Baltic Bike Tour Day 3: Lahemaa to Tartu

I am sitting here by the window of our hotel in Tartu and the light is fading but it is not yet fully dark - at 11:30 p.m!

Last night, our room was like a sauna (it was on the upper level so heat rises ...) and with the windows open, the options were to be bathed in a sea of sweat all night OR be eaten alive by mosquitoes.

While MF slept on, I visited reception after 11 p.m. and asked in sign and sound language for mosquito spray (use your imagination). I got a fly swatter which I declined. I asked for a fan. Out of storage cane an industrial strength pedestal fan which I happily lugged upstairs and - still oblivious - MF woke this morning and said he’d had the BEST sleep!

The morning began with a 120 km-transfer in our large comfortable bus to Mustvee; we drive for awhile through the Lahemaa NP - so beautiful!! It is actually very relaxing just watching the world go by ... And it is another lovely day of sunshine - predicted about 25 deg C. When we exit the NP, there are fields absolutely full of bright yellow canola stretching for as far as the eye can see.


Our ride today starts from Mustvee along the Lake Peipsi shore to Varnja. Peipsi is the 4th largest lake in Europe, divided in two by the Russian border. MF suggests that, unlike the border crossing from NSW to Victoria, a border crossing from Estonia to Russia would involve more complexities; he admits that we’d have to be pretty off-piste if we end up at the border in the middle of Lake Peipsi!

With a population of 1320, Mustvee is the largest lakeside town, with a little harbour and a sandy beach. A little further south along the lake a forlorn WWII memorial, The Grieving Girl (1973), stands by the shore with her head bowed. It commemorates the 264 Red Army soldiers buried here in a mass grave. There's also a pretty Old Believers church nearby, dating from 1927.

In the 18th and 19th centuries Russian Old Believers (Starovyery) – a breakaway Orthodox sect who were persecuted for refusing to accept liturgical reforms carried out in 1666 – took refuge on the western shores of the lake. This intriguing community survives in several coastal villages which they founded, the largest of which is Kallaste.

Enroute, we pass many fishing villages but manage to get ourselves tangled up when roadworks on the lakeside road send us hither and dither and for a while I DO wonder if we’ll end up in Russia! Are we lost?

A settlement of Old Believers has existed in Kallaste since 1720, when the area was known as Krasniye Gori (Red Mountains) because of the red sandstone cliffs, up to 11 m high, that surround the town. Most of its 819 inhabitants are Russian-speaking. We have a FAST lunch here eating our sandwiches and swatting off the mosquitoes and midges; and visit the Old Believers’ cemetery at the southern end of town which is tended to by some Russian women who don’t seem too friendly ...

It was pretty hot by now - and humid!; Vaidas meets us with the bus and water throughout the day which is a relief. At Alatskivi is a Neo-Gothic castle dating to the 17th century and rebuilt in the late 19th century by Baron Arved von Nolcken, modelled on the royal residence of Balmoral in Scotland. We take a break here and tour the castle including the Eduard Tubin Museum on the upper floor. Tubin was one of Estonia's most esteemed composers.


It was a tad cooler by now. Vaidas was parked around the corner. I think we were last on the road now as no-one else in the group stopped at the castle. We went down a road behind the bus, so unless he’s got eyes in the back of his head, we reckon he must have a tracking device on our bikes as, sure enough, he drives past about 10 minutes later.

Another 16 kms, good quiet road with lake on either side of us now, lots of birds, and there are beaches and wetlands. Into Varnja and then by bus transfer of 40 kms into Tartu.


Tartu lays claim to being Estonia’s spiritual capital, with locals talking about a special Tartu vaim (spirit), created by the time-stands-still feel of its wooden houses and stately buildings, and the beauty of its parks and riverfront. Tartu was the cradle of Estonia’s 19th-century national revival, and escaped Soviet town planning to a greater degree than Tallinn. Small and provincial, with the tranquil Emajõgi River flowing through it, it is Estonia’s premier university town; students comprise nearly a seventh of the population. This injects a boisterous vitality into the leafy, historic setting and grants it a vibrant nightlife for a city of its size.

We check-in to our hotel and have a quick shower so we can check out the city. It’s a short walk into the city centre through a pretty park to the main square (Raekoja plats) which is lined with grand 18th century buildings and restaurants. The centrepiece is the Town Hall fronted by a statue of students kissing under a spouting umbrella. On the south side of the square, we found the communist hammer-and-sickle relief that still remains on the facade of one of the buildings.

From here we climbed Toomemägi (Cathedral Hill) which is the original reason for Tartu’s existence, functioning on and off as a stronghold from around the 5th or 6th century. It’s now a tranquil park, albeit taken over by groups of students in the evenings some innocently enough enjoying a drink, picnic etc. but there were some unsavoury characters also enjoying too much alcohol. We walked past to the restaurant we were aiming for (Gunpowder Cellar, or Püssirohukelder ) and where we enjoyed a drink too (!) and yummy dinner. Püssirohukelder was an 18th-century gunpowder cellar constructed in 1768–1778 by order of Catherine II of Russia on the site of an earlier fort.

Afterwards, we continued our walk past the Tartu University (founded in 1632) and then back to the hotel via the river where there was much revelry also.


Cycle: 58 kms

Steps: 8000