Pärnu on the Bay of Riga, Estonia

Zagan the motorhome’s just outside Pärnu, free camping up against a Baltic Sea beach (N58.37934, E24.46621). Finding places to stay for free in Estonia seems simple: get Google Maps up, look for a car park near where you want to be, sorted. There seem few restrictions on motorhome overnight parking. This is our third place we’ve stopped in Pärnu though, simply because we kept finding spots which suited us better!

Pärnu, Free Camping on the Bay of Riga

This morning the rain excused us from alighting from the overcab bed. It was gone 9:30am by the time we sprang into action, by which point our Dutch neighbour had hitched up his caravan and headed off. The water continued to bombard us, millions of Earthbound missiles which the local mozzies cared not a hoot for, making repeated attempts on my forearms as I emptied the loo and topped off Zagan’s water supply. Little swines! I’m thinking of getting a mosquito hat and adorning my entire body in clothing to foil the tiny screaming two-stroke motored Draculas.

After yesterday’s miles on Soomaa National Park’s gravel roads I’d a secret hope tarmac would sweep us out of the place as we headed west. Alas, no. Perhaps in an attempt to avoid cars digging deep ruts at intersections, any T junction would have a hundred meters smoothed out with black top, after that, the beige of bounce. Same applied to the route out of our kipping spot. After 2 minutes of cruise, Zagan’s suspension went Zebedee. Alternating between laughing and swearing, I can now see why land speed records aren’t attempted in Estonia in a motorhome, as no-one would have gotten above 28mph, unimpressive stuff! No dust clouds to negotiate today though, as our host country’s weather continued to make us feel right at home…

Soomaa! Why doth thou roads run rough? Ah, because floods would remove the tops each year…

More trees. More fields. More pastures. There’s a lot of space up here folks. Only thing is, most of the national park floods each spring with snowmelt. House insurance might be hard to get, as your ground floor fills up in April, year in, year out. If you’re not fussed about the minor inconvenience of frogs on your sofa, Soomaa might be for you. It might also explain why they don’t bother to tarmac the roads.

Houses in Soomaa, which would endure a few feet of water every spring

The point we left the national park will forever remain a mystery. Trees in the park, trees outside the park, all looked much the same as we rumbled on westwards. A minor celebration erupted at tarmac-ville, muted by the fact we expected it to be a false dawn. Nope, the gravel was banished and on we went, past more fields, trees and pasture. Estonians don’t much go in for fences or hedges. Cows are chained in place, able to much a circle of grass before being decamped by a bloke with a hammer to a new spot. Next to us at the moment they’ve gone hi-tec, with an electric fence.

Estonian Hummer on way here

Only one thing tougher than a Hummer, a Hymer

After an hour we reached the outskirts of Pärnu. Pre-fab industrial units and shops. Nothing out of the ordinary. At this point satnav pointed out we were still 3km from our kipping spot, which translated as 2.5km of banal outskirts. Eventually we found our chosen car park, repulsed by a €9 a day parking charge, we rambled about here and there until we found a freebie spot. The rain was dying off by this point, but still we watched a tour group arrive, lead by a lass in wellies who, incredibly to us, started to wave her arms about in description of the wooden shacks around us. Once she’d lead her brolly-sprouting entourage away, we headed off too.

Cutting this short, after having consumed numerous beers, Pärnu is a pleasant town. Nothing particularly special, nothing unusual enough to make a big detour for,  but also a nice enough place to nip and see. After a wander about the thumping tunes from a nascent rock concert encouraged us to gear up and head out. As we were about to leave fellow Brits Richard and Jenny popped their heads in, and we’ve met up at the other end of the bay (where we are now), chatting and supping a few beers. Good craic was had, wine was drunk and we’re wiser for the experience. They are heading to the top of Norway too, so no doubt we’ll bump into them again.

What’s that? England 2, Wales 1? Woo hoo!

It’s now 11:58pm and Ju’s reported the sun’s set, but it’s still light. She’s booked the vet for Charlie tomorrow, to get his worming sorted so we can get into Finland,  and the ferry is sorted from Tallinn to Helsinki. Nordic lands, finally, here we come.

The HUGE woodyard next to us. The trees look like match sticks.

Cheers, Jay

P.S. Here’s what it looks like at ten minutes past midnight here: