I am forever thankful to the logging truck driver who put their life at risk to save ours. We rode a small road downhill to a sudden stop at an intersection and saw a red truck in the distance to the left, also going downhill. The next time I looked up, it was in full career, wobbling while trying to make a bend and avoid hitting us. The driver zoomed past less than 2 metres away, a rush of air and stone chips in my face. The outside wheels of the fully loaded truck-and-trailer unit left the asphalt on the uphill, narrowly avoiding a roadside ditch, and the truck disappeared around a corner two seconds later.
That was the only potential incident in more than 1000 kilometres of cycling in Estonia. As much as we could, we avoided main roads and quickly found little traffic. At times we cycled on gravel, and sometimes on muddy tracks, especially in areas of forest or when approaching campsites. Cycleways there are few in Estonia but always welcome. Greg navigated with google maps or similar, and being pretty flat, Estonia has widespread and good cellphone coverage.
Our Surly Disc Truckers that we brought from New Zealand were a pleasure to ride. A strange name for a bicycle; these have 26-inch wheels and tyres, midway between that of a road bike and a mountainbike, ideal for Estonia. Tyre pressure is 60 psi, so smooth riding on tar seal. Only two punctures during the entire trip; Greg had none. We did find sand and grit clogging up the front derailleur, preventing gear changes. Not much to be done during a day’s cycling, particularly when it rained. Weather conditions generally were favourable, a comfortable 17-21 degC.
I was unused to cycling with panniers; we had a couple of Ortliebs at the back, superb kit, as well as a small backpack held with stretchies behind the seat on the bike rack, and a handlebar bag to carry a map, spare tube, tools etc. I did find it difficult to manoeuvre the bike when getting on and off, and spent most of the trip with cut legs from pedals and sprockets. Never mind.
We rarely travelled more than 60km in a day, often less; there was always plenty to do or see, whether a waterfall, meteorite crater, ruined buildings, old farmhouses, coastal cliffs, windmills, lighthouses, and of these, there were many. Most days we would stop at a café for pastries and coffee, and to make use of free Wi Fi to catch up with family and friends back home, and to manage our itinerary. We camped in Greg’s small, though rainproof tent for about half our time while travelling, the rest of it with Estonians we met, or at an Air B n B in Tallinn’s Kalamaja district.
Dinner on the road quickly took on a routine, pasta with either a tomato or pesto sauce, with bits of salami chopped into it, and, on a couple of occasions, parasol mushrooms that we’d found. The Estonians call these dinner plate-sized fungi suursirmik; they basically taste like paper, nonetheless, made for variety. Of an evening we would collect a bowlful or $20 worth of blueberries from the pine forest surrounding our camp, to have for breakfast the next day.
Early on in the trip we camped on the shores of the Baltic sea, which is almost freshwater, interestingly; we rinsed out our cycling clothes in it while enjoying an evening swim. The sun set at 9.45pm during this part of the trip, plenty of time to dry out stuff, and we were in our sleeping bags before dark. By the end sunset was at 8.15pm, though still a long twilight, the sun always taking a long slant to the horizon at our northern latitude of 58-59 degrees. We didn’t need any sunscreen against the northern sun, and golden light made for good photography. Insect repellent did get some use - but rarely. The mosquitoes are larger in Estonia than back home but weren’t plentiful. By far the biggest annoyance were ticks.
It took longer to get fully cycling fit than I imagined it would, a good two or three weeks. Comfortable riding by the end of the trip, having lifted our game around Otepää in south Estonia, where the countryside is wavy or gently rolling. On one or two days we actually felt tired and were glad of reaching our campsite.
I’ll not forget the end of our cycling. It took hours to clean our bikes and camping gear twice thoroughly before dismantling everything and packing our cardboard bike boxes for our return. I had brought 2 old tea towels from home for this purpose and left them behind, along with a teeshirt that had reached end of life.
Would I cycle tour in Europe again? Definitely.
Kommentare