Curiosity Drive 🚐

Changing of the Light, Neris River, Baltas kalnas | White Hill, Kernavė.

🇱🇹 #europe #baltics #lithuania #lietuva 🚀 #travel 🚐 #camperVan #nomad #roadTrip #vanLife

[2/3] #Vilnius cont. Užupis is a neighbourhood in the city partially enclosed by the Vilnia River; during the Soviet era it was a bit shabby. It’s now described as bohemian and in 1997 residents self-declared the Republic of Užupis (📷1). The republic’s “free spirit” (unrecognised) Constitution is displayed in multiple languages (📷2); essentially a list of principles, we picked out Article 13: “A cat is not obliged to love its owner, but must help in time of need”. It’s said that almost one in seven Republic residents are artists, so naturally artwork is ubiquitous. For example, “Vivulskis’ Overcoat” is randomly embedded in a wall (📷3); he died from pneumonia after giving his coat to another cold soldier guarding against the approaching Red Army in the winter of 1919. Oh, we must advise you not to eat these 🍄‍🟫 iced mushroom cakes (possibly Touristica fungiformis?); they look nice, but taste strongly of chemistry (📷4).

🇱🇹 #europe #baltics #lithuania #lietuva 🚀 #travel 🚐 #camperVan #nomad #roadTrip #vanLife 🌍 #unesco

[3/3] #Vilnius cont. We saw big things, like Atlas carrying the Earth on his shoulders—the planet even had its own moon! (📷1). We saw little things, like this social commentary atop a clock keeping incorrect time (📷2). We saw many churches, such as this repurposed one in which we ate lunch; purchased by a priest, it’s now a social enterprise/ restaurant called “Pirmas blynas” employing #disabled staff (📷3). Others were better presented, like the Baroque St. Casimir's Church c. 1604 CE, topped with a royal 👑 crown (📷4); Casimir was the son of the Grand Duke of Lithuania and King of Poland.

🇱🇹 #europe #baltics #lithuania #lietuva 🚀 #travel 🚐 #camperVan #nomad #roadTrip #vanLife 🌍 #unesco

[1/3] The historic Old Town of Lithuania’s capital #Vilnius is UNESCO-listed; it served as the political centre of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and its architectural diversity includes Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque and Neoclassical styles. Gedimino pilies bokštas | Gediminas Castle Tower c. 1409/ 1933 CE (📷1) and its hill offer elevated views of the historic centre, directly overlooking the Palace of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania and Cathedral Square/ Vilnius Cathedral—yet we still found orientating to the city a little difficult. From the hill we had quite different views of the Neris River from those of last night’s pitch, swapping pine forest for the skyscrapers of the sprawling modern town (📷2). Šv. Onos bažnyčia | St. Anne's Church illustrates how versatile you can be with a good bricklayer (📷3); this Gothic masterpiece has remained relatively unchanged for five centuries since it was consecrated in 1500 CE. Aušros vartai | the Gate of Dawn, built 1503–1514 CE, is the only surviving gate of the original city wall (📷4); it later incorporated a chapel housing a painting of the Virgin Mary.

🇱🇹 #europe #baltics #lithuania #lietuva 🚀 #travel 🚐 #camperVan #nomad #roadTrip #vanLife 🌍 #unesco

[1/2] Dzūkijos nacionalinis parkas | Dzūkija National Park is located in southern Lithuania, close to the Belarusian border and less than 100km east of the Sulwalki Gap. It’s the largest protected area in the country, enclosing vast pine forests, inland dunes and waterways/ wetlands. The park also contains several ethnographic villages that preserve wooden architecture and customs. We took the Zackagirio takas | Zackagiris Trail, beginning at the park’s Visitor Centre in Marcinkonys; we soon encountered some of those traditional houses (📷1). Much of the trail is pine forest, but waypoints include Šaudzyklos kalnas | Shooting Range Hill, a 13m high sandy edge overlooking the Grūda River (📷2), the Klonių (Gaidžių) kopa sand dune (📷3) and Meškos šikna | Bear’s Butt raised bog, which the trail skirts. We ended the day at ež. Kastinis, a small lake just a few kilometres from the trailhead (📷4). A 13km/ 4h circular hike.

