Today was only 45kms, so I was thinking of going further if Pärnu wasnt too exiting. I didnt have too. Its a great place and I was tempted to stay another night.
The campground I stayed at was such a nice place, that I was slow to leave. The dutch and germans that I met there, were all interesting people.
The two German guys are doing part of a walk that goes from Portugal to Nordkap. Of course I had an in-depth discussion with the Dutch couple and there was another dutch couple who are working at the campground.
The first seven or eight kms were on this lazy, quiet Estonian small road going through little villages with their fantastically colored timber cottages and sheds. I was surprised that there was so much timber considering how cold it gets here. Tom, who runs the campground said that it gets to minus 25. I have no concept of what that feels like, except that I bet it hurts.
After the early easy riding, like yesterday, I stopped 200 metres away from the highway and I really don’t want to go any further. I’m sick of rhe unavoidable main road riding.
Most drivers are excellent but the oncoming drivers can be simply terrible. I could blame the roads, being only one lane each way, but I blame impatience and incompetence. Twenty or thirty times, I’ve had cars driving past me in the opposite direction, in my lane while overtaking. That’s much less than a metre from me at 100km/hr.
I’ve met two groups of bike tourers who are catching buses to avoid this stretch of road. Rant over, back to todays ride.
I found a small store and had a pastry and coffee for second breakfast. There was a great balcony out the back and I sat there enjoying it all.
As I neared Pärnu, I left the main road madness and followed some relaxing coastal-ish paths. The place didnt look great on the way in, l and until I landed in the main thoroughfare. It was restaurants and tourists in the middle of a music festival.
Like other parts of Estonia, the houses and buildings are in pristine condition in really different colours with the more interesting ones made from timber.
I initially went to the wrong campground before sorting myself out. The right one was literally in someones backyard. There was room for only 10 tents but it was full of the most interesting people.
There was a Finnish couple with 3 kids. The mum had spent a year in Aus and gave me tips on where to go. Her husband did the same. Another Finnish couple had 5 daughters and I think the eldest would have been about 10. And they all spoke english ! There was a Swiss couple touring the baltics by bike and another Finnish family where the husband looked like Angry Anderson. He was a real character. His band is still touring but i can only guess that its an old hard rocker’s reunion tour.
There was a german bike tourer who had been going for 3 months. He was just a great guy and we talked for a while. There was also a young Danish couple doing the Baltic route on their bikes. Really lovely, and we talked bikes and setup the next morning.
I spent quite a while wandering around town in the evening. There’s a music festival on and it’s full of people but totally different to the hordes of tourists in places like Gdansk and Vilnius.