Camping with a missile

Helen and Michael in Tallinn
Originally uploaded by rtw2007.

Where did we leave you? In the sleepy town of Mustvee… from there, on the shores of Lake Peipsi, we headed south to the University town of Tartu. We slipped seamlessly back into our standard town/city behaviour of mixing wandering around the streets with a commitment to checking out all the recommended local coffee shops (of which there are many in Tartu, all with very good, very cheap coffee and pastries). The “highlight” of the trip was a visit to the rather eerie ‘KGB Cells Museum’, a brief history of which is as follows: a rather drab grey building just south of the town centre was built by a businessman just prior to the second World War; then the Soviets turned up and liked the look of the building; so they shipped him off to a Siberian camp and converted his building into the KGB (secret service) headquarters. They converted the basement into a set of interrogation chambers, but thoughtfully bricked up the basement walls so as to mask the sound of said interrogations from the passing public – nice. Post war, and post “Soviet occupation” (as they like to refer to the time of Soviet rule round here) it now houses an informative, shocking and rather melancholy museum detailing the rule of the Soviets, the extent of the Gulag labour camp system and the work of the “heroic” Estonian freedom fighters, the Forest Brothers.

After lunch at the University café, it was back on the road to the north coast and the National Park that lies about 60km east of Tallinn. Lahemaa National Park is a mixture of forest tracks and open countryside, dotted with manor houses, riding stables and country residences. It reminded us of the New Forest in England. We spend the night at one of the free RMK (Forestry Commission) campsites right at the end of the Juminda peninsula. This was a fantastic, remote spot but it was made rather more “atmospheric” (for which read scary) by the presence of a large missile lying where it had originally fallen in the hedge (right next to our van); some menacing sea mines in a chain by the water’s edge; and a detailed historical plaque detailing just how many people had died at the hands of sea mine defences in the ill-fated Juminda evacuation (and how most of the thousands of bodies had not been recovered and are still sitting out at sea just of the coast of our campsite). Lovely. As if this weren’t enough, there was also a spooky (most likely haunted) lighthouse beaming an eerie light over the van throughout the night.

Before heading in to Tallinn to pick up Dr. EAB we explored the forest, putting the van through its paces, Michael doing the rally section on unmade gravel roads (which was a lot of fun) and then Helen doing some off-roading on a single track forest stretch (even more fun). Our van isn’t really designed for this but it coped admirably, the only ill effect being a thick coating of reddy-brown mud. See the video of the little yellow man on said track in the blog entry below.

From there we headed into Tallinn to find that there was no where to wild camp (except a very dodgy car park at the centre of the area of town hit by the riots, the only benefit of which was its proximity to a strip joint) and of the four possible campsites two are shut at this time of year, one has been closed down for ‘sanitary reasons’ and the other is on a dual carriageway and run by a mad woman who slammed the door in our face for no obvious reason. So, reluctantly, we checked into a city centre hotel, scuppered our budget (which had been doing well so far in Estonia) and headed for a quick sauna before Mum arrived.

We picked Mum up at about midnight, but as Tallinn is so compact we were back in the bar by 12.15 to enjoy a couple of A. Le Coq’s before bed. It was lovely to see her and catch up on all the news from home. After a late night we woke reasonably late and headed into the lovely, much-celebrated, old town of Tallinn. It reminded us all of the kind of fairy castles that you see in Shrek, lots of turrets and towers. The individual canon towers have entertaining names such as Fat Margaret, Tall Herman and ‘Kick-in-the-Cock’. Tallinn is an ideal place for wandering, and Mum had brought the good weather with her, so we did just that – ambling along cobbled streets and popping in and out of little shops. We all made the climb up the 258 steps of St. Olaf’s Cathedral to a rather shaky platform on the roof, which offers an excellent view over town. We also saw the photography museum and drank a lot of coffee. I can also recommend the excellent local ‘Kalev’ chocolate. Kalev appears to be the big dog in these parts, a mythological man who is the hero of all Estonia. His wife, Linda, is now immortalised in a statue by the castle mourning for Kalev (and all the Estonian victims at the hands of the Soviets, but I think that that was added later). All in all, we had an excellent time in Tallinn, it’s a quaint place that is just right for a weekend with nice restaurants – slightly grumpy locals – and a very photogenic skyline. We didn’t see any of the troubles of the week before, although the police presence was very high and some shops were still boarded up / burnt out.

After dropping Mum of at the airport we headed south to Pärnu, from where I am writing this. Pärnu is the Estonian “summer capital” which means that even now, in May, it is still pretty empty. There is, however, a long sandy beach which we wandered along, bravely paddling for a couple of seconds (Michael) or minutes (Helen) in the icy cold Baltic and dancing down the beach (Helen). From here we are going south to Latvia, Lithuania and then to Poland where we are meeting BJ. Then it will be a quick dash to Munich to get the van serviced and pick up the “Carnet de Passages” so that we can head across Asia.

Thank you to everyone who has commented on the blog or sent emails – it is lovely to hear from you all whilst we are away. Hi to Grandma and Granny who I believe are reading the blog “offline” – I hope that nothing too rude ends up on here. Also, hello again to the continuing support from Watford Girls - your messages are making us both laugh.