To Tuja

July 28, 2015

!@#% Latvia roads!

Whoever thought to make a bike route through deep sand has clearly never ridden a bike!

But I should start at the beginning. The hostess at the hostel gave me some hot water for coffee in the morning, and some honey with it. "Sugar bad, Estonian honey best". I took it with thanks, even though I don't usually sweeten my coffee. I packed up, and as I was leaving, she gave me a bag of cherries and in broken English wished me luck. I think there was one other guest there last night, and he had already left.

I went back to the secondary road, and was at the Latvian border within a kilometer or two.

I stopped and took some pictures, and then went on to Ainazi, the first town on the Latvian side. The information center wasn't open yet, so I looked at maps on line a bit, and then went on. The old road merged with the new highway, the Via Baltica, shortly, and went right into sections of road works. The road was down to one lane, and traffic was let go in the 2 directions alternately. There was a traffic light stopping traffic, but I couldn't tell how it was controlled. I walked my bike through some of the mess in the lane under construction, and then jumped onto the pavement after the last vehicle in the group. The first two sections worked well, with the opposite traffic getting a green light just as I made it through. I thought some must be watching me, and manually controlling the lights. Until the 3rd section, which was quite long. I was pedaling my heart out to get through, and all of a sudden there were cars coming at me. I ditched from the pavement onto the soft dirt and muck to the side, waited until the oncoming cars had passed, and got onto the pavement again. There were 4 sections of road works before Salacgriva.

I stopped in Salacgriva and visited the information center, and went into an electronics store and bought A Latvian SIM card. This one cost 3 euros, and includes 1.5 gig of data for one week. The guy in the store didn't speak English, so it was challenging, but he showed me the information on line, and set it up.

I have a security app on my phone. It sent me an e-mail with a picture of the guy who helped me out.

There was one more section of road work after Salacgriva. The bike route went back and forth between the very busy Via Baltica and some smaller roads and paths. Initially, I jumped off the highway right away. But I found very loose sandy roads and even just paths through a nature preserve, and they were difficult and at times impossible to ride.

This is a road. I went about half a kilometer, and then turned around and pushed back to the highway.

So I ended up choosing to ride the highway. The shoulder is less than a foot wide. Vehicles provide space when passing, except when there is oncoming traffic. Then they just hold their lane, and pass incredibly close. With the big trucks, it's scary, and I would give up the small paved shoulder for the gravel and dirt to the side.

I stopped for the night in Tuja, off the highway and by the sea. I went into a restaurant to grab some food before heading to a campground. There were 2 guys from France on bikes who were just leaving. They were headed to the next town south, but taking the highway rather than the designated bike route, because they'd been told that the bike route was "bullshit". I had something that seemed to be like chicken Kiev, but I have to say it was wonderful, probably the best meal I've had on this trip. And the cheapest!

Then I went to the campground called Kempings Jurasdzeni and set up for the night. It was an official campground, with toilets and coin operated showers and a washing up area and everything! The tenting area was just a big field, and I set up overlooking the sea. It was beautiful! Another cyclist showed up before long. He was Mike from England, and we had been on the same track without knowing it. We had even spent the same 2 nights in the same hostel in Parnu. I tend to be an early riser, and he sleeps in, so I guess we've been missing each other.

Rain had been threatening, and that was one of the reasons I stopped when I did. The clouds let go early evening, and it turned into a steady rain. I went to sleep with the sound of rain on my tent drowning out the sound of the surf from the sea.

Standing in the Baltic Sea. This was at a picnic area off the highway mid-ride today. Yes, I have sock tan lines.

Today's ride: 52 km (32 miles)
Total: 587 km (365 miles)

Rate this entry's writing	Heart	2
Comment on this entry	Comment	0