🇱🇹 #europe #baltics #lithuania #lietuva 🚀 #travel 🚐 #camperVan #nomad #roadTrip #vanLife 🥾 #hiking #nature #nationalPark

[2/3] Ginučiai hike cont. Here’s another view of the village of Salos (📷1). Just down the road is its sister village, creatively named Salos II; we ate lunch beside this nicely restored 1922 barn (📷2). Our favourite view on the trail was from a small bridge over the channel connecting the lakes of Alksnaitis and Linkmenas (📷3). Next up was Ladakalnis Hill, formerly a place for pagan worship, where six lakes can be seen simultaneously. The adjacent Ginučiai Mound (“castle mound”) is the site of a wooden hill fort destroyed by the Livonian Order in 1433 CE. Towards the end of the hike we ascended the Siliniškés Observation Tower for views (📷4), in the process symbolically marking our 4th anniversary of having climbed out of our working lives. A 14km/ 4.5h loop hike.

🇱🇹 #europe #baltics #lithuania #lietuva 🚀 #travel 🚐 #camperVan #nomad #roadTrip #vanLife 🥾 #hiking #nature #nationalPark

[2/2] Dzūkija National Park cont. Trailside smalls included Fuligo septica | the 🍳 scrambled egg slime #mould, so named for its yolk-like colour (📷1). Looking like a bifurcated donut on a stick, this is Gyromitra infula | elfin saddle #fungus (📷2). We’re fairly sure this is Didymium spongiosum | 🐕🤮 dog sick slime mould because, well… just look at it (📷3)! Adding splashes of colour to the forest and representing the #plant kingdom, flowering Euonymus verrucosus | the warty-barked spindle (📷4). Although we had several sightings of the great spotted woodpecker, the European green woodpecker said to reside in the park was a no-show.

🇱🇹 #europe #baltics #lithuania #lietuva 🚀 #travel 🚐 #camperVan #nomad #roadTrip #vanLife 🥾 #hiking #nature #nationalPark

About 25km west of Vilnius is Trakų istorinis nacionalinis parkas | Trakai Historical National Park. We began with a 4km circular wetland trail, Varnikų pažintinis takas | Varnikai Nature Trail, very popular on a Saturday morning (📷1). Lake Galvė, with 21 islands, is the largest of 32 lakes within the park; the best known island is Castle Island—the site of Trakų salos pilis | Trakai Island Castle (📷2). Originally built in the 14th C. the castle was extensively rebuilt after WWII in 15th C. style and now houses a history museum. Užutrakio dvaras | Užutrakis Manor, a restored late 19th C. residential estate, can be seen across the lake from Castle Island (📷3). Karaites are a Turkic-speaking people who settled here by invitation of the Grand Duke to serve as bodyguards/ soldiers at the end of the 14th C. The traditional Karaite kibinai, a savoury pastry much like a Cornish pastie, is readily available. Karaite wooden houses in Trakai typically feature three street-facing windows (📷4); note the house model fixed to the façade—we saw this several times.

🇱🇹 #europe #baltics #lithuania #lietuva 🚀 #travel 🚐 #camperVan #nomad #roadTrip #vanLife 🥾 #nationalPark

Aukštaitijos Nacionalinis Parkas | Aukštaitija National Park was our first destination in Lithuania, following our entry from southeastern Latvia. We passed through a military checkpoint en route to Palūšė, where the church built in 1750 CE is one of the oldest surviving wooden churches in Lithuania (📷1). From the Visitor Centre we took the recommended Meironų pažintinis takas | Meironu Nature Trail, which includes forest, swamp and lakeside sections. More than elsewhere we were molested by 🪰 Lipoptena cervi | the deer fly (📷2), whose modus operandi is to land on elk/ deer, shed its wings, burrow through fur, cut into skin and feed on the hosts blood. With hooked legs plus an elastic body, they’re very resistant to being brushed off or crushed! Our 6km/ 80min loop hike concluded with a return along the shore of ež. Lūšiai | Lake Lūšiai (📷3). To overnight we drove to ež. Almajas | Lake Almajas, arriving just as the sun was setting (📷4); there’s a public campsite hidden in lakeside forest down a gravel road.

