Baltic Sea in June

[Jockel]

Hei and Vabandust.

I am not capable of Eesti and do not understand the topics.
I apologize, if my post is in the wrong spot, please feel free to move.

My friend Jens (44) and I (56) am going round (most of) the Baltic Sea from Hamburg, Germany, on two XT 500s this summer and will visit your country around the end of June coming from Latvieja, heading for St. Petersburg.

We like to have a look at interesting towns and points of interest, but are more into meeting people and go nice places.
So, we would be glad to receive any suggestions and hints.

Thank you a lot.

[Andrus54]

Hey

Pärnu and Haapsalu are just on the coast and are beautiful summer beach city's. Our Capital Tallinn with old town is a must and border city with Russia Narva has amazing castle. You will meet bikers everywhere, most will speak at least some English. Enjoy your trip and post pictures here as well if you have time.

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[Macintosh]

I suggest also Narva on top of list Andrus54 mentioned by different reason - a reminiscence of the Soviet times. Its only place in Estonian where its still clearly visible. When you take a route from Tallinn to Narva use old road near the sea through small villages and towns.
Best route through Estonia would probably look something like this https://goo.gl/maps/yyXwxSQjt5u

[bigdog]

And our islands are nice. I would suggest to go from Pärnu through Kuivastu to Virtsu. Then Muhumaa and Saaremaa and via Triigi-Sōru to Hiiumaa. Then back to mainland and Haapsalu. Please plan to stay at least one day on each island. There are queues for the ferries, but motorcycles will be fitted on.
The worst roads are in Tallinn

[Jockel]

Thanks for the tips.

We will have around four or five days in Estonia and plan to make it to St. Petersburg on June 29th. That day will quite probably include Narva.
I am very interested in the islands, but sadly we will not have enough time (though we will have the Åland Islands later...).

Maybe we make it to Pärnu or somewhere near there by the 23rd. That would offer us the opportunity to celebrate Jaanipäev with your folks. Though we (so far) do not know anybody around, we were very grateful for any advice where to turn in that case.

Do you have any suggestions for a nice place to stay around Tallinn (friendly campground or a small hotel)?

We heard of either badly polluted areas and very beautiful parks in the north of your country. Which places to go and which to avoid?

And: Jens has his birthday on June 27th. Any outstanding ideas for a special are very much appreciated.

[bigdog]

If you have five days, then it will be enough to see at least one island. One of my favorite campsites in Hiiumaa: http://www.loodusegakoos.ee/where-to-go ... e-campsite
On that site you can choose campsites around Estonia. Most of them are for free.
Though official Jaanipäev is on 24th, the festives are going around from 22.06-10.07. You just pick one: https://www.google.com/mymaps/viewer?mi ... sKHA&hl=en

[Jockel]

If you have five days, then it will be enough to see at least one island. One of my favorite campsites in Hiiumaa: http://www.loodusegakoos.ee/where-to-go ... e-campsite

That one looks really great, and maybe we will see it "live".
BTW, are there always absolutely no people there?

Though official Jaanipäev is on 24th, the festives are going around from 22.06-10.07. You just pick one: https://www.google.com/mymaps/viewer?mi ... sKHA&hl=en

Well, the information given there is always in Eesti, which does not say more to me than date and location.
As we both never have been there, we can't tell which one to choose.

[Bastard]

I would also suggest visiting Viljandi, which is also beautiful place with old castle site and beautiful views to lake. And if you are interested in extreme tourism, you can visit Kohtla-Järve and Viivikonna and/or Sirgala, which used to be mining towns, but now are mostly abandoned. Kohtla-Järve itself is functioning, but mainly populated with russians and poverty can be seen.
Also you can visit Sillamäe town nearby, which is one of the best examples of stalinist architecture (which is actually quite beautiful).

They (except Viljandi) are not usual tourist destinations, but i'm more into former (spooky) industrial areas anyway

[bigdog]

Uh, now I have to apologize. The Jaanituli map is from 2009. Could not find fresh one yet. But it is mostly correct about main fires. If I'll find more accurate info, I'll post it here.
Mostly the RMK campsites are for free, so you can't book them. Who comes first has a priority. But few ones are available for a small fee, the info is available on their website. The campsites are situated not so far away from each other so if one is full, you can go to next one.
http://www.kalana.ee/broneerimine/ is situated on the same peninsula, that one is also biker friendly. Sadly their homepage is only in Estonian.
Ristna neem is also mystically beautiful and situated nearby, there you can find private spot for sure. You can find owners mobile phone number upon arrival, he collects a small fee for the overnight camping (can't remember how much).
http://www.militaarmuuseum.ee is near Kärdla, I would suggest to drop in.
Kassari and Orjaku are definitely worth to see.

