Subject:
[Davids-Cycle-Tour]: Report No. 3
From:
David Maden <david@maden.ch>
Date:
Sun, 29 Jun 2008 22:47:49 +0200
To:
cycle.tour.friends@maden.ch
 
Pärnu, Estonia, 29 June 2008, ca. 58 deg 22' 59" N
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Preamble ... since the last report, I've added quite a few names to my mailing list. If anyone would like their name deleted, or anyone would like to see some earlier reports, simply email me and I'll see what I can do.
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It was really quite a change getting to Lithuania (Littau) some 5 days ago. The life for the (western) tourist is really a lot easier in the Baltic states than in Poland. There are more people with a smattering of English, and even more people willing to be helpful.

To be fair to Poland, I had a severe attack of food poisoning 2 days after passing Warsaw, probably salmonella from a spaghetti carbonara. This had me making sure that a WC was within reach for 5 days, and rather damped my spirits. It probably had some influence on my feelings about my environment as well. Anyway, that's history now and my appetite is back to its normal level again.

Poland gets progressively more beautiful the further north that one gets. There are nice lakes and beautiful forests. I crossed uneventfully into Littau about 5 days ago and progressed via Kaunas (a sizeable town with some steep hills down to and back up from the river) and many other towns I had never heard of, eventually being forced into Riga 2 days ago to find a bank. LT, LV and EST are remarkably rural and unbelievably poor. One cycles for tens of km between hamlets, the only break to the scenery being the occasional bus stop and, even less often, a small town. Fortunately, I have so far had no further need of the tent. A hotel has always appeared at the right time, though it required a 15 km extension to the day on the way out of Riga to find one that I was prepared to afford.

In the last 2 days I have been avoiding main roads to get away from the traffic and going onto some unclassified roads. These turned out to be a mix of sand and gravel, at first very distressing as the heavy bicycle swam around in the morass. But, after a while, one even gets used to that, and can cruise along at between 15 and 20 kph, when it's not uphill. Now I am in Pärnu on the Baltic coast, some 130 km south of Tallinn. If the wind blows strongly from the south tomorrow, I might make Tallinn tomorrow evening, but more likely on Tuesday. Then it's a ferry to Helsinki and back to western European prices.

As I said in a previous report, Internet access is incredibly difficult to find if one doesn't have one's own laptop, at least at the right time of day. But, I'll try to submit further reports whenever possible. Thanks to all those who sent their encouragement and other comments to my previous reports.

Best wishes,

David

PS. For those of you who are really interested, there are some (unedited
and unnotated) photos available under

       www.maden.ch/2008a-nordkapp/allPhotos/

I'm afraid that they are all a bit big though.