🇱🇹 #europe #baltics #lithuania #lietuva 🚀 #travel 🚐 #camperVan #nomad #roadTrip #vanLife 🥾 #hiking #nature #nationalPark

[1/3] Our second hike in Aukštaitijos Nacionalinis Parkas | Aukštaitija National Park began in the village of Ginučiai, settled in 1554 CE. The watermill has been a feature since at least 1738 CE (📷1) and the village contains many examples of traditional-style wooden houses (📷2). After leaving the village the trail follows a dirt road through forest for several kilometres before offering the first lake views, at the site of a bridge at a four-way crossroads (📷3). There’s more traditional architecture—and well-kept gardens—to be seen in the small lakeside ethnographic village of Salos (📷4).

🇱🇹 #europe #baltics #lithuania #lietuva 🚀 #travel 🚐 #camperVan #nomad #roadTrip #vanLife 🥾 #hiking #nature #nationalPark

[3/3] Ginučiai hike cont. Always a pleasure to spot a new-to-us 🦋 butterfly; Polygonia c-album | the comma has characteristic notches in its forewings and orange/ brown/ black colouration, mimicking fallen leaves (📷1). We saw Natrix natrix | the European grass snake again several times—although only once alive (📷2); the others had been run over. It was a similar story with Anguis colchica | the eastern slowworm (or possibly Anguis fragilis | the common slowworm); this is a legless lizard, not a snake (📷3). As this is a national park established where people were already living for generations, human marks are carved on the natural world. In this case literally; we’ve seen the tell-tale grooves used for pine resin harvesting before (📷4).

🇱🇹 #europe #baltics #lithuania #lietuva 🚀 #travel 🚐 #camperVan #nomad #roadTrip #vanLife 🥾 #hiking #nature #nationalPark

The day began with astronomy and ended with archeology, as we visited two of Lithuania’s World Heritage Sites. Looking somewhat like a pet cemetery, this enclosure near Meškonys is one of the country’s three preserved Struve Geodetic Arc sites (📷1). Kernavės archeologinės vietovės muziejus | Kernavė Archaeological Site Museum is a modern, quality museum with two permanent halls, covering prehistory and the Middle Ages. There’s evidence of almost continuous settlement at Kernavė for the past 10,000 years. A signature local find was a bronze pin with a coiled head that accompanied a 1st millennium BCE cremation burial; you can visit the Brushed Pottery Culture burial site, symbolically marked by boulders near the riverbank. The open-air part of the site includes five mounds upon which wooden hill forts were built at various times (📷2) and three reconstructed 13–14th C. craftsmen’s homesteads (📷3). Kernavė became an important feudal town and was for a time the medieval capital of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. It was destroyed by retreating defenders when the Teutonic Order attacked in 1390 CE (i.e. “scorched earth” tactics). The viewpoint at Baltas kalnas | White Cliff overlooks the Neris River (📷4); below this steep slope was one of the fording points that the army of the Teutonic Order identified during their march on Kernavė.

🇱🇹 #europe #baltics #lithuania #lietuva 🚀 #travel 🚐 #camperVan #nomad #roadTrip #vanLife 🌍 #unesco

[1/2] A transit of eastern Latvia. After leaving Rebäse in Estonia we headed for the border with Latvia, aiming for Rāznas nacionālais parks | Rāzna National Park in the Latgale region, the southeastern “Land of Blue Lakes”. Mākoņkalns | Cloud Hill is 248m above sea level—although only about 50m in relative height. At the top are the scant medieval ruins of Volkenberg Castle, although our motive for the short climb was an elevated view of Rāznas ezers | Lake Rāzna, about 2km distant (📷1). Rāzna is Latvia’s largest lake by volume; only watercraft without propellers may enter it (📷2). Reached after some adventurous gravel road (becoming narrow dirt track, then mud), the lake of Ežezers is regarded as one of the most picturesque, with much of the lakeshore seemingly in private ownership (📷3). It contains 33 islands, probably best explored by kayak; we were content with dramatic reflections seen from one of the few public access points (📷4).

