Our plan today has us following the Western Estonia coast approx. 50 miles South into Latvia via the E67-4.
Yesterday evening our choice of cabin proved to be a Godsend as a tempest of biblical proportions was unleashed during the evening and night.
The wind howled around the hut as the rain lashed down. How we laughed at the intrepid campers gamely hanging onto their tents to avoid the indignity of losing their abodes for the night.
The upside to all this weather was a clear, warm and blue sky start to our day. Unfortunately, yesterday's rain has been replaced by an evil little headwind that had our quads burning as we fought to make headway against it.
The riding proved to be a little nondescript. The terrain was again as flat as a very flat thing and the road, arrow straight pointing due south.
After an hour or so, we pulled into a lay-by (narrowly avoiding the Police speed trap on the opposite side of the road) for a slurp and chocy bar. No sooner had we stopped, when another mad Brit. c/w caravan in tow pulled up for elevenses.
Turned out he was road testing the van on behalf of that well read publication; 'Practical Caravan'. We exchanged war stories, had our photos taken for inclusion in his future feature and bid our farewells.
We continued due South, battling the fierce headwind eventually crossing the Latvian border around midday at the 30 mile mark. These days, the border is a complete non event and is deserted.
This is probably due to the fact one is now actually passing from the Federal European Republic of Estonia to the Federal European Republic of Latvia..open borders and all that.
We found the immediate difference between the two countries to be the quality of the road surface. We'd been used to high quality, EU funded blacktop and it appeared the influence of the EU wallet hadn't quite reached border country yet.
However, as in Estonia, we later found large sections of highway had benefited from the generosity of the EU and we had supersmooth, brand new road to follow.
Good to know our EU contributions are being spent so wisely and we look forward to seeing Latvia reciprocate and help Lincs. County Council fund the new Crowland by-pass so the damn thing gets finished!
We dropped into the Tourist Info point in Salacgriva to pick up accommodation info for the area. We opted for a campsite at around our 50 mile mark and celebrated our choice with double helpings of CAKE from the local shop.
Refuelled, we ground out the last 10 miles or so and arrived at our choice of seaside campsite at around 14:00.
Our initial choice of 3 bed cabin was rapidly upgraded to a traditional log 4 berther when we realised the combination of high volume Trance music from our would be neighbour and the 3 bedder being a complete sh!t hole made our first choice most unsuitable.
Dinner was had at the campsite café (mmmm lovely fresh greens) followed by more Scrabble in the hut.
Yesterday Tracey took advantage by 'narrowly' pinching yet another game from Miles by a massive 50 points.
Miles' only consolation was to immerse himself in old recordings of R4's 'I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue' brought along for just such emergencies.
Total today a hard fought and bum searing 48 miles and only 30m of ascent. Total trip 1284 miles.
More Southerly ramblings to follow.
Back soon. Miles & Tracey.
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