Day 2 - Jumpravmuiza to Incukalns 53km 10hs 15mins

Mill near Jumpravmuiza

My breakfast arrived by car at the hut at 6am. Delicious porridge and 6 succulent strawberries. (now in season in Latvia). I was on my way at 6:30am. There was a mist over the lake but the sun was up. Lija said she saw the sun rise this morning at about 3:15am before she went to sleep. 


Lots of walking through countryside but fortunately the township of Ledurga had 3 shops and food for lunch and water to take with me. I saw my first wildlife today. A fox in a field, a rabbit, a stoat or something similar and a small mole about 6 inches long, dead on the road. The moles create havoc by digging holes wherever anybody tries to plant lawn or grass.

Mole (not just playing dead)

Much hotter today. foolishly I had left out the sunscreen from my pack but at Incukalns there was a chemist and I bought both sunburn cream and sunscreen for tomorrow. I hope it doesn't rain as I feel I am tempting fate. Raimonds has apparently told Anita that it won't rain for the wedding because he has information from a friend in the Army meterology section that it will be fine. 

Strops guest house, Incukalns (5:30am next morning)

Anita made the arrangements for my accommodation for tonight with Vizma. Unfortunately the people actually here knew nothing about the reservation although I seem to be the only guest. My host prefers to speak to me in English (he spent a year in London although he did not like the fact that there were so many immigrants there). He was doubtful whether the local kafejnica would have anything other than pork. However, he came with me to help me choose and found there was both fish and chicken on the menu. At his suggestion i also had a carrot salad. 


My breakfast tomorrow will be 2 hard boiled eggs because I want to leave as soon as I can after 5am. 

Muiza at Igate (before Ledurga)

There is about 40km tomorrow and I must get there in time to have a shower and shave before the wedding at 2pm. If I can make it tomorrow to Ogre, I will probably be able to finish the last day to the border, although it will be about 60km all up. 


Apparently Anna Zigure is arranging a newspaper interview when I reach Skaistkalne. I hope the reporter speaks English, although it may be the same reporter from Bauska that interviewed me at Anna's suggestion 4 years ago. 

Day 1 - Ainazi to Jumpravmuiza - 57km - 8hrs 52min

A very hard day - the longest distance I have ever covered in a day in Latvia. Breakfast was obligingly served an hour early so that I could make a start at 7:30 full of omelette and porridge. The first 2 hours to Salacgriva was largely along the main Riga-Tallin highway. The verge was easy to walk on but the noise of the traffic was off-putting. At one stage I tried a track parallel to the highway but within the forest. I was soon driven back to the main road by the voracious mosquitoes.

Salacgriva port

Salaca river

"Home of Bormanis" (nearly)

Salacgriva has a small port where the Salaca river meets the Gulf of Riga. Three years ago I crossed the river upstream at Mazsalaca (Little Salaca) on my south to north walk. Salacgriva has many attractive features particularly around the river and the port. I was taken by a small pub, the name of which I misread as Pie Bormana (the home of Bormanis - Anita's sister Mara's family). I was quite put out when my error was pointed out. I could quite imagine Anita's brother-in-law Valdis as the host of the establishment.

Entrance to B's home

Just past Salacgriva (after walking the first 15km in about 2 1/2 hours, I decided to run for a while and drank the bottle of water I had bought in Salacgriva (as it turned out, a wise purchase). I soon turned off the bitumen road onto a gravel road, which later entered a forest and became compacted sand and very pleasant to run on. I jogged for the next 15km in about 1 1/2 hours. Time seemed to go quickly, perhaps because there was more to concentrate on.


The map showed what seemed to be a couple of townships where I was planning to get lunch and more water. They were more like settlements of a handfull of houses without any facilities for travellers. It meant that I kept moving, pretty much for the whole day, as there was nothing to stop for. I ate my emergency supply of dried fruit and nuts "on the run" and eventually ran out of water a few kilometres before the accommodation. 


The last few kilometres were a struggle, though Anita phoned with about an hour of walking left. The accommodation was on a lake and there were other places to stay in the vicinity. I had been looking forward to a hot shower and relaxing in the sort of comfort I had experienced at Ainazi. I found Jumpravamuiza without difficulty. Muiza usually indicates a fairly grand home - usually the largest in the vicinity. 

