Purva bridēja kauss, Amata; cycling in Latgale

After a few leisure days, which were mostly filled with Cantharellus cibarius picking and which finally gave me the chance to achieve my biggest bird watching goal this year - to see a nutcracker (Nucifraga caryocatactes), it was time for some orienteering and cycling.

So on Saturday, August 14th, I and lot of other mates from OK Meridiāns were participating in "Purva bridēja kauss" - a mixed (which means every team has to contain at least one woman) relay. The relay took place not far from Cēsis, near Amata river. The terrain there is rather hilly and runnability is from good to bad due to windfallen trees and bushes, so perfect for OK Meridiāns :D Interesting and extraordinary seemed the part before a finish line - every participant had to cross the Amata twice.

My team:
Meridiāns 3
1) Matiass Jansons, 2) me, 3) Andis Malējs.

Matiass finished in 5th place close to Andris (Meridiāns 1) and Dāvis (Kaplis (Madonas BJSS)). So when I reached the start flag I was together with Ilze and Elīna. As I had to take different control, I was soon all alone and managed to make a mistake. There were a place which seemed like a meadow to me, and as there was one on the map, I thought I'm not that high as I really was. To the 2nd control I managed to make a mistake once again - I just didn't see the flag and ran too far. The follow-up didn't contain any big mistakes, I just took very interesting rout choices - less climbing, less green forest, but more running, even a lot more running. I think, it didn't gave me a chance to be faster, it just gave me an opportunity to keep power with me longer. On my way to last control I saw Ilze, who was coming from wrong direction, so I was a bit ahead of her. Of course, I fell in the water, while crossing the river, but still with the 2nd time on my leg I raised my team to the 2nd position, two minutes behind team Meža cūkas (VIGA) and a few seconds ahead of Meridiāns 1.
Andis was troubled by heat, however he did a good job, finishing 4th after very strong guys. We all were quite satisfied :)

Map

After the relay I drove to Vecpiebalga, where my cycling trip to Latgale (South-East Latvia) started. In Vecpiebalga Andris joined me. It was already evening, but we reached Madona in two hours, some minutes before darkness. In Madona we met lot of people, who were visiting an air-balloon festival, and Artūrs, my best course mate, at whose garden we passed the night. Also Artūrs's brother Jānis joined us, and we had a really nice evening with some meat grilling and shooting stars watching. So first day, 38 km.
Second day, August 15th, started very early, on 4:45 am, because I didn't want to be late in Pļaviņas and miss the train, which had to lead us to Nīcgale. So on 5:30 am we started from Madona to Pļaviņas. We reached the destination about an hour earlier, but it was just fine. 9:10 am we left Pļaviņas. After a while in Krustpils station we met Jānītis, another mate of this cycling tour.
When we reached Nīcgale, we were actually already in real Latgale. Today we had to get to Aglona. We cycled and sun shined, and sometimes the heat was simply unbearable. We passed the buss stop Latgale, which seemed funny to me, because it affirmed that we really were there. This part of Latvia actually looks different. Lot of farmstead, which look old and mostly not put in order too well, lot of churches, lot of roads in very bad quality, but in contrast rather pricy cars. Don’t know where these cars come from, but you can guess, that there is higher poverty, than in other parts of the country. Also the language is different. Even the landscape makes you feel different - although it is very beautiful as everywhere in Latvia, it contains uncommonly lot of lakes. In one of them I put my head just before we arrived in Aglona, the place in which there is the most famous basilica of Latvia. In that place we met Elīna, so finally the team were all together. It was just afternoon (3 pm), but according to plan we were going to stay there and to pass the night there. It was fine again, because at least I was tired, I really was. So we made a cold soup, ate, slept a bit, fighted with red ants a bit, talked (as we had Jānītis, who loves talking :D), drunk loads of water, swam in the pond (just because it was nearer than lake) and rested in general. It happened, that we got another team mate – also Māriņa, who had been in Aglona together with Elīna, joined us. The night came rather fast, so we found the perfect place for staying, played cards a bit and went to bed with the sky instead of roof.

Second day, 47km + 50 km.

Next morning, August 16th. We woke up pretty early, 6:30 am, but started our tour only on 8 a clock, when the heat was actually perceptible. The first spot ahead – Velnezers or Devil’s Lake. Small lake, which seems mysterious, because there is almost nothing living in it, but also very rich in biological diversity around it, because of little influence of human in this area. The next spot – a village Kombuļi (Sandra, you had to be with us ;)). Not far from Kobuļi also Sauleskalns or the Sun Hill and the Drīdzis, the deepest lake of Latvia (65 m). Near Drīdzis we spent two hours, enjoyed swimming and saw some Papilio machaon, which really delighted me. Then we had to get to Dagda and we chose to cycle along the unpaved road, which lead us to the Sīvers, another very beautiful lake and the village Auleja, in which we visited one potter and his workshop and got very impressed by his work demonstration. This was so far the best part of the trip. Than we continued cycling to Dagda. This town and a little „suburb” Ozoliņi seemed very friendly to me, there were some nice houses with dahlias in their gardens and apple-trees along the road. In Dagda we rested a bit before last kilometres to Ežezers (Hedgehog Lake), the lake who has the biggest amount of islets (36) in Latvia and Baltic states. When we got there, it was already an evening, so we didn’t look too long for the place where to stay, we just used one of the first houses, who provided the chance to stay in their garden. This place was excellent, we even got an electricity and hot water, and a chance to sleep in trailer in case there is a rain during night :D Some of us used it, but I still had the sky instead of roof :)

Third day, 70 km.

Sauleskalns

The last day, August 17th. Waking up early and cycling to Rāzna Lake. The road to it was strength demanding, because of hills. I could easily notice, that we were in Latgale upland. Rāzna Lake came in sight very impressive. This lake is the biggest lake according to water volume, the second biggest according to the territory in Latvia. It was still morning, when we reached it, there were some birds, and approximately zero people near it. Oh, no, when we were on our way to Mākoņkalns (Cloud Hill), one photographer took the photo of us and told, that this picture is going to be placed in a guidebook of Rāzna National park :D We just laughed and continued cycling. I had never seen that much small graveyards as near Rāzna lake. And I had never appreciated an ice-cream that much, as I did in our stop before Mākoņkalns. By that time my bike was really out of order, and I was very tired as I had to do my best to keep moving as fast as my friends did even if I was hardly able. Some time I wondered, what's wrong with me, when finally after a wheel repair it came to my mind, that it'd been more bike's fault than mine. Anyway, thanks to my technical friends, especially Jānītis, I could continue easier and faster. We moved along the unpaved road again, visited some small, typical latgalian villages Zosna and Lūznava, and than started our last part to the final destination Rēzekne. We got there just before a thunderstorm. After checking Rēzekne out a bit our tour ended. Māriņa, Jānītis and Elīna left to the train station, me and Andris - to the bus station. The coolest end of the trip - we got perfectly wet by rain just before getting inside the bus :) And I kept getting wet also on my last kilometers to home from Vecpiebalga, where I was not too successful in trying to be faster than another thunderstorm :)

Forth day, 65 km + 20 km

Rāzna Lake

Mākoņkalns

Some facts:

* I ate 13 ice-creams during these days

* I swam in 4 lakes, 2 ponds and in one lake I put my head in :D

* As I was in Rēzekne, there's only Dobele and Ludza left to be once in every regional center of Latvia

* Life wouldn't be that interesting if there weren't any blonde girl :)