LITHUANIA into LATVIA
Off to country no #16
30th July - 3rd August | 2022
As this was one of the best places I have stayed so far, I asked the owner Jurate if I could stay another 2 nights. It was possible and she gave me a good rate - Aciu for that!
Even though I didn’t need the rest days, I simply loved the apartment! So I just chilled and binge-watched movies, and didn’t feel bad about it all! Due to the weather, I even stayed in total 3 nights :-D
Finally, then the weather got better and I headed off to the Latvian border but first visited the area of the water mill in Ginuciai. After that I thought "Why not a bit offroad", so I changed OsmAnd to unpaved road usage. What a blast! 60km fantastic, mainly fast offroad tracks!
Just before the border to Latvia I stopped at a petrol station for some lunch; had my dark bread sandwich, yummy! Finally, I can buy my favourite dark bread here :-D After that, I did another 70km until Raznas ezers (Lake), where I pitched up the tent. I hope it is allowed where I put up my tent, but there are fire pits and I cannot see on google that it is a protected area. 200m down from me was another place, more "official" as got toilette, but I was too scared that I will have some creepy visitors during the night. Also, it went a bit steep downhill, and my concern was the down and the up in the morning. Let’s hope for the best.
Ah yes, in Latvia you are not allowed to drink alcoholic drinks in public, not even in the forest, so my evening beer got hidden in my boots; very original ;-) And the beer tins got bigger again! Since Albania min. is 0.5l tins, now here it is min. 1 pint!
Also, everywhere here in the Baltics, it started already in Poland, there are blueberries everywhere in the forest. I forgot to buy some fruit for breakfast, but then remembered the blueberries ... so now I got some fresh fruits for breakfast.
I also took my Autan spray with me in the tent; surely can be used in the worst case to defend myself, plus a good sharp Solingen-pocket knife!
By the look at the map, I should come close to the Estonian border tomorrow as these countries are not very big in crossing South-North. And the weather should be good for another night in the tent.
It was my first night of wild camping. I felt pretty safe here in the Baltics so far, actually already in Poland. The only problem was, as soon as it was dark, somebody started cutting trees with a chainsaw somewhere around! In the dark!! That didn’t help to settle the mind initially! Once I got myself thinking positive, I fell asleep, well, on and off. However, early in the morning, I noticed, that there was not a single noise during the night - simply nothing! Also, in the morning it was not many birds singing, just one here or there.
After a nice breakfast with the blueberries, I remembered to oil the chain.
I managed to get the bike on the centre stand, but getting it down, it fell over. I already had the feeling when I looked at it ... Great, it took me 3 (!!) attempts to get it finally up!!
So the day really started well for me!
Actually, the rest of the day it was again super fast offroad tracks until Balvi, in total 200km so far. OK, OsmAnd occasionally had some funny ideas, but I then turned around and quickly found an alternative. What a blast, but it was in the end pretty tiring for me. The pick-up this morning didn’t help at all! And all the time I really had to concentrate due to the changing surface on these gravel roads: sometimes sand, sometimes wet patches, sometimes build-up corners, etc.
In Balvi, I did my shopping for the night and for tomorrow's breakfast. From here it was only another 40km to a camping place at the lake Alüksle. A lovely place directly at the lake. The sunset was really beautiful, like on a postcard. Whilst sitting in my tent and watching the beauty of it, I always heard a noise in the grass next to the tent. I peered twice out of my tent to find the source; it was a hedgehog! Well, at least I know that for tonight ;-)
Tomorrow I shall enter Estonia. Here I will reach the most Eastern and Northern points of this journey! I hope you enjoyed it so far, and that you will discover Estonia next together with me.
In the meantime in the Algarve, Portugal, James had to cancel the idea of the MotoCamp Algarve due to some family-related problems. Such a pity as he, and his mum, were really looking forward to the project. Hopefully, in the future, the project might get going!
Places | Cities:
LITHUANIA:
Ginuciai, Unalina, Salakas, Zarasai
LATVIA:
Daugavpils, Agiona, Rezekne, Balvi, Alüksne
Driven km | Trip:
Total | Steffi: 20250 km
Maintenance | Breakdown:
./.
Health issues:
./.
Special thanks to:
OsmAnd for providing some really fun-offroad (OK, still the odd no-go for me alone as well).
iOverlander for finding these great camping spots.