Made few mistakes! Planned a long route with 2 times crossing the Russian border… Ooops! But I’ll tell you later about it.
First there was a ride from Plinkses to Klaipeda harbour, and from there we took a ferry to Curonian Spit. Ferry costs 3,35€. And after we arrived the spit there was a roadtoll (5€/ bike). And we also had to pay the toll again in Russian side (that was a little bit more than 4€). The road in Curonian Spit is beautiful, it even has some corners and uphills-downhills.
We stopped in one beach to take some pictures of the Baltic ocean. We also stopped in Nida to buy something from the shop.
After Nida it was time for the first border check-Ins! These first check-Ins took about 1h 30mins! Then we’re in Russia!!
This is Amber museum in the center of Kaliningrad.
And this is the worlds biggest castle in Malbork Poland.
But before we could ride in Poland we had to cross the border again! The Russian side of the border was ok, (quite fast) but then the Poland side of the border-check was with a very long line!!! We had to wait more than 2 hours!!! What a catastrophe! We were so late in our accommodation! It was 9,30 pm and we started 8.30 am and there in the middle we moved from timezone to another…. so it was more than 14 hours of ride!!!
Note to myself:
– If you’re about to ride Curonian Spit, you better have 1 whole day to do it!
– If you’re about to cross the Russian border twice a day, don’t ever think it’d take 2-3 hours! It will take more!
The route was Kirkkonummi – Espoo – Helsinki – Tallinna – Pärnu – Riika – Saldus – Plinkses and about 500 kilometers like this! It was mostly big road and very boring day, the only merrier road was the Old Pärnu Road on the southside of Pärnu. There we also stopped ro take a swim in the Bay of Riga. The water was very warm!
Here is the parking area about 100m away from the sea. The day was HOT (about +30-32 celsius) so swimming was a very good idea!
This is a view from the resting area just outside Saldus -city. It was a Beautiful place.
Here is a picture of our MOST BEAUTIFUL hotel!
FInally I had a chance to take a weekend tour!! I started on Friday 27th of May and I choose the route and the direction where I had motocaching spots as many as possible to find! This was my route on Friday. The first motocache I marked as “found it” was from Urjala to Huittinen, it’s a panoramic route in a typical Finnish countryside landscape.
This is called “Road of the Magic Night”
Later I stopped in a cafeteria with a beautiful location beside the lake and a bridge.
Sadly this Otamus Cafe wasn’t open so it was no snacks for me! Quite soon after this cafeteria it was one of the twisty roads that I had been waiting! But (WTF!?) it started raining! I had to put on my rainsuit to avoid getting wet and I didn’t really enjoy the corners… Ok, few kilometers in tho north part the road was dry again.
Friday I added 7 new caches to my list. Last one was the cafe beside the militarybase Niinisalo, It’s called a Sotilaskoti in Finnish and I think the English word is naafi(?)
These cafes are usually quite cheap comparing to ordinary ones.
The route for the second day (Saturday 28th) was like this. Again I was choosing roads and spots I could mark as found in motocaching.net. The first one was very old road from the middle ages called “Kyrönkankaantie” (Cache only in finnish). The first time it is mentioned was in 1556, but today it is only rarely used road in the middle of the forest. It would be great ride for a endurobike!!
At 02:00 I choose the wrong road and at 02:30 I stop to wonder why the GPS shows that I’m somewhere in the middle of nowhere??!! And I make the U-turn!
The second spot was a tower in the top of the mountain in the national park (Lauhanvuori national park). I have a physical fear of heights (not mental), if I go to a high place I haven’t been before I start to feel it on my stomach and in my feet. When I was younger I’ve even passed out few times. In this tower I had some trouble to stay on my feet but after a couple of minutes it was ok. I think the tower is over 20m high!
There was one road in the national park that I took. This was fun!! (And pitty I didn’t have my KTM!)
In the routemap it shows that I’m making U-turn at the end of this road, but since there are no traffic signs I just ride through to the bigger road (at 11:00 in the video)
Little bit later I took another tower, this was not as high and it was new. But when I climbed to the top I could feel the tower moving!! That didn’t feel ok at all!! They built it too light!
