25.8: Cycling Ida-Virumaa

Today I decided that a good cycle was in order, with plenty of geocaching for good measure. I set off at about 10.00, following some cycling paths to the outskirts of the city. The first stop I made was at a rather large cemetery. This one was a bit different from some the others I have visited thus far. There was a real mix of graves, German, Estonian and Russian, from the late 1800’s to present. As I entered the cemetery there was a large sign warning of the fines for vandalising graves and I soon saw why. The majority of the old cast iron crosses, which seem to generally be of German origin, were missing. Perhaps stolen for scrap metal or some other motivation, who knows. It seemed to be generally quite unkempt, despite the fact the cemetery is still quite well used.

 

Russian graves

Missing graves

One of the few German graves I could find 

The main destination I was aiming for today was the seaside town of Narva-Jõesuu, about 15km northwest of Narva, on the Gulf of Finland. En route I stopped at a recently re-opened monument to the battle of Riigiküla, an important battle which took place during the Estonian War of Independence of 1919.

A Tank beside the road

Estonian war memorial

Narva-Jõesuu is a resort town, set amongst pine forests abutting a large, white sand beach. Skirting around an old military base, I made my way to the estuary of the River Narva, where I had my morning tea and found the geocache which led me there. There were numerous signs erected warning not to swim in the river, as it is a sensitive border zone. I continued my morning tea back in town with a nice coffee at a café there. After this I attempted a multi cache which was very devious indeed. A multi cache is a type of geocache that requires a geocacher to visit multiple points to collect information to determine the coordinates of where the actual geocache is hidden. In this case, I was initially led to what was the towns resort hall. Built in 1911 it was considered an architectural marvel of its time and played host to many cultural events. It is now in a highly dilapidated state. For the geocache, I had to find the coordinates that would lead me to the final cache. Eventually I laid my hand on them, written on the back of a brick in the wall.

Lighthouse near River Narva estuary

Old pier 

Views across estuary

Old hall

Brick in wall

Example of a very good geocache hide

I carried on riding parallel to the coast in a westerly direction until I reached the next cache, this time couple of kilometres down a little dirt track and then a short walk into some forest. Here, seemingly in the middle of nowhere, were the remains of an old weir. It was a very picturesque setting. The clue for the cache was ‘curtain’ so I was thinking that it must be attached to the iron gates of the weir. After a lot of searching I had practically given up and decided to take some photos. It was while doing this that one final location occurred to me – the recess below the outflow. So, I stuck my hand in behind the little ‘curtain’ of water and, sure enough, there was the cache! A very rewarding find. To celebrate I decided to eat my lunch here.

Weir

Found it! 

I wound my way a little further west before turning back towards Narva at the town of Sinimäe, finding a few more geocaches along the way. In order to avoid the very busy main road that runs between Narva and Tallinn, I stuck to farm tracks and rode my way back in an easterly direction. Most of these tracks were in good condition however there was one stretch that ran through some riigimets (state forest) that became very rough and bumpy. This seemed like the kind of forest where one might come across bears, fortunately I didn’t (although the illogical part of my mind was thinking it would be kind of cool to see one). I think it is in these parts where most of Estonia’s 700 odd bears live. Apparently it is extremely rare to run into them in the wild. Due to hunting they have learnt to be very wary of humans, or so I’ve been told.

Track

Bicycle

View

The last cache I found was another hidden location. This time my GPS led me to a tiny village near the main road, leading me down an unmarked track between some houses to a stream. Although initially feeling like I was trespassing and a babushka would pop out and give me a whack with her wooden spoon, there were in fact some trail markers a little further on. As I walked along the stream it became evident that the geology of this area was interesting, with horizontally layered limestone making little steps along the creek bed. After about 200 m I came upon the Tõrvajõe waterfall, looking very pretty with the layered rock covered in moss. A very tranquil setting and a nice geocache to finish the day on.

Waterfall

Shortly after this I was able to connect with a bike trail that runs alongside the highway back into Narva for the remaining 10 km or so. In all I thought that was a really fantastic days ride and must have been pretty close to 50 km in total. For dinner I went to a German pub in town and had some nice roast pork and potatoes for dinner.

Bike path into Narva

Dinner