Roaches

Monday May 18, 2009

We rose late and packed up slowly, enjoying the beautiful surrounds. we pedalled on into Latvia and changed money in Ainazi. Wealso gt a new map and the people inside the tourist information place helped me to plan a route using quiet roads. I was a little surprised that the coastal cycle route had come to an abrupt stop upon entering Latvia, but there were plenty of quiet roads to ride inland. we cycled on into the countryside, stopping occassionaly to ask friendly people to fill our water bottles as we passed their houses.

the route was zig zagging and progress was slow, we managed about 80 km, and maybe 35 of those were in a southward direction. hay ho. As we began to think about setting up camp I stopped at a house to ask for water, the people were really friendly, at least 3 generations were all sitting in the back garden chilling out. We pedalled a little further before asking if we could pitch our tent in a field. A kind lady and her small children were in the garden, the kids were very excited by the arrival of foreign speaking cyclists. As often happens the lady went inside to fetch her teenage daughter to translate. the daughter spoke good english and was very business like, smiling and asking " so how may I help you?". We camped in their back garden, with their cows.

I would describe their residence as a homestead, alongside cows they had chickens and a greenhouse. there were at least 4 kids. they didn't have a car and appeared poor, yet I imagine their lifestyle of self sufficiency must be highly rewarding and is the way I am sure many richer people would like to live, given the chance.

we set up the tent and eat. i noticed a cockroach in the outer of the tent. i killed it, im not proud of killing creatures, but I would probably do it again. Later i went to pee, as night fell there were hundreds of the blasted things (theses could fly too - im not sure if cockroaches can fly?). They were flying into my body, face, all over. I jumped back into the tent, and shut the door quick. Unfortinately we had an unwelcome third party in the tent, which suffered the same fate as the previous roach.

i didn't sleep well, it rained and it was too hot, and there were hundreds of roaches buzzing around outside. i hoped they couldn't eat through the tent. they didn't. I think this was good preparation for the road ahead, I am sure I will encounter more creepy crawlies!