29.8: Piusa caves

Today I decided to make a day trip to the terminus of the other railway line which extends from Tartu, at the Piusa caves. I set out in a southeasterly direction from Tartu for ~80km. The journey took 1.5 hours and was a good opportunity to catch up with writing. An interesting part of the journey was when, upon nearing Piusa, we actually changed lines to the line which runs between Russia and Valga. This line is now largely disused, except for the small section used to reach Piusa. This is only used in the summer. To anyone travelling to Estonia, I can highly recommend the trains. The whole system has recently been overhauled with the lines re-laid and new trains rolled out. This means that the journeys are extremely smooth with fast WiFi and power points. I think the journeys are on average less expensive than bus travel. It is also extremely easy to carry a bicycle on board, as many people did today. The only draw back is that the frequency of trains is much lower than busses, meaning the travel times are not very flexible. I think this is because many of the lines have to be shared with freight.

After a pleasant journey I alighted at Piusa and wandered over to the information centre where I booked myself on a tour of the caves. The ‘caves’ are actually the remains of an extensive sandstone quarrying operation that took place in this area from 1922 to 1966. The sandstone here was particularly prized as, with its high quartz content, it was perfect for glass making. What remains is a 22km network of cathedral-lake tunnels. Legend has it that these tunnels actually extended much further, even crossing under the border into Russia. The caves have now become home to the largest bat population in the Baltics. The bats hibernate here during the winter, as the temperature is fairly constant and never falls below zero. As it is still summer, there were no bats today. Inside the caves was a bit chilly at ~5˚C. I was a tad disappointed to find that the visit to the caves was restricted to concrete reinforced viewing area. Apparently bits of rock occasionally fall from the ceiling, making the caves too dangerous to wander around. It was still nice to see though.

Writing aboard train

Train waiting patiently at the Piusa station

An open area of mine

The caves

For me, the more interesting part of the visit was the nature trail that extends from the visitor centre. The forests around here (as in other parts of southern Estonia) were really beautiful. The gentle undulations (sorry, Estonian Himalayas) around here made them particularly so. Fortunately the rain held off as I walked around and the sun even came out for a while. I found a nice place to sit and eat my lunch. I was again able to pick blueberries and cowberries (not to be confused with the flavourless bearberries!) for dessert. Near the end of the trail were the remains of German trenches, left over from WWII. These were pretty interesting to check out. There were also occasionally fenced off sinkholes, presumably where the tunnels beneath had collapsed.

Ilusmets (beautiful forest)

An open mined area

Sinkholes

WWII trenches

I had time for a coffee and a bit more writing before catching the train back to Tartu.

Once back in Tartu, I was able to sell my bicycle to Christian, the owner of Terviseks, where I am staying. Getting rid of the bike was a weight off my mind, although I will miss it.