21st-22nd August - the Baltics and Poland

Morning came and with it, the ritual sounds of stoves. A communal pot of porridge was prepared, eaten, and we got down to the business of packing up and heading off. Bound for Latvia, we soon made it to the border. This exit from Russia took longer than we had hoped as a coach load of Poles arrived after us and yet somehow were processed before us. We sat around, glad that this would be the last border crossing on this trip. All hereafter would be the gloriously invisible and highly permeable borders of the European Union. Knowing that fuel is ridiculously cheap in Russia compared to a few miles down the road in Latvia, we all stopped at a local fuel station and filled up. As we had a coffee and sat outside, it was funny watching Latvians who, obviously having loads of time to wait their turn in the queue, felt it worthwhile as they shook their cars to get air pockets out of the fuel pipes and even jacked the cars up to allow them to get the last cubic mm of fuel into their tanks. Some even had the entire boot area converted into an auxiliary tank so that they could carry 180 litres of fuel??

breakfast

having a break

Riding with the wounded

1 min after entering the EU

We got into Latvia and found the roads to be excellent. It definitely had a more European feel to it. Even though we were still a good distance off home, it very much felt like I was riding in my own back yard now, relative to how far we’d gone. Owing to the lengthy border crossing, we didn’t make it as far as we’d wanted, so we pulled off by a river and set up camp again. It turned out to be quite a subdued, and indeed submerged, night. Everyone was quite quiet and yet in good enough spirits. We knew that we were in for a deluge that night, so battened down the hatches and turned in. Sure enough, the next morning, Pawel and Aga were floating on their thermarests as the water had streamed down the hill straight into their tent. Apparently Aga was so tired she hadn’t even noticed and slept through. Pawel, still in a lot of pain and now becoming immune to his painkillers, was up most of the night anyway.

map reading in Latvia

After some tinned fish breakfast, we made it through the rain to Lithuania. This was a country with utterly exceptional roads, a complete absence of any traffic on them, sunshine, and stunning river and forest scenery. I did think to myself that if anyone wanted somewhere a little different than the usual France, Spain and Alps ride in the summer, the Baltics would be a great place to come and explore.

On exiting Lithuania we were heading to Pawel’s mum and dad’s place in Suwalki, a short way across the border into Poland. We pulled into the parking area behind their apartments and enjoyed a warm welcome from his family. He had to explain to them that he’d had an accident and hence was riding home on the back of my bike. The precise details of the accident would be saved until we’d all left the following morning. In the meantime, his mum had prepared a feast for us, including the traditional Polish dish of ‘Kartoshka’. It was really a fantastic evening with some faultless Polish hospitality. After being reunited with his son Tytus, we were all really glad to see Pawel laughing again. Pawel and Aga had been on the road longer than the rest of us, and had gone through Iran (which was their favourite country) and had some many great stories to tell. I just hoped that the experience of this trip and the sharing and memory of stories wouldn’t be marred by the final chapter.