recorded 90° and we had the air conditioning on full blast trying to keep cool but that was about to change. We stopped at one of the junctions on the Riga bypass at a Circle K service station and had a quick bite to eat before continuing on. We soon recognised the road we were now on was the one we had driven on the way from Rundales Palace into Riga but things were about to get a tad hairy driving wise.
Heading south from Riga we encountered this road sign which freaked The Navigator out as she thought I might turn left, but its not everyday you see a road sign for Moscow…
Off in the distance we could see some inky black clouds and the temperature gauge tumbled from 90° to 65° in a matter of minutes and it started to rain like you have never seen. I should at this point say that we were following a white British registered Peugeot van driving without lights on and I lost sight of him even though I knew he was right in front of me as our wiper blades could not clear the windscreen of the deluge.
He eventually put his lights on which gave me a clue how far in front he was but thankfully Google was telling me that the campsite I had picked was only about ten miles away on the other side of the town of Icecava, which I remembered as having an outstanding building with a blue tiled roof and a gold dome, called (I looked it up) Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
A few miles further on there had been an accident, probably in the worst of the conditions, and a tanker lorry and a car were in a field on my right hand side. It looked pretty serious for the car as the roof was squashed down and the police van in attendance had covered the windows with blankets. Not a good sign unfortunately.
The Labirinti campsite is in the little hamlet of Zorģi and we were glad to get off the main road as the conditions were still horrendous and our mundane day cranked up a notch. As we drove into the campsite we could instantly see it was a working farm and there were four farm workers standing about in the rain like drowned rats. The chief drowned rat turned out to be the farmer himself and he motioned for us to pull over where he explained in passable English that we couldn’t go onto the campsite field as it was too wet, but he did guide us on to a bit of grass beside a metal barn that was less of a quagmire than the rest of the place.
The Navigator was more than apprehensive at this point as we were obviously the only campers here, but relieved that we were off the treacherous main road. She thought that she would not be able to get out of Bessie due to the underfoot conditions, but the farmer said he would go and get a ‘carpet’ to place outside the door. The ‘carpet’ turned out to be a pallet!
The farmer turned out to be the loveliest man you could ever meet and was so helpful and friendly, made even more so when in conversation it came out that he had once visited Edinburgh on a trip with other farmers. Not only did he help The Navigator programme the washing machine (No 11 is the best programme by the way if you are ever here) but he then let her hang the wet clothes in an upstairs rental property that was not let tonight.
After we were settled for the afternoon, the torrential rain came on again in earnest with the most amazing thunder and lightning just above us which literally made The Navigator jump at one point. The consequence of this was the electricity cut off but the farmer came over to tell us it was the whole village that had a power cut and it should be back on within three hours, which it was.
We are using this site purely as a stopover on our way from Tartu to Vilnius but the site is so well equipped with things to do, especially for children that it merits staying longer, including seeing the three resident white storks.
The next blog will be action packed as we visit two capital cities with two full days exploring both..
This map shows the approximate route we have taken on this blog as part of our 2023 Road Trip…
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COMING SOON ON THE NEXT BLOG...
The next blog will be action packed as we visit two capital cities with two full days exploring both…
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