News from the Baltic - Issue 2

Today, Sunday, I am in Vilnius, the capital of  Lithuania. We will cross the border into Poland on Tuesday around lunchtime for the following 11 days. Vilnius is a cobbled old city with picture postcard buildings, twenty squillion churches and shops full of amber, linen and gorgeous hand-knitted socks. Squares are abundant and full of the ubiquitous coloured umbrellas that signify comfortable chairs and perhaps a cold beer. I am pleased to say refrigeration is working more effectively in this country but it still leaves room for improvement.

As you may know, we are in the grip of a heatwave, riding in temperatures of 34 degrees plus, yesterday getting to 40. Unseasonable but better than rain. Thunderstorms have threatened, but beyond a few drops we have been dry on the outside of not on the inside of our tents which drip with condensation every morning. Not to mention the litres and litres of water that is passing through us.

Camp life is high on camaraderie and low on facilities but at least we have had lakes to jump into at the end of our day's riding. I am a little tired of the stinking drop toilet and the lack of any place to purchase a drink or snack as we usually camp miles from nowhere in particular.

Yesterday we had our first taste of hills with 120km of rolling countryside. There are lots of woods, forests and tree-lined sections of the road as well as meadows, crops and villages. Locals seem to like a beer for breakfast and the place we stopped in before 8 yesterday morning thankfully served coffee as well, and we were able to take pictures of ourselves with the stuffed fox and hedgehog as we danced around the bar in time to some Lithuanian hoe-down tunes.

Stork and cow enjoying rich pasture

We have also come to the land of the cow, a rare sighing in Russia, Estonia or Latvia. Here however cows abound and it is lovely to see them being milked first thing - in the paddock - by the woman of the house. Also goats, dogs of course although they are getting smaller as we go, geese, chooks and cats. Harvest is earlier than in the other two Baltic countries, as we ride by fields of corn, ripe crops and the onions ready to pull.

The storks are also larger and more abundant than ever. Usually there are one or two chicks in a nest. In a marshy place where frogs must be plentiful we saw four young in a nest tapping their beaks until mum or dad stuffed something in. Two nights ago at the bush camp, Michael described the stork nesting near his tent, when launching into the air as being similar to being taken by a pterodactyl. I know they are a bit behind in Perth but I was stunned to think that they still have pterodactyls. I like my fellow Aussies though, they ride like the wind and are usually at our destination before our tardy group has cleaned their teeth. Michael presented me with a product called 'Silence' when I stumbled up the stairs to my room yesterday, a sweating pulsating lump of flesh demanding shower, beer and food in that order. It is a cunning spray that is meant to suppress snoring. I was touched.

For the linguistically interested, 'achoo' means thankyou and 'labas' is a universal greeting. Despite how the ladies feel at the end of a riding day, it does not refer to certain parts of the anatomy which may or may not be lacerated from hours in the saddle under a sweltering sun.

There was a religious pilgrimage that culminated in this city last night. When our group rode in over the bridge trying not to get chain grease on the bride's dress as she and her husband locked a padlock to the ironwork and threw the keys into the river, we noted much clapping and cheering. Of course we imagined it was a welcoming party for the participants in the Tour de Lithuania, but instead it was mainly pimply faced buck-toothed youths who were beside themselves in ecstasy after having walked 260kms. As Rick from North Carolina said, try doing 1200 on a bike and at our age and see how willing you are to jump up and down and sing! I did get blessed twice on the forehead though as we pushed through a hymn singing crowd on the way to the supermarket to stock up on water.

There is a very funny local brochure for this city which describes restaurants as overpriced and under value, drivers as drunk and dangerous, and the small change in the currency as 'weightless, worthless and useless'. Obviously there is room for young spin doctors, or marketing graduates, to really try underselling the city.

Also as it is Sunday there is no laundry and no internet cafes open so I am using the terminal courtesy of the Ramada Inn. We are not staying here, the organisers instead preferring yet another bloody convent up the hill where there is no room to swing a cat between the beds which must have been constructed for mini nuns, not huge Lithuanians or for that matter, most normal-sized people. I hate to think how the chaps are faring - their legs must be hanging over the edge. And of course because we're in cheapskate accommodation, there is none of the luxuries I have been relying on to restock my toiletries. A few rumbles about the food - tasty and colourful although it is, it is devoid of solid cereal, juice and protein.

So until Poland, I will leave with lies, damned lies and statistics.

22nd  July to Birzai: 105km, 5hr 40min TITS, 18.3 average. Hot but okayish
23 July to Anyksciai: 118 km, 6hr 40min TITS, 17.6 average. Hot, gravel, especially the last 5km which was a killer - this is FU gravel as opposed to B Gravel, our own system of classification, where B = benign
24 July - Catherine's 38th birthday - to Vilnius: 123km, 7hrs TITS, average 17.1 - hot, hills, gravel, dust, pollen, a sick peloton member, vicious traffic, a potentially great ride spoilt the last 20km by asinine routing