Fisherman's hut at Jumpravmuiza (6am next morning)

The hostess at Jumpravmuiza was very pleasant, and very flattering about my inadequate Latvian. There were a number of outbuildings which I examined, wondering which would be my home for the night. My hostess set out with me on foot. As we walked the 400 metres or so towards the lake I noticed 3 wooden fishermen's huts by the side of the lake and a little wooden toilet up the hill. Three beds were squeezed into my hut with a small table. I was shown the small sandy beach Where I was told was the best place to enter to wash myself.


I retired to the hut and remained horizontal some a considerable time. It was warm and I was pleasantly tired. I had a series of exchanges of text messages with Janis Apsitis (Lija's second cousin). That evening, Janis and his brother Matiss were visiting the property where their sheep are and Janis had offered to drive the 30 or so kilometres to where I was staying to pick me up and show me the sheep and the property. It is something I had been hoping to do on my previous trips.

Inside the fisherman's hut

However, Janis picked up from my messages that I was pretty worn out so we cancelled the arrangement. I boiled up some water and added it to my "bushwalker's" meal, after 10 minutes, turning it into a double serving a pasta with a tomato based sauce. I followed with the fresh strawberries left by my hostess.

Arriving at Ainazi

A slow 2 1/2 hour bus trip to cover the 110km to Ainazi from Riga. Mostly the road followed the coastline of the Bay of Riga. Ainazi is a beautiful old township and is apparently the place where our friend Aivars Saulitis grew up. At the time of independence in 1918, the local landowners had the choice of joining either Latvia or Estonia. The majority of landowners were Latvians and the vote was in Latvia's favour, about 100 to 70.

Ainazi - Estonian border

Ainazi muiza

After dining in the hotel dining room (chicken and chips and pancakes), I walked to the Estonian border (just over 1km) and took a side-trip to the stone breakwater ("mols") that apparently carried a railway line from the station out into the bay.  It is largely intact and meticulously constructed with large local stones. Walking out on the mols, the wind was very bracing and I didn't stay long.  

Ainazi mols

The "Helmi" hotel facilities are very comfortable and I have an ensuite. The saimniece (hostess) is very friendly and insisted I try the local honey with my pancakes. Her granddaughter, Anna, acted as translater and advised me about the local sights. She is an art history student at the Art Academy in Riga, apparently with a keen interest in nature.

Helmi Hotel, Ainazi

Anna (right) and her grandmother

I will make an early start in the morning after breakfast at 7am. Hopefully the weather will hold. Over the last week since I have been in Latvia it has rained for part of each day.

Preperations

Tonight, I will catch the bus to Ainazi which is on the Estonian border and the bay of Riga. Tomorrow, I will start a walk from Ainazi to Skaistkalne on the Lithuanian border. It is over 200km and I hope to complete the trip on foot in 4 days. On day 3, I must be in Ogre by 2pm in time to attend the wedding of Raimonds and Agnese. Raimonds and Agnese stayed with us during the Latvian cultural festival in Melbourne in December 2010.

I had hoped that Lija would travel with me on a bike but the problems of transporting the bike to Ainazi proved too difficult to solve satisfactorily. The buses do not take bikes unless they can be dismantled. We then planned another route from Eleja on the Lithuanian border to Jurmala on the bay of Riga, as we thought there was a railway connection at each end. Unfortunately, the train does not run to Eleja anymore so I am forced to travel on my own.

The project is ambitious and I may end up having to catch a lift in time to get to the wedding. I am hoping to do a combination of jogging and walking. In early April, Lija's cousin Mark and I completed 46km in 6hrs in a rogaine at Melton and on 19 May we completed the 100km North Face 100 event in the Blue Mountains in just under 20hrs. We both ran a half marathon in early June, in my case in 1:58 and Mark, with his brother Paul, much faster.

Training in the Blue Mountains with Mark on Christmas Day 2011

Last night, Anita and I had dinner with Juris and Selga Benkis. Juris has run my blog for my last 3 walks - www.walkacrosslatvia2008.blogspot.com, www.walkuplatvia2009.blogspot.com and www.westernbaltics2010.blogspot.com. If I can solve my  mobile phone problems, I will send reports and photos to either Lija or Juris to post on the blog.

The program is as follows:
Thursday 28 June - Ainazi to Jumpravmuiza (perhaps then traveling with  Janis Apsitis to Straupe to meet his and Matiss's sheep)
Friday 29 June - Jumpravmuiza to Incukalns
Saturday 30 June - Incukalns to Ogre (and the wedding)
Sunday 1 July - Ogre to Skaistkalne (catching the 7:10pm bus back to Riga).