Camino Pilgrim

The weather was quite unfriendly so I just walked half of the stage and jumped on a bus back home as it was approaching me.

The massive amounts of snow has been melting all week. Some nights are still below freezing so there is lots of ice buildup on walking paths. Adding an all-day fog made it quite slippery and slow to pass some areas.

I did manage to get a stamp in Saku church this morning. I was the 65th pilgrim to have checked in there. The last people before me were two Latvians in October. Before that two Australians in September. There were many foreign nationalities that had visited.

I can only assume many people who have done the trail did not manage to get stamped in Saku. The church is open three days a week a few hours at a time. It’s quite commonplace in Estonia. There are some churches on the trail that only open on Sundays.

Going out of Saku I passed a big grocery store and got food for the day. Near the store the yellow arrows were visibly pointing to go towards the nature trail direction. I however decided in this wet and partially icy weather to go alongside the pathway for pedestrians connecting nearby villages.

My version of the day went straight for Kasemetsa train station. I did a short break to drink some hot tea from the thermos I had with me. The tiny green foam mat was great to keep my pants dry from the soaking wet bench. I even packed this time a puffy jacket with me for extra warmth during breaks.

From Kasemetsa to Kiisa it’s easy to follow the same walkway. Once inside Kiisa the yellow Camino arrows connected directly to my path. I passed the local farmers market which was completely empty in Winter. I have cycled past this place countless times in the Summer and it always had life.

From Kiisa once you cross the Keila river you are in Roobuka and then Aespa village. They are so connected that it’s hard to tell when one ends and the other starts. I was thinking of ending my day in Aespa before the highway walking section, but a bus towards Tallinn was just pulling up and I decided to take the opportunity.

The actual stage is about 20km, so I did about half. In the second half just after Aespa you will need to walk towards Hageri without any protection from cars on a relatively busy road. I definitely did not want to do that walking on ice covered with a thin layer of water.

It took me almost three hours today walking this small distance and legs are quite tired from balancing on ice that covered the road about half of the time.

I will have to see when a good weekend comes to do this other 10km left of this stage on the Camino. Ideally it’s not raining at temperatures close to freezing. About 300km still to go until Valga.