🇱🇻 #europe #baltics #latvia #latvija 🚀 #travel 🚐 #camperVan #nomad #roadTrip #vanLife

Karula rahvuspark | Karula National Park in southern Estonia was the setting for our last hike before crossing back into Latvia. We chose the circular Rebäse maastikurada | Rebase Landscape Trail as it promised views over rolling hills. The trail begins/ ends with Tornimägi Hill, at 139m the highest “peak” in the Karula Uplands. This soggy trail offered mud and mosquitoes, passing through a couple of swamps (📷1), winding around a few small lakes (📷2), and surmounting a number of hills—some forested and some churned-up cow pasture (📷3). The rounded hills formed from debris deposited by retreating ice ~12,000 years ago. Native Pleurotus pulmonarius | the lung oyster was our #fungi small of the day (📷4). A 7km/ 2.5h loop hike; muddy/ soggy and overgrown, but well signposted.

🇪🇪 #europe #baltics #estonia #eesti 🚀 #travel 🚐 #camperVan #nomad #roadTrip #vanLife 🥾 #hiking #nature #nationalPark

We looked over the architecturally-interesting Estonian National Museum in Tartu, built atop a former Soviet airfield.

Tartu tähetorn | Tartu Old Observatory is Estonia’s first observatory, completed in 1810 and now a museum (📷1). The “pearl” of its collection is Fraunhofer’s refracting telescope (📷2). This instrument was used by German-born Russian astronomer Friedrich Struve to measure how distant stars were, with its superior optics (Fraunhofer was an optician by trade) and a micrometre attachment—a device for calculating angles inspired by cobwebs in the telescope of Gascoigne in 1640 CE. Struve began his famous triangulation survey from the observatory in 1816—subsequently named the Struve Geodetic Arc. Together with two other triangulation points, this undertaking elevates the observatory to the second of Estonia’s UNESCO-listed World Heritage Sites (the other being Tallinn’s Old Town). Angles/ distances were calculated in a chain of 258 linked triangles across 2,810km of the Tartu meridian, passing through 10 countries (Finland, Ukraine, Russia, Belarus, Norway, Sweden, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Moldova). Completing his measurements in 1855, in a blow to flat-Earthers Struve established the size and (🌍 spherical) shape of Earth.

The Town Hall and Town Hall Square are the heart of Tartu, seen here from the park on Toomemägi | Toome Hill (📷3). The city is regarded as Estonia’s “intellectual capital” and celebrates this (or risk of infectious mononucleosis?) with a 1998 “Kissing Students” fountain in the square (📷4). The University of Tartu was founded by the Swedish king Gustavus Adolphus in 1632, making it one of the oldest in northern/ eastern Europe.

🇪🇪 #europe #baltics #estonia #eesti 🚀 #travel 🚐 #camperVan #nomad #roadTrip #vanLife 🌍 #unesco

[2/2] A transit of eastern Latvia cont. We left Rāzna National Park and en route to Velnezers entered a Border Zone where we were stopped by 🚨 police (Belarus was to the other side of Dagda). They asked where we were going, where we had come from, and looked into our mud-splattered van. We continued on, the gravel road again getting narrower and muddier—until we bailed, and backtracked to tarmac. Our revised sealed route went through Aglona (known for its basilica), near to the petite and pretty lake of Velnezers (📷1). If we felt like banging our heads against a tree for our faith in GPS algorithms, we were in good company. Dendrocopos major | the great spotted woodpecker empathised in the trees around the lake (📷2). Back on the road, we passed through another Border Zone for an evening arrival to pitch beside the Daugava River (📷3)—after some 6h driving and an overdose of juddering. Next morning after doing services in camp, getting the 👕 laundry done in Daugavpils and buying odourless 💦 drinking water—hard to find otherwise in the Baltics—we came to Daugavpils cietoksnis | Daugavpils Fortress (📷4). This early 19th C. bastion-type fort was built to defend the Russian Empire's western frontier. In 1812, while still under construction, 3,300 defenders repelled an attack by 24,000 of Napoleon’s troops; during WWII occupying Nazi troops set up Stalag 340 inside it.

