Today we climbed the highest mountain in Latvia! But more about that later.
Despite being awake until after midnight last night, my watch this morning said I had a 92% sleep charge! Maybe I should go to sleep later more often.
Today we went for a morning walk to a cave. It was down 1000’s of steps and all I could think about was, I have to walk back up these! It seemed like quite a long walk, and there were mozzies lurking, and the walk seemed to go on forever. When we finally reached the cave, it turned out we weren’t the only ones drawn to it. The place was swarming with mozzies! We took a quick photo and left. Mike found a different way back which thankfully didn’t involve walking up the steps.
We attempted some sightseeing in the town of Sigulda as it has two castles and some scenic walks. Unfortunately, it also has an alarming number of tourists and pay-to-park signs in every direction. We made a quick exit. I’m not sure why it’s so popular. The castle we saw yesterday in Cecis had nobody there and it was epic. It’s possibly it’s a hotspot for day trippers from Riga who enjoy queuing and paying for parking.
Next, we set our sights on the highest mountain in Latvia. Google directed us down a series of rutted dirt roads, which, to be fair, were still an improvement on the main road out of Riga. After about an hour and a half of bouncing around, we arrived at the carpark. From there, it was a gruelling 500 metre walk to summit. The mountain rises 312 metres from sea level, but as we are already at altitude, it was only about 50 metres of elevation to the top. I’m sure the steps we walked down this morning had more altitude! (They definitely had more attitude!) The biggest surprise? There’s a cable car you could take to the top, though it didn’t appear to be functioning.
After our strenous climb, we settled down for an afternoon nap. We’ve decided to stay in the carpark here for the night, as it seems like a quiet spot in nature.
We were quietly enjoying our dinner when another campervan came in, totally avoiding the gravel parking area, and deciding instead to park on the grass. I thought it seemed odd, the way he sped in, and settled into a camping spot that looked like the perfect place to get stuck. And then he got stuck.
We heard the revving first. Then the spinning. A quick glance out the window confirmed that he was enthusiastically digging himself deeper. Of course we would go an help, but it was raining and we decided to finish our dinner first. By this time he had gotten himself well and truly stuck.
Mike took charge and told him what he had to do. He needed to dig out the dirt in front of the rear wheels so he had less of a slope, and we gave him our chocks to put under the front wheel to try and give him more grip. We told him to let us know when we was ready and we would help push.
We’d just got our dishes done and settled for a game of chess when he knocked on our door. The three of us pushed while his wife drove. But she didn’t have the knack for getting out. Mike tried to explain, but our English to German translation must have eluded her. Or she just didn’t understand. So Mike hopped in the drivers seat and saved the day. With a kind of rocking back and forward motion of the van, he drove them out. They were absolutely elated. Bet they don’t make that mistake again (but no guarantees).
After that it was a nice quiet night at the base of Latvia’s highest mountain (AKA hill).