Camino Pilgrim

This is my first time starting a hike in the evening after work. I did not race against the sunset, since the sun does not set before midnight currently. I had to race against the late evening mosquito hour (they come out in groups around 9pm).

I have been patiently waiting for the perfect weekend for it to be warm and dry for hiking. Soomaa is a territory you do not want to get into trouble in. After Tori it takes 45km to reach the next grocery store. In-between you have a huge national park that is underwater for at least two weeks in March. You can ride a canoe through the villages at that time. Currently the forest floor was still half submerged next to the main car road through this area.

There is a single car road here and it is also the shortest route to get from Pärnu to Viljandi so every hour you will have at least one car passing you. The countryside buses do not go through this region as it crosses from one county to another and in between very few people actually live.

Main inhabitants around here seem to be bugs and birds. It is very relaxing and beautiful. A lot of normal hiking trails, bog plank trails and nature camping areas in the region.

Although I walked on car roads the whole day, it was easy to find a good place to sit and relax. If nothing else, you can just sit in the middle of the road as you can hear cars approach from kilometers away.

I cycled through Soomaa a few years ago and remember how tiring it was. It felt like such an achievement to cover it all in one day. Now I will be doing the same, but on foot and under 24 hours. I do need to sleep a bit before continuing.

I remember that on Camino Frances people (including myself) complain about the 17km walk in a straight line after Carrion de los Condes, but this is so much bigger and also goes in almost a straight line for quite a while.

I will be so happy when I reach the grocery store tomorrow. I definitely want to get ice cream as tomorrow is another beautiful sunny Summer day.