Summer is here

Wednesday May 20, 2009

We set the alarm for 7 am, and began cycling early. We blasted through the town of Kegums, following the ruote advised by tourist information. After this the route took a turn down a smaller un-named road. I took a guess and decided to try pedalling down a unsignposted gravel track. Cars were using it, so I assumed it would not be a dead end. We reached a cross roads, which I hoped would be with the P 88, however it was with another gravel road, surely it could not be the P 88. We followed the only signpost towards a village marked on my map. In all we cycled 50 km's on the gavel, before making it back onto tarmac. In retrospect I assume that the P 88 was a gravel road.

The sun was out and it was getting quiote warm. we stopped at a school for water, we were directed to a wash basin tap. The water smelt disgusting. As we left a group of kids gathered around us, I spoke withthe a little. Daniela tried the water, then swore in front of the kids.

We entered Lithuania, country number 5. We had to cycle another 20 km to reach a town where we could use an ATM and get a map. By the time we arrived teh tourist informatin was closed, but the cleaners let us in and gave us a pretty good cycling map.

We headed on towards the next town, where we bought food. Then we looked for somewhere to camp. We spotted some houses behind a field. We heard people talking in a back garden and pushed our bike round to ask if we could camp. There were 2 drunk men, they understood almost no english, and interrogated us in Lithuanian, then Russian. We had no idea what was going on, luckily there was a family in the garden next door, so we felt a little reassured.

Eventually one of the men invited us into his house. It was quite basic, and not overly clean. He was ery generous, making us eggs and soup and giving us coffee. He only spoke a few english words, drinking beer, my brother in london, yes, no, water, coffee, good and bad. But we managed to string out the evening chatting to him. Daniela went to bed early, I thought it would have been rude to have left him drinking alone, so I joined him. There was a picture of an elderly woman on the beer bottle, which when turned upside down transformed into a picture of a yound lady. He held it upright and said bad, the turned it upside down and said good. this went on for a while as we drank.

He showed me his medals, they had a picture of a dog on, and were from the CCCP era. I guess he had a prize winning dog. He also showed me 2 pictures which he painted himself, they were very good. I asked for the toiled, and he directed me outside, it was a wooded bench with a hole in and a compost heap underneath, very organic.

I went to bed, full of food and beer. What a generous man.

 

Sleeping in a shed

We rose late after waiting out some morning rain. We packed slowly, checking for cockroaches then headed off. We stopped in Straupe at a centre containing a post office, shop and library. I asked the lady in the post office if I could use the toilet, she only understood th word toilet after I repeated it, then she handed me the key. I was horrified to find that I had blocked the toilet. I did my best to clear the blockage flushing again, but the water level in the bowl rose, and water started to seap out of the down tube.

I considered my options. I decided not to tell the post office lady, as she spoke no english and I would have needed to have shown her the problem. I figured someone would report it later, and a cake taker could deal with it. So I quietly left the scene of the crime, avoiding embarrasing myself and the post office lady, and made haste on my get away vehicle.

Due to our late start we made very few km's. Daniela wanted to stop early at 6,45, at Malpils, a town with a lake. We pushed our bikes along a lakeside path untill we found some people tending their allotment. I I sought permission to camp on their ground. They were very obliging and offered for us to sleep in their shed. Their dog lived on the allotment on a chain, they said she would look after us.

We bathed in the lake, then the man returned with his daughters. He offered us food and home made whisky. We eat bread, cheese and turkey and had a couple of shots with our kind host.

These people were clearly very resourceful, growing their own food and making their own alcohol. It was a beautiful allotment, very precisely laid out and neatly tended to. Outside the shed was a verandah with car seats rested on tyres for chairs, we sat overlooking the lake. It was a beautiful evening, which I enjoyed in the mellow daze of very strong home made whisky.