[Jockel]

Tera konnegust,

I am home & dry meanwhile, after 5.500 km, minor injuries of the 36-year-old XT and a very friendly time in Eesti.

We stayed from June 24. through 29., have seen the beautiful campsite at Treimani (though we thought about driving the bikes to swimming, as you have to walk miles until you get wet), where we met Michael and his wife and kids, and he even spoke German.
So we learned a little Eesti between swimming, eating and frisbee, and then made it in one day from there via Saremaa to Hiiumaa.

There we found more beautiful gravel roads and watched an elk passing by (we were so stunned that none of us thought of a camera...).
We found the suggested campsite (very small signs though).
Gorgious sunset, nice, friendly people as always.

Next day we headed for Talinn and stayed there in a hotel to explore the old city, Eesti food and beer. Nice.

We took off in pouring rain and stopped at the cliff coast in Saka, where we had one of the best dinners of the journey at the manor. It ended with an outstanding spirit, named "Kristall-Kümmel".

Next morning we explored the beach in a long walk and met the first participant of the "Baltic Circle" rallye, who went for a dip there (see http://balticrally.superlative-adventur ... -2016.html). They surrounded the Baltic Sea the other way round.

On the 28th we made it to Narva-Joessūū, built a camp right on the beach (lots of firewood provided, a nice little stream, enough wind to scare the moskitos away) and spent the night before heading to the checkpoint.

Impressive: The age old confrontation in Narva/Ivangorod that becomes stated by the ancient fortresses.
Five beautiful days of the journey, thanks to all the friendly people we met and surely through all the helpful information you provided here.
Aitach.

I will add a few pictures as soon as I am through sorting them (have some 700 so far, the whole trip will be over 1.000), though it will last a bit as I am self-employed and a whole lot of work lies on my desk.

Anyway I will come back.

[Jockel]

So, here we go.

We entered Eesti from the south, coming from Saldus in Latvieja, where we just had passed by in Dunte and visited Baron von Münchhausen, no lie:

At the gates

Sitting on the baron

Short after that we found the campground at Treimani, put up the tents and Jens got us some food from the shop in the village.
That day we had made some 300 km on small streets and gravel roads.

Campsite at Treimani

On the luggage rack of Jens' bike (left) you can see the "relay baton" (a branch of a birch) we took with us on the whole trip and passed it on a few weeks ago, when our friends started their tour that included even the North Cape.
Thus it is on its way with the "Baltic 13" the other way round the Baltic Sea and right now back in Eesti again (see http://track.xt500.org/index.php?showmapdata=1).

Our camping neighbours were Michael from Tartu and his wife and children.

Learning to speak Eesti with a full mouth

His mother is a teacher and guess what she educates?
German.
So we learned a little Eesti that served everybody well.
Aitach.

Next day we took another dip in the Baltic Sea, (not seriously) discussing the question, whether we should take bikes to go swimming, as one has to walk for miles before getting properly wet.
A little frisbee, the sun was laughing - we wanted to get on again.
We then took a chance on island hopping and were quite lucky, both at the ferries and the sights we had.
Our track to Hiiumaa:

We stopped shortly at Pärnu and then headed for the peninsula, found some nice gravel tracks around Kavaru and Peerni.
Deciding that we would make it now for the islands took us to Virtsu, where we cought the ferry to Saremaa right on the leave as the very last passengers.
The wheather was beautiful, though we saw some really heavy rain clouds at the horizon, especially over Hiiumaa. Anyway, we headed there via Triigi sadama.
At the harbour we learned that we would get the last ferry today an hour later and had a very tasty supper with homemade tomato soup and delicious drinks at the small bar right at the warf.
The owner was a very friendly woman and her father happened to visit her at that time. He suggested a campground in the northeasternmost part of Hiiumaa to us.

(It seems that I can only load five pics up. So we continue the thread.)

[Jockel]

(part II)
We took the ferry to Hiiumaa at 18.00:

On Hiiumaa we had to follow the big, black clouds, but luckily did not catch up - the roads in the north were partly wet, but we were dry.