🇱🇻 #europe #baltics #latvia #latvija 🚀 #travel 🚐 #camperVan #nomad #roadTrip #vanLife

[2/2] Seto Museum of Farming keeps live animals, but due to the spread of foot-and-mouth disease across Europe visiting the animal barn isn’t currently possible; we nevertheless admired the traditional stick fences (📷1). For lunch we enjoyed a hearty Seto variant of goulash soup with an unexpectedly soft and flavourful dark bread at the farm’s restaurant (📷2). In normal times you can drive from this recreation of a wealthy 1920s farm to Saatse Seto Museum, uniquely passing through Russian Federation territory without a visa—providing you don’t stop. These are not normal times, however, and although the detour fully within Estonia is only 22 min, that museum was closed (📷3). Instead we continued south, gaining a view of the 🛂 border crossing at Koidula and across the rail tracks into forested Russian territory, to Obinitsa. Obinitsa Muuseum | Obinitsa Museum hosts an exhibition on the “Life and Songs of Seto Women” (📷4). Setos are a Finnic people and linguistic minority, historically Orthodox Christians; their polyphonic singing or “leelo” is UNESCO-listed as Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

🇪🇪 #europe #baltics #estonia #eesti 🚀 #travel 🚐 #camperVan #nomad #roadTrip #vanLife 🌍 #unesco

[1/2] Roques de la Vila is a geological formation also known as Muralla (China) de Finestres | the (Chinese) Wall Of Finestres. We followed online & local advice to 🅿️ at Puente de Penavera, a bridge NE of Estopiñán del Castillo, given the state of the dirt road. The 6.4km drive from our pitch in town took ~30 minutes. Although we sighted the formation ~4.5km into the hike, we first came to the former settlement of Finestres (📷1). It was depopulated in 1960 due to the filling of the Canelles reservoir; only one house, Casa Coix, is seasonally inhabited. A short & easy signposted walk links the village centre to Ermita de San Marcos | the Hermitage of Saint Mark; this is the best spot for panoramic views of the ~840m long formation (📷2). Folding of strata ~100 million years ago & subsequent erosion have created two primary parallel lines of vertical limestone that resemble a wall (📷3). Some of the formation is now partially submerged in the reservoir (📷4).

🇪🇸 #spain #aragon 🇪🇺 #europe 🚀 #travel 🚐 #camperVan #nomad #roadTrip #vanLife 🥾 #hiking #nature

[3/3] Ruta del Cares. The trail was no less dramatic walking it in the opposite direction (📷1). On our outbound leg the mountain goats were generally high above us, sometimes heard but not seen. On our return leg a number had descended onto the trail (📷2). At one point we encountered a “toll goat”, hoping to extract a fair exchange for passage through one of the tunnels (we didn’t feed it). A view ahead to a stretch of “up” before the final descent to the trailhead (📷3). Did we mention we saw goats? This she-goat was actively licking at a very particular patch of rock, which we took to be a quest for salt (📷4); apparently sodium is scarce in their normal alpine plant-based diet. 17km/ 5h out-&-back. Note there’s a non-zero probability of rockfall, but this trail is up there with the best we’ve done.

🇪🇸#spain #asturias 🇪🇺#europe 🚀#travel 🚐 #camperVan #nomad #roadTrip #vanLife 🥾#hiking #nature #nationalPark

[1/3] Ruta del Cares. With a fresh overnight dusting of snow on the peaks we set out to hike an out-&-back section of the 12km point-to-point Ruta del Cares (PR-PNPE 3) trail in Parque Nacional de los Picos de Europa. This is the park’s most popular hike, linking Poncebos (Asturias) & Caín (León); it’s considered one of Spain’s most beautiful trails. We 🅿️ at Poncebos & initial views of the clear-flowing Río Cares from near the trailhead looked promising (📷1); a short stretch of road led to a well-formed path. The trail climbs through a deep limestone gorge with sheer cliffs that tower above the river; erosion has created rock pillars (📷2) & natural arches (📷3)—but human engineering in this landscape also must be admired. Between 1915 & the early 1920s, the company Electra de Viesgo built a canal to carry water from the Río Cares at Caín to a hydroelectric plant at Camarmeña–Poncebos. Up to 11 km long, it runs through ~70 tunnels excavated largely by hand with the aid of explosives; 11 workers were killed during construction. The maintenance path for this canal, widened between 1945–50, became today’s Ruta del Cares: the canal still carries water alongside, above & beneath the trail (📷4).

