We arrived in Tallinn by ferry in the late afternoon and decided to take a short stroll through the old town. We didn't have a precise plan beforehand, so we drove into the city with Zacharias as far as we could. At the beginning of the pedestrian zone there were not very clear signs that theoretically allowed parking at the current time, but not even the taxi driver could tell us whether we could really park for freeor not or where to pay. Finally, we parked in front of the «Museum of banned books» on a side street. The people walking by looked a bit strange, but we were used to that.
We took the risk of a parking ticket and walked along the pedestrianised streets of Tallinn's beautiful Old Town. Of course, it is also developed for tourism here, but has a lot of charm and some very authentic restaurants, cafés and bars. After about 2 hours and now very tired children, we were almost back at the bus when we saw people with pizzas in boxes and asked directly where to get them. And it was a hit - we haven't had such good pizza for a long time. We ate the two pizzas on the bus and then drove west out of Tallinn to a barbecue area in the forest right on the Baltic Sea.
When we arrived it was now dark and since we weren't used to it anymore, we drove towards the barbecue area on a Saturday evening with high beam (luckily not with a light bar). We quickly realised that some other people were enjoying the weekend here, so we turned off the lights and rolled onto the next possible straight place. The following morning, we saw how beautiful it was. It was an official barbecue area of the forestry authority RMK, which maintains a large number of these areas across the country. There is usually a toilet, one or more barbecue areas, covered benches and firewood. As we found, the pitches are very busy on weekends, especially if it's one of the last warm weekends of the year.
Since we liked it so much, we stayed for a few days, just as long as our supplies lasted. As a rule, we are limited by our drinking water supply, because about 45l in the underfloor tank and another 10l in the canister on the rear carrier is not too much for 4 people. Then we decided to go to a campsite to wash and shower again. Conventional campsites are rather scarce due to the RMK sites, because camping or spending the night in the bus is allowed on the RMK sites. Just before we got to the campsite, the fuel gauge screamed for a refill. Surprisingly, we actually found 95E0 Super Gasoline at a small fuel dispenser. And of course, Zacharias went off like a muscle car 😉
Arrived at the campsite, we got the last free place. It is a beautiful area with a few wooden huts, some of which are still under construction, and lots of meadows and nature that invite you to relax. In order not to detract from this, Michael takes excellent care of his guests and makes sure that the campers are not too close together and that everyone has their peace. Michael runs the entire facility alone and also builds all the huts himself. Actually, we only wanted to stay here for one night, but because we liked it so much and Michael could use a little help, we extended our stay.
The following day, I helped him to lay the laminate in one of the huts, because this should be rented out in the evening. He also offered me to paint a customer's garden shed the next day for a few euros. That was a welcome change and sometimes good for the travel budget. In the end, the painting took two days, which is why we stayed one more day. Of course, Michael also knows all his neighbors and, by coincidence, you can also ride horses at a neighboring farm. I don't think I've ever seen Luisa so happy as that afternoon when she sat on a pony for the first time and was allowed to ride for about three quarters of an hour. To top it all off, the farmer also keeps some Black Angus cows on his huge pastures, whose meat we of course couldn't miss - after all, we had a slight deficit after being unable to find almost any organic meat in Scandinavia.
On the second day in Michael's oasis of well-being, a family of four from northern Bavaria arrived with a Lada Niva and a roof tent, with whom we got along very well. Luisa and Jonathan had playmates again and we made plans where we could go off-road for a bit. So far we had postponed this, firstly because it is difficult to find a sensible drivable track and secondly because the risk of getting stuck and not getting any further alone is much higher than with two vehicles.
After 4 days, we decided to let Michael work in peace again and started together directly on the nearby TET, Trans Euro Trail. The TET is a trail through the whole of Europe, which is actually intended by/for enduro motorcyclists and is off the asphalt as much as possible. These are usually forest roads and paths and can usually also be driven on by car without destroying nature. But more about that in the next Bolg entry 😉
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