Nice gravel tracks took us into the woods, we had a short break at a crossing, discussing which way to turn - and suddenly there was the elk.
He stepped out of the trees and stood in front of us for a moment, looking at us.
We both were too stunned to even think of a camera, and then the huge animal had been dragging on into the wood.

Anyway, some things did stand still as long enough to take a picture, e.g. the bottle tree:

It was getting dark and we had not yet found the campground. After some looking around we discovered a very small wooden sign leading us into a narrow wood way, and that was the right one.
After some 300 km we reached the campsite.
Most other campers had already left, for there had been a heavy rainstorm hours before, so there was plenty of space, and the sight was gorgious:

Endless sunset

We managed to get the fire burning though the wood was soaked, and had a late dinner.

We shared our breakfast with nice people, talked about engines, philosophy and traveling (in English language, Michael's mother had not reached that far), before we were packing for the coming trip to Tallinn.

Jens gets his stuff together

[Tort]

Very cool choice of bikes Rather rare these days.

[Jockel]

Well, I guess it is not so much of a choice but more kind of an addiction.
I tried those plastic bikes, running smoothly and lacking any character. They are faster, stronger, and you can do things with them that are out of my world. Yes.
Anyway, I want to do things in my world.
I say: Just forget about them.

There is in fact practically no bike that compares to the XT 500 in steadiness, reliability and easy-to-fix problems.
We are in love since October 26th 1989, and still going strong.

The top of my exhaust fastening broke somewhere during our gravel fun in Latvieja. We fixed it with a Bowden cable we had in spare, and this "provisorium" lasted 4.000 km, until we got home.
That is what I want from a bike: Keeping me on the track, no matter what.

I am going to continue our Eesti-trip soon.

[Jockel]

(part III)
After a slightly rainy night we got our stuff together and left for Tallinn.

Not quite sure where to stay, we looked around a bit.

Finally found a friendly hotel on the bottom of the old town, where we stayed and managed to dry our tents. The bikes werde in a safe yard.
The offer to wash our clothes was tempting, but the prices where incredible - no washing for the cost of buying the same stuff.

We went for sightseeing through Vanalinn and I am not boaring you with my tourist pictures.
In the evening we celebrated Jens' birthday on the central square with a dinner including elk and bear.

Next day we went for another trip through town, while our stuff could stay at the hotel, even as we already had checked out.
In Latvieja a belt of my tankbag had broken. I had fixed it with some tent rubbers, but they were not tight enough for offroad tracks. At the bus station we found a shoemaker who sewed it. Everything fine again.
We had a look at the harbour, where I tried to get the torpedo working - and failed.

We discovered the Stadthalle (strange place, though...) and visited the Estonian History museum in the Great Guild Hall; nice.
Finally it was leaving time and we got in rain gear - it had started to pour again.

On our way to Saka it stopped raining when we were nearly there, and we stayed in a summer house at a private campground - best for getting stuff dry again.
In the evening we had the best dinner in Eesti at the restaurant in the Manor, which ended with a fine Kristall-Kümmel.
Next morning started with another tasty breakfast by maitre de cuisine Jens

and we later explored the beach down the cliff coast, went swimming and had an interesting walk, where we saw the first participant of the "Baltic Circle" rallye. They just came from where we were going: St. Petersburg.

As our hotel was booked from the 29th, we had another day to get there and made just a short trip to the border that started in the afternoon.

[Jockel]

(part IV)

20160628_150000_track_Saka_Narva_52.jpg (29.38 KiB) Vaadatud 5054 korda

Passing the coast on the smallest tracks, we stopped by the waterfall at Valaste (sadly the main bridge was broken and unaccessible) and came around the harbour at Sillamäe.
In the town we went shopping and finally found a beautiful space to stay the night at the beach at Udria küla.

Campfire, good food, a beer and a wide open sky.
What a friendly last night.

Getting up early, we got our gear together, packed our trash (and drove it around some time, for there was no trash bin to be found) and passed a ribbon tree on our way to the border.

In Narva we dropped our postcards into a postbox (we finally had remembered them on the right side of the border) and headed for Ivangorod, saying Nagamist to Eesti after five beautiful days (with just a little rain), meeting lots of friendly people and seeing and learning a lot.

I'll be back.

[Andrus54]

Wow, thank you for sharing and taking time to write this.

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