Baltic Sea Circle Day 13
We woke up pretty late, with the sun already warming the roof tent like an oven. Sleep had been on and off as the mosquito bites we had acquired the evening before had been incredibly itchy despite our liberal applications of bite relief cream.
We followed our morning rituals of emptying the tents of sleeping stuff, packing it down and eating our cereal, then doing a quick check on the oil level and coolant, which all seemed normal. We had added a bit of oil yesterday morning, we definitely had a leak somewhere or the engine was burning it.
Our plan was to make our way to Riga, explore there for a few hours and then head through Lithuania and get to Poland, all in one day. We set off for the capital city, travelling back along the potholed and bumpy gravel track, the car’s suspension audibly complaining each time a wheel found a hole in the road. It was slow going but we soon found tarmac and became instantly frustrated with the drivers doing silly overtakes, tailgating, more potholes and the confusing speed limit signs. The traffic got busier as we approached the city, and the condition of the road got worse still, forcing us to drive slower.
As we were about 15 minutes from our parking spot we noticed the battery voltage was incredibly low and the engine coolant temperature was very high, higher than it’d been the entire trip. This worried me straight away as I knew what would happen if the coolant overheated, we’d have a cooked engine as the water turned to steam and escaped. The battery voltage also was a concern, this had halted our trip right at the start! What could have gone wrong now?
We pulled over at a nearby petrol station, raised the bonnet and stared at the hot engine. The coolant level was good, oil level still ok, so I lifted the cover of the fuse box and made sure everything was pressed down fully. Maybe all the vibrations from the rough gravel tracks had wiggled something loose? We got the voltmeter out the toolbox and Gemma held it on the battery whilst I started the engine; the voltage was hitting 13.5 again and we sighed with relief. Something must have been loose. And the engine had now cooled down a bit and was now happy, I can only assume the slow speeds and high revs we’d given her had got her hot and the fan was struggling to cool it down enough. We proceeded with our fingers crossed, glad that we checked and stopped.
We found our car park and descended into the narrow underground passage, where we hoped the shade would help chill out any other gremlins. We got our touristy backpacks and sunglasses on and made our way to the surface, where we got our bearings and headed for the Old Town area of Riga. We saw the cathedral and river, where we had a rest from the scorching sun. We decided to head over to the House of the Black Heads and then find a place for lunch nearby. We saw a nice place on Google but it was closed, so proceeded to wander though the streets, stopping at each restaurant to look at the menu, not finding any that served sandwiches (let alone peanut better and jam ones!) We settled on a coffee shop that had burgers, which were served lukewarm, a little disappointing after the long wait for them. We walked back to the car through some lovely parks, seeking the shade at every opportunity. Once down into the cool underground car park we hit our next obstacle, the payment machine was broken and the man at the customer service desk only spoke Latvian. He was clearly quite irritated that we couldn’t converse in his language and eventually we figured out he needed our registration number, which we needed to write down as we didn’t know the Latvian alphabet or numbers. The man flattened an old receipt for us and threw a pen across the desk; clearly we’d made his day worse. We managed to pay and make our way out of the place, saying good riddance as we passed the desk. Our plan next was to head to the Hill of Crosses in Lithuania.
The humid day had started to turn cloudy, a summer storm was approaching as we headed south. We had a couple of showers and got to test the windscreen wipers for the first time on the trip. It was this I discovered the little hidden feature of the 944, a build in barometer! Whenever it rains, a small drip of water falls onto your right ankle, and when it’s sunny no drips; saves having to look out the windows!
We arrived at the Hill of Crosses, which was also our daily rally challenge: we had picked up some sticks the previous day on the mosquito walk and peeled the bark off, to make a simple cross and place it on the hill. We could then say thanks and make a wish as we placed it. The weather was starting to turn and over on the horizon we’re some ominous dark clouds. We picked up our rain coats just in case, along with the cross-sticks and some fishing line to tie it together. I shoved the sticks in my pocket to smuggle them past the lady at the stall selling crosses, I didn’t want her to think we were competing with her. We walked the 200 meters to the hill, passing teenagers posing for Instagram, and I lashed the sticks together. We got out our Sharpie and wrote our team name and the date, climbed the wooden steps and took a look around. There were thousands, if not millions of crosses of all shapes and sizes. Some many meters tall, others could fit in your palm. This was an important place of significance and we treated it with utmost respect. We laid out cross, grateful that our travels so far had been safe and wished for more of the same to get back to our loved ones. As we descended the hill the wind picked up and I noted that the storm was moving in. About 20 seconds later it hit, heavy rain lashing us right in the face, we half ran, half walked back to a small underpass for shelter but it was pointless as we were soaked to the bone in the first 30 seconds. Our shoes were filled with water and it poured out each time we stepped. We sheltered for 10 minutes, and as the rain eased we plodded to the car: these clothes were clean on today and we’d intended them to last two days.
We found some dry clothes in the boot and took turns to strip off our outer layers in the car park, then sitting in the passenger seat to get changed into dry underwear and clothes, the other holding up the “privacy curtain” of drenched shorts. I had a spare pair of shoes but no socks hands, and we piled the wet clothes into the back, the rain was picking up again. By this time the inside of the 80’s icon had steamed up pretty bad. If you’ve owned a car from that era you’ll know the awfulness of the demist feature. Utter pointlessness. After 10 minutes about six inches of the bottom of the windscreen was clear and we wiped the remaining parts with a handy cloth, previously used to wash dead bugs off the outside of the windscreen. We set off with optimism that we could make some miles and hit Poland by the evening. The next hour was hell.
I’m not sure if it’s the whole of Lithuania or just the roads that we drove on, but there are no drains, or road camber to clear the water, it just sits in the dips where everyone’s tyres go. This makes for very dangerous conditions when your car is misting up, the tyres hitting standing water and cars coming the opposite way spraying us with a deluge of rainwater. Add to that the constant drip on my right ankle, reminding me it’s raining. We decided to pull over and wait until the rain had eased, the windscreen was thoroughly dry and we had dried out ourselves a bit too. That seemed to work and we managed to get a bit further, but Poland was just too far. We set our sights on Marijampole, and headed towards Kaunas with some 80’s tunes on the stereo to remind us of the good bits of the 80’s and not the awful demist feature.
As we got to Kaunas we joined the motorway which was good as it meant we could drive at over 100 kmph and the roads were better quality. We put our foot down and cruised for a bit, smiles returning to our faces. A couple of Porsche 911s cruised past in the fast lane, slowing to give us a thumbs up and a blast from their engines as they sped off again. It may be awful in wet weather but some folks still liked our car.
We arrived at our campsite for the night after a short blast down a windy road and I spoke to the guy at the gate, who then had to call his boss who spoke English. Between the three of us I learned where the facilities were and how much to pay the man, and once done we set up camp in the drizzle. As we’d had a big lunch we decided to take some snacks and sandwiches into the tent for dinner, and ate while the rain pattered on the canvas. The weather tomorrow was supposed to be better, hopefully we could dry off our wet clothes somehow. We decided that an AirBnB would be a good idea for our final night, and found one west of Gdańsk which was available. We booked it and headed to sleep, keeping warm in our sleeping bags as the rainy weather continued into the night.
WILD SPIRIT 