🇪🇸#spain #asturias 🇪🇺#europe 🚀#travel 🚐 #camperVan #nomad #roadTrip #vanLife 🥾#hiking #nature #nationalPark

[2/2] Roques de la Vila cont. Between the two lines of strata sits the 11–12th C. Romanesque Esglèsia de Sant Vicenç | Ermita San Vicente | Church of Saint Vincent, seen here from the more challenging path to reach it—poles are useful (📷1). On this part of the hike you cross over one of the walls & reach water level, where we noted this particular slab, nicely illustrating the process of continuing erosion (📷2). The hermitage is partially formed from limestone & the sanctuary is largely intact (📷3); the remnants of Castillo de Finestras, a medieval Moorish castle upon which the hermitage was built, are also evident. From this vantage point there’s an impressive view down the middle of the formation (📷4). The 15km/ 4.5h return hike was mostly exposed.

Farewell Aragón; you certainly made an impression!

🇪🇸 #spain #aragon 🇪🇺 #europe 🚀 #travel 🚐 #camperVan #nomad #roadTrip #vanLife 🥾 #hiking #nature

[2/3] Ruta del Cares. At one point, looking down into the canyon, we observed what we think must be a resurgence, where water that has been flowing underground reappears at the surface; they’re common in karst landscapes (📷1). The trail, like the canal itself, passes through a number of tunnels when cutting into the sheer rock face isn’t enough (📷2); this bridged section includes a steel grate so you can see the drop beneath your feet (📷3). We turned around just beyond this window in the rock wall (📷4), at ~8.5km (about two thirds along the route), corresponding to the Riega las Párvulas waterfall, just beyond the border with the León region.

🇪🇸#spain #asturias 🇪🇺#europe 🚀#travel 🚐 #camperVan #nomad #roadTrip #vanLife 🥾#hiking #nature #nationalPark

Nazaré is globally recognised among the surfing community for it’s big waves, which can reach 20–30m in height. Just offshore here is one end of the largest submarine trench in Europe, at ~230km long & ~5km deep. The Nazaré Canyon funnels Atlantic swells towards the shore, where the abrupt change in depth compresses wave energy, refracting & amplifying it. Our visit to Nazaré coincided with a coastal wind warning (gusts up to 55 km/h) so we saw no 🏄 surfing, but we did see 🌊 surf! Praia da Nazaré is the city’s main golden-sand beach, viewed here from the rocky headland at the north end of the beach (📷1). On the tip of the headland is Farol de Nazaré, a lighthouse atop a fort, providing a vantage point from which to watch the breakers roll in to adjacent Praia do Norte (📷2). We watched long waves crest & collapse, all the while the wind whipping off the tops in sheets of spray (📷3). Other waves broke apart thunderously on the rocks directly below the lighthouse (📷4).

🇵🇹 #portugal 🇪🇺 #europe 🚀 #travel 🚐 #camperVan #nomad #roadTrip #vanLife

We drove to the Mont Aigoual summit at 1,565m elevation in Parc nationaldes Cévennes | Cevennes National Park; the park is recognized as a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve. Our route up via Nant & Dourbies was long, winding & frankly tedious, so despite views towards the coast (📷1) & further inland (📷2) we felt less appreciative than we should have. We decided against our intended hike in 7°C & headed down via Gorges de la Jonte. En route the road verge was decorated with numerous native Dactylorhiza sambucina | the elder-flowered orchid, in shades of yellow, deep purple & pink (we first saw it in Theth, Albania). As is common practice, some of the formations in the gorge are named; this is Arcade des Bergers | Shepherds' Arcade (📷3). The hamlet of Le Truel, where terraces once held vineyards, orchards & vegetable gardens, while sheep & goats grazed sloping pastures (📷4). Gyps fulvus | griffon vultures soar from the cliffs above, seemingly untroubled by the loss of a traditional way of life.

🇫🇷 #france #occitanie 🇪🇺 #europe 🚀 #travel 🚐 #camperVan #nomad #roadTrip #vanLife 🥾 #nationalPark 🌍 #unesco