Test waking up with alarm and I hear it finally when it has repeatedly tried to wake me for 50 minutes.
It rains so I stay for some more time in my warm sleeping bag. After camp has been packed rain whizzes out. Still no reason to complain about heat and horseflies.
Signs announcing smoked fish hang above closed doors and empty counters. Damp picnic tables wait under apple trees loaded with white blossoms.
Mustvee. A city. In the harbor there has to be a man with a fork. There is. Harbor café Monstet is just being opened. A bunch of foreign cyclists are unloaded from a van with „Baltic adventures“ written on it and they all come in to pee. I take dumplings and tea. A group of Germans arrives.
Seems like it’s going to be a lot of sightseeing and eating today. Coastal area of lake Peipsi is known for old-believers and onion. Old-believers escaped from Russia somewhere in the middle of 17th century after a church reform. As the name says they didn’t agree with the changes and were persecuted there. So they found a safe haven in Estonia and number 15 000 today. They grow a lot of onion among other things.
Villages Raja, Kükita, Tiheda and Kasepää form one long row and the only way to know you’re in next village is to read bus stop signs. People renovate their houses and tend gardens and fight with grass and biological diversity.
I enter Tartu county.
Before Kallaste is smooth and fast asphalt with almost no traffic. It goes fast. I climb the watch tower. Exiting the city I suddenly remember that I didn’t see the sandstone wall. Leave the bike leaning against a tired bench I wander in the bush by the shore to go looking for Devon outcrop. Massive amount of seashells on the ground. The wall is impressive. There’s also the staircase which other people use. Those with clean pants. Bank swallows (sand martins) are not home.
Smooth asphalt continues until Alatskivi. I make a circle around Estonian Balmoral.
Close by is Kivi pub where one wall is filled with old cameras. Then I turn towards Nina. There are a lighthouse, church and straw houses. Kolkja onion restaurant is open only on weekends, there went my hope to get some coffee. The chicory museum which sign I saw earlier might have had coffee but the thought comes too late when I’m already half way to Varnja. On season it must be great here.
From Varnja to Koosa is headwind. Sun finally comes out and rapeseed starts to glow. From Koosa I turn towards Kavastu. Bus stop signs enable one to guess what was here: Tähemaa school, Tähemaa shop, Tähemaa post. In Tähemaa the long hiking trail joins my route and I start to remember things. It goes a lot faster by bike that it took walking.
Ruben from Kuu holiday farm has already left for Tartu. Why didn’t I call before. But before I did not know that it’s going to be such a sports day. He explains me where to get the key and where is water. Water in sauna is not as warm as Ruben thinks but an emergency wash can be done. The knee I landed on in the mine has a large blue area on one side and a small hole on the other. This was the better knee.
Today’s distance 102 km.
Signs announcing smoked fish hang above closed doors and empty counters. Damp picnic tables wait under apple trees loaded with white blossoms.
Mustvee. A city. In the harbor there has to be a man with a fork. There is. Harbor café Monstet is just being opened. A bunch of foreign cyclists are unloaded from a van with „Baltic adventures“ written on it and they all come in to pee. I take dumplings and tea. A group of Germans arrives.
Seems like it’s going to be a lot of sightseeing and eating today. Coastal area of lake Peipsi is known for old-believers and onion. Old-believers escaped from Russia somewhere in the middle of 17th century after a church reform. As the name says they didn’t agree with the changes and were persecuted there. So they found a safe haven in Estonia and number 15 000 today. They grow a lot of onion among other things.
Villages Raja, Kükita, Tiheda and Kasepää form one long row and the only way to know you’re in next village is to read bus stop signs. People renovate their houses and tend gardens and fight with grass and biological diversity.
I enter Tartu county.
Before Kallaste is smooth and fast asphalt with almost no traffic. It goes fast. I climb the watch tower. Exiting the city I suddenly remember that I didn’t see the sandstone wall. Leave the bike leaning against a tired bench I wander in the bush by the shore to go looking for Devon outcrop. Massive amount of seashells on the ground. The wall is impressive. There’s also the staircase which other people use. Those with clean pants. Bank swallows (sand martins) are not home.
Smooth asphalt continues until Alatskivi. I make a circle around Estonian Balmoral.
Close by is Kivi pub where one wall is filled with old cameras. Then I turn towards Nina. There are a lighthouse, church and straw houses. Kolkja onion restaurant is open only on weekends, there went my hope to get some coffee. The chicory museum which sign I saw earlier might have had coffee but the thought comes too late when I’m already half way to Varnja. On season it must be great here.
From Varnja to Koosa is headwind. Sun finally comes out and rapeseed starts to glow. From Koosa I turn towards Kavastu. Bus stop signs enable one to guess what was here: Tähemaa school, Tähemaa shop, Tähemaa post. In Tähemaa the long hiking trail joins my route and I start to remember things. It goes a lot faster by bike that it took walking.
Ruben from Kuu holiday farm has already left for Tartu. Why didn’t I call before. But before I did not know that it’s going to be such a sports day. He explains me where to get the key and where is water. Water in sauna is not as warm as Ruben thinks but an emergency wash can be done. The knee I landed on in the mine has a large blue area on one side and a small hole on the other. This was the better knee.
Today’s distance 102 km.
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