So its been about 18months now since I changed flats, changed bikes, changedjobs, changed culture, changed career and changed language by moving to the Estonian capital. Needless to say it's been a rollercoaster of a ride with as many downs and ups.

One almost up was that I now had academic holidays having ditched my office career to become a language teacher. Another almost up realised last year that Estonia has in abundance what England did not: wild untouched open spaces where people are not packed in like sardines.

Why "almost ups"? Well, teaching is not a well paid, albeit rewarding, profession and in my school, if you don't teach you don't earn so 3 months off still means 3 months living off my savings. As for discovery Estonia: I worked out what Estonia had to offer me last year, but regretably did bugger all about it. Not so this year: I decided I would not while away my Summer hols in front of the Xbox, or under a Ural with a spanner. I was going to travel and visit. So the first weekend of my Holidays I pulled out my camping gear, and on Sunday midday I was off, eager to make the most before needing to be back on Tuesday for the arrival of friends for dinner!

Being a small country its pretty easy to get from one side to the other and this is a good thing when you have a bike that will only let you cruise at 45-50mph comfortably (mine simply wont reach 60 on anything other than a flat, 3-mile, straight or a cliff: perhaps due to the new filters... nice bottom end torque, but a bit wheezy in top).

So I packed out the Ural, stuck the dog in the chair, complete with new de riguer Doggles and started bouncing our way South-west. After 60 miles and an hour and a half later I was topping up in a petrol station just outside the resort town of Haapsalu. 20 mins later I was in the ferry terminal queuing to board a boat in order to make my first trip to one of the Estonian Islands. A short time after that I was on the deck with calm waters: all the better for Pretzel as her first experience of a ship was sullied by another first....proximity to a truck load of pissed of cows!!!

Still she decided to seek shleter in the folds of her sheepskin and dozed in the tub for the rest of the 45 min crossing until we docked: Vormsi Island!

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__________________
Adventure: it's an experience, not a style!
(so ride what you like, but ride it somewhere new!)

I already had an idea of where I wanted to camp. I had looked for the most remote spot that would allow me views of the sunset over the water.
Sunsets come about about 10.30 pm at the moement and on midsummers day in 3 weeks time, it'll be around midnight!!!

So off we went. The island is very small: 7 miles by about 4 and is dominated by pine forest. The population is small and, having larger, more commercial neighbouring islands like Hiiumaa, Muhu and Saaremaa, Vormsi is a very quiet place. This much to its advantage, IMO...

So I followed the roads as best I could remember and resorted to the GPS when tracks became confusing. I followed one track for 30 minutes, its condition going from track, to dirt, to rutted and overgrown to muddy, but the Ural just chugged along, only once using 2WD to make short work of a muddy section on my road tyres. I did not fancy winch work on such a warm day, surrounded by maurauding mosquitoes. When I reached the spot I had had in mind, I realised it was not for me: boggy soil, an no easy walk/ride to the beach. So I headed back the walk I had come; the dog looking none too pleased at having to be jarred all the way back again.

It was when I got back to the gravel section that I realised: The bouncy road and my carelessness had cost us our first casualty: my GPS was lost along the way. I cursed for a few minutes and then did the only logical thing: retraced my steps for the mile back to where I had turned to head back. No luck. With the track in such condition the GPS could have fallen in to a rut, puddle, or bounced into the verge or one of the large nettle bushes. Go slow as I may, finding it was a long shot and eventually I gave up, not wanting this to dominate my trip...

So I headed back to the last village and there I headed west, to the shore. Once there, I followed a track some more until I found the spot I had been hoping would exist. I turned off the track, rode the shingle down to the beach and reversed the Ural into a gap in the pine saplings, 10 metres from the water's edge... In a small clearing opposite the bike I pitched the tent and then settled down to enjoy the views around me. Meanwhile some ducks, unhappy at my intrusion, made their feelings on the subject abundantly clear...

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__________________
Adventure: it's an experience, not a style!
(so ride what you like, but ride it somewhere new!)

As i prepared a late lunch come dinner (I was very hungry) I realised some little bastard had already helped himself and the fresh mosquitoe bite on my forearm was already quite swollen. Luckily, it did not itch...

After eating and feeding the dog (I ate food, I fed the dog: not some horrible case of dog-eating), we went for a walk up the track to where it ended before heading back to the tent to sit down and watch the sunset over calm waters, and finally bedding down with the Ural keeping a watchful eye...


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__________________
Adventure: it's an experience, not a style!
(so ride what you like, but ride it somewhere new!)

Typically, I never sleep well during my first night in a tent, and this was no exception, but still better than I expected. However, sleeping in was out of the question as the sun rose at about 4 am shortly followed by the birds and shortly followed by a dog that managed to stuff most of her nose in my right ear. Who can say no to that sort of greeting so by 5.30 I was up, and a little later I was sitting on the shingle bank looking at the morning ripples on the water.

The Baltic is not tidal, so this makes for sometimes lake-like glassy surfaces on the water, and very quiet settings, lacking the regular crash of breakers. The terraced shingle layers are testimony to the Baltic's temper when roused but, thankfully, on this occasion the sea was as content and relaxed as I was.

It took me no time to realise that, despite my initial plans, I had no itention of packing up and riding around the island. I just wanted to sit there with my talkative feathered neighbours. We followed one of the tracks for a morning walk after an essential coffee, and I soon found eivdence that others had come and decided to stay, too, but in their case, the result was a bit more terminal!!

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__________________
Adventure: it's an experience, not a style!
(so ride what you like, but ride it somewhere new!)

4 hours after gettng up I called my girlfriend to wish her a nice morning and to describe what she was not able to share with me on this occassion. I went for another short walk back up the track to its end, as I had ridden with the Ural the evening before. As I had already seen there were some abandoned buildings: likely old Soviet army outposts keeping a close eye on sea traffic near its borders. As is often the case here in Estonia, a lot of places that are now natural reserves and natural treasures for people and animals to enjoy were once cordoned off to the public.

On the one hand, that is perhaps why they are in such good conditin now, but at the same time I am often saddened by how much time, money and effort is spent on delineating between "us and them" be it here or elsewhere. However, for now I enjoyed the fact that the only human on this stretch was me and I was armed with a camera and not a rifle and I had the place to myself.

Walking along the path I went through section where the road was a deep layer of fist sized stones and I was reminded of our trip to South America on my old R1150GS, and having to ride that bike down the Carretera Autral in Chile over such stones for miles, my "near-half a metric ton" bike being a lot harder to ride in that then the Ural is now!

Once back at camp, spent the next few hours, reading, looking for fossils (of which there were plenty), moving my blanket to the shade, followed by the dog's and watching Turns doing some real fly-fishing! As the day got warmer I decided to take advantage of my isolation: ditched my garments and enjoyed the warm, shallow waters of the Baltic: I think the local wildlife was not very taken with the view as they did rapid about-turn to swim the other way, covering their eyes as they did so!! (sorry for the mental image, folks !!)


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__________________
Adventure: it's an experience, not a style!
(so ride what you like, but ride it somewhere new!)

Pretzel seemed quite content to chill out in the shade, but every couple of hours we'd walk to stretch our legs. Having a black coat, though, she felt the heat after all that running and sniffing and decided to cool off the way only dogs know how!!
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__________________
Adventure: it's an experience, not a style!
(so ride what you like, but ride it somewhere new!)