Start point, Hestia Hotel Susi, Tallin, Estonia.
Finish point. Karlova Sadam Camping, Tartu, Estonia.
Distance. 180 Miles. In a roundabout way.
Total. 3230 Miles.
My intention for today was to visit the Estonian National Museum in Tartu, but upon researching it on the net last night it turns out it’s closed on Mondays, Bugger with a capital B, and so to plan B, I would take the Baltic coast road towards Russia up to Narva and then head south along the edge of Lake Peipus, which is the largest trans boundary lake in Europe, lying on the border between Russia and Estonia.
The first 70 miles or so are on a pretty bland twin lane highway heading directly east, its pleasing enough as theres green fields and forests to pass the time, you only get the odd glimpse of the Baltic Sea here and there if your lucky enough to be paying attention, Its a fairly busy route but its easy enough to stay on the inside lane at a steady pace passing the lorries as and when you need to, it’s nothing extraordinary but nice enough, and then its time to turn south towards Tartu itself and you start to head along the now single track road and most of the traffic has died down so its possible to go along at a snails pace and enjoy the ride.
As your driving along you get glimpses of the old soviet influences, the farm houses are pretty enough but when it comes to the outbuildings its a different kettle of fish all together, in most of Europe the farms and their buildings are built in a similar style and so look quite in keeping with everything else around them, not here, the amount of concrete and block work used for these large square blots on the landscape has to be seen to be believed, and when you pass any industrial complex its 10 times worse.
When I’m looking to photograph something it tends to be a case of oops I’ve passed a good pic there and so I turn around and stop, get out and take a pic, no problem in most of the places I’ve visited, but I got the feeling that even after 30 years of freedom theres still a distrust of anyone photographing anything here and as I drove off the main road a few times and went through tiny villages it was even more apparent that these people had been brought up with Stranger Danger being a matter of life or gulag.
So not many pics today, I don’t think I even went up a hill, let alone cross any bridges or through any tunnels, shame, I’m missing that a bit, but when I did get to Tartu and the campsite its a nice spot by the mariner, quite a few motorhomes in here but the campsites are few and far between over here, I had a pleasant enough meal and lounge about watching the boats go by so all in all a nice day but not a lot to write home about.
This is where I was heading for before I realised I didn’t have the time to get there, hows that for fate, I wouldn’t have got any where near the Northcape in that weather.
Delscampertour 