One Million Stomps

Assuming that we have spun our pedals once a second and that on average we rode six hours a day, six days a week then, (not including our week in Budapest)each of our legs has made the journey up and down roughly a million times on our trip to Tallin, Estonia. And this point marks the end of our Eastern European adventure. From here we still have two days riding in Sweden and the necessary ferry trip across the Baltic to arrive there but as for Eastern Europe we can now say that it is behind us.

Since the last entry our journey has progressed in two stages. In the first we left Vilnius full of energy and embraced the riding in the spirit of the rest of the trip, a rhythmic pattern of wake, ride, eat, sleep with temporary goals but a firm grounding in the moment. However in the second stage of the leg the overwhelming sense of final destination took hold and our riding assumed a new and different character which I will address later.

The ride out of Vilnius was far more pleasant than our attempted exit from Warsaw. Within minutes of starting our guide was a bike path rolling its way through the city and rescuing us from the streets. That said the streets in Vilnius were not nearly as aggressive as others we had encountered so the path was akin to being saved from a room full of Labrador puppies. As the day progressed the buildings dribbled out of existence and we were surrounded once again by the calming green of pine forest. The only slight hitch in the days riding was a massive screw which decided to seduce my back tyre only to leave it useless and depressed.

As we grew tired at the end of the day we set our mind to finding a camp spot. A week in the city was just enough to rekindle our romance with the great outdoors. Within minutes of pulling off the road it became clear that the evolutionary significance of the meat machine in our skulls was no longer relevant in this new environment. Here the uber predator was the mosquito. MOSQUITOS on a scale I have never seen. In short, on more than one occasion I had to swat a mozzy from of my eyeball. But the tent become a sanctuary for us after a small lapse in the application of Buddhist Principles.

 

The second night was special. After riding all day through forests and small towns our maps indicated that a large town would soon be upon us. However given its predicted size we were surprised as the forrest just seemed to continue. After more meandering we saw some indication of some civilisation as a massive tin pipe was a constant feature down the side of the road but still no town. Puzzled we continued to ride through the forest until out of nowhere lines of government housing blocks as far as we could see stretched out before us. Like a frozen monument to a 1960's Soviet concept of the future this town felt like the embodiment of a burnt out, failed rocker. Later the lady who operated the B&B where we stayed enthralled us with stories of this town which was the home to Europe's largest nuclear power plant. She spoke of a city filled with extraordinary intellects and dreamers which was now slowly dying as the plant was decommissioned. Ironically the result of someone else's dreams for the future, a Nuclear Free Europe.

 

The end of the first leg was marked with an unexpected day off just as we crossed into Latvia. Having ridden a long way we were most dismayed to find that the town we had selected to stay in did not have any accommodation. Given our experience of camping two nights previously we were a little apprehensive about setting up the tent again. Despite this we found a campsite and set up. Calling the number of the lands owner a lady with limited grasp of English answered the phone. It was clear that not much was going to be communicated. Still we set up thinking that if somebody really wanted our money they would go out of their way to get it. Imagine our surprise then when Karolina's phone rang and at the other end a man with flawless English, calling from England told us of his very reasonably priced guest house. Cut to twenty four hours later. Your humble narrators after being spaed, saunaed and fed decide to sit down in front of the huge telly in a beautifully retrofitted centuries old farm house. Its hard sometimes. Really hard.

 

The second leg of this stage took us from Latvia into Estonia and finally to the town Tallinn. Many little things happened in this leg, seeing the coast for the first time since Bulgaria, lovely meals, beautiful National Parks but it was our mindset that proved to be the most dominating factor. With the end in sight stopping of an evening became more difficult. Rather than being a welcome break from peddling all day it became a chunk of time between rides. The second we saw the bed we both wanted to be waking up so that we could start riding again.  We were still enjoying ourselves and where we were but now there has been a distinct feeling of 'this is where we are going' and that where we are heading is our final destination. Still, riding into Tallin was an amazing feeling. Knowing that this place had been at the top of our map since Turkey two months ago and now here we are and (save for a couple of train rides) it is our legs that have brought us here was special.

So at the next post we will be completely finished our trip. It is hard to imagine not having to wake up and ride. But this is a problem in imagination only as tomorrow when we ride off the ferry in Stockholm after spending a night at sea we will attempt our biggest day yet. Our thinking being the more we can knock off the 200km to home in the first day the sooner we can have a lovely picnic with our Swedish family the day after. I want 170 kms but this might be a little eager. Yet now having wiggled our collective bottoms a million times doing it another 60,000 times does not seem like that much any more!