Then there was few rural roads, one of them had so big stones in it and I really didn’t like it at all!! (With my KTM Enduro it would’ve been ok!). Then I arrived in Karijoki, there’s a very old cave called “susiluola” (Wolf cave), it is the only place in northern Europe
where they’ve found some evidence of humans living before the ice-age! Although the evidence is not certified to be as old as they say (120 000 years old)! Here’s some info in english.
It was a disappointment that you coudn’t visit inside the cave!
Just few kilometers from the cave there’s a skiing center where you can ride your bike to the top of the mountain -and there’s a great view!
Not far away from here is the city called Kristiinankaupunki, I’ve actually never been here before and there’s one strange alley… It’s very narrow and it is still a 2-way street! This is the most narrow 2-way street in Finland!
The name of the road is “Kissanpiiskaajankuja” (Catwhippersalley… Yes, a guy who’s whipping the cat!!)
From Kristiinankaupunki I was riding straight south following the coastline. The road to Siipyy, Merikarvia and Ahlainen is not extremely good… but it’s not boring either.
This is the belltower in Siipyy.
Late afternoon I was finally arriving Tahkoluoto and Reposaari. These are outer islands but possible to reach by road. I was lucky to have a beautiful sunny weather while riding the road to these islands. I found the beautiful restaurant on the south-end of Reposaari called “Merimesta”. I choose to eat the buffet even it was not cheap (27€) but it was all worth it!!
Finally spent the night in Pori and woke up next morning in cloudy west-coast city.
Sunday (Third day) route was like this, still choose the roads following the coastline. Visited the harbour in Luvia, I had never actually been there before. Usually there’s a new sailboat in the pier called “Ihana” (Wonderful) and I was so early in the morning it was not out in the sea and I was able to see it!
I rode to Vuojärvi Mansion -that is a very big and beautiful old mansion in the westcoast!
Stopped in Rauma to check the old town and it still is so beautiful and amazing area!
Then slowly I arrived to Turku and I checked few places before I chose the highway to Helsinki and the way home. It was pitty that Sunday was cloudy… I even had some drops of water in the morning but I didn’t get wet.
Here’s one picture from Turku… One of the most famous buildings in Finland: Turku Castle! This last day I had the longest route but it was the shortest day… And it’s because I choose the highway Turku-Helsinki, almost 170 kilometers of 120km/h speed. I was home at 4pm.
Now I’m waiting my next trip which is starting on 26th of June. That will be 3 weeks in Europe and maybe more than 7000 kilometers!!!
Day 1
www.motocaching.net -Check these pages to find places near you!
In 2015 we had a group ride with motocachers few times but we also decided to do it “bigger” in 2016. So we took the boat to Tallinn and spent 4 days outside Finland. We visited over 20 caches: 3 castles, 2 waterfalls, 2 special cliffs, an old submarinebase and an old nuclearbase and ofcourse many roads.
Boat arrives to Tallinn 09.30 (thursday morning) am and 10am we were already in the first place!
This is Tallinn TV-tower (https://motocaching.net/en/cache/view/id6336) where you can visit in 170 meters to see the view but we only visited the parking area and soon continued to the next place.
This is Jägala waterfall (https://motocaching.net/en/cache/view/id6334), only 30km’s east from Tallinn.
Then we also rode some nice roads with more corners than usually in Estonia:
From Leesi to Loksa https://motocaching.net/en/cache/view/id4975 and
from Loksa to Vihasoo (following the coastline) https://motocaching.net/en/cache/view/id4978
Somewhere there in the middle we visited the old submarine base (From the Russian rule).
This is amazing abandoned place where I have visited before. But it still makes me think about the working conditions during Russian rule! https://motocaching.net/en/cache/view/id4977 Here’s a video from Hara to Loksa village:
Next we had another waterfall, over 30 meters high!
This is Valaste waterfall quite close to Russian border, there’s also a beautiful view to the sea (Gulf of Finland) https://motocaching.net/en/cache/view/id6335
We spent the night in Mustvee, a small city beside the Lake Peipsi. This is a huge lake with