Today we went to Latvia! We finally made it to the border town of Valga. This is an interesting town as it runs through two countries. It was once one big town called Walk, which was part of the Russian empire. In 1920, when Estonia and Latvia gained their independence, they ran a line through the middle of the town, and made it into two towns. Valga is in Estonia, and Valka is in Latvia. We had a little walk around, crossed the border and back again, as you do. Mike bought a satnav for the car as he likes to know where he’s going.

We then took a detour to check out another sandstone walk. The drive in was along a long dirt road, pretty typical once you leave the main roads in Latvia. It felt like we were completely alone out there, so we were surprised to find about half a dozen cars in the carpark. 

The walk is actually part of a much longer hiking trail. We met a couple of girls with big packs who were on day one of their 192 km trek. We just did a short 3.5 km loop to see the cliffs.

It was an easy walk, with steps and boardwalks most of the way. The cliffs themselves are tall sandstone formations that really stand out against the forest. Their pale surface is dotted with bee holes and some graffiti, the oldest we saw was from ’84, which I assume means 1984. There were natural arches, ledges, and cracks carved by wind and rain. The cliffs stretch for nearly half a kilometre and rise up to about 15 metres high. They were impressive.

After that, we made our way to the town of Cēsis, which has a castle we wanted to check out. We got there around 5pm (not sure where the day went), so we decided to leave the castle for the morning when we’d have more time as it closed at 6pm. The old town was nice to wander through, with its cobbled streets, old buildings, and a relaxed feel. We ended up going out for dinner and spent the night in a carpark not far from the castle.