On to Parnu 29th July, for our 3rd night in Estonia.

 Our day consisted of some very busy roads with trucks doing 100kph on a two lane road and a small verge of tar on the outside of the white line. The “good” thing about it is that the dirt part of the shoulder beyond the tar is almost level with the tar and is quite smooth with an easy transition. After about 10 kms in quite a frazzled state we pulled off the highway to reassess our situation, ‘cos although we  were probably going to get to Parnu alive we may be mentally scarred for life. At this stage our Garmins and paper maps did not quite allow us to ascertain how an alternative route off the highway and around the village we were at would transpire. Or how the small thin line onto Parnu would present itself.

I used my intuition as to how one may get around the village (I was born in one in Ireland after all). This then took us onto dirt roads for about the next 14kms. Way better than the highway. The dirt was mostly quite good but a bit gravelly and loose for the last 5kms. Most of this ride was through what I can only guess was a peat mining area. Huge expanses of flat mined & windrowed dark brown humus type of soil for maybe 10kms?, we will never know?

Jeanette inspecting soil a the peat mining area

Peat mining??

For the next 15 kms into Parnu we had mostly bike path or pavement/footpath. Our campground for the night was a big Euro style affair alongside the river/estuary. As it is Euro holidays the campground was packed, mostly with campervans or caravans, probably 500 vehicles of all shapes and sizes. We were shown to our tent site in a little corner of lawn with maybe 8 other tents. Jeanette wanted to go back into town (4kms) to a special pizza cafe we had been recommended by our Estonian angel Liis. But I was too weary after 90kms on all sorts of terrain, so we had chips and meat patties with a bit of coleslaw and a great little local dark beer for dinner.

Ate brekky with 3 German guys at the tables alongside our tent. Again, great to chat with fellow cyclists. Jeanette wanted to go to the beach which was over to the sea side of the bar from the river that Parnu is located on. We sort of followed our noses across town, had a coffee stop on the way and arrived at the Ladies Beach!! The Parnu  seaside was in full swing. There was a beach football tournament going on, high ropes courses and they were setting up for some sort of concert.

High/low ropes in Parnu. 

At the football tournament/Ladies beach in Parnu

I have to show respect annd not publish the pics I took at the beach.

Here she is again, we had to travel all around the world to find some single track for her.

We know it was the Ladies Beach we had stumbled on because as we were making our way on the boardwalk through the lovely soft white sand dunes (yes folks just like in Australia) we came upon a big sign board. The Ladies Beach is an old traditional one where ladies of past times would go to bathe sans costumes, and the sign asked people to show respect. The beach was very busy mostly with families doing all the things families do at the beach. And of course a few ladies enjoying the freedom of bathing in their birthday suits. We did not bathe as we had our bikes all packed over on the other side of the dunes at the football tournament and we do not like to leave them in that situation for very long. Plus we did not have the time to walk the kilometer (joke) that it takes to get to a swimming depth.

Our camp ground the day after Parnu.