It’s the halfway mark! We are allowed 90 days in the Schengen zone of Europe, and we’ve used up half of it already! We navigated to Valga, a town on the border with Latvia, only 1 hour away. But then I decided on a detour to a walk to some sandstone cliffs.

The trail wound through a peaceful pine forest alongside a quiet river, with sandstone cliffs towering on both sides. Along the way, we found caves, springs, and some interesting local folklore. We stopped at the sacred mother spring, where people traditionally came to collect water for its healing powers. Then there was the devil’s cellar. Legend says the Devil once lived there. The walk was lovely… apart from the swarm of mozzies tagging along. Strangely enough, it was still an hours drive to Valga.

Then we stopped at a road museum. We had no idea what that was, so we parked in the carpark, had some lunch then fell asleep for the afternoon. The road museum was going to cost 24 euros, so we still don’t know what the heck it is! Somehow the drive to Valga is still an hour away. I’m not sure how this happens.

The rest of the afternoon was spent making our way towards Valga. We started the ritual of looking for somewhere to camp for the night. The first place I navigated to was a bog. And not in a good way. The second place was overgrown, and was quite possibly taking us to another bog.

We eventually found a nice place on the edge of a gravel road. It also had a bog, but it was the good kind (a drop toilet), but there is a watchtower here. So of course we had to climb up.

It was 25 metres tall, and it was quite scary climbing up, especially when the wind picked up. But the view from the top was incredible. Oh, and we’re still 30 minutes from Valga! Only we could take a day to progress by 30 minutes. Maybe we’ll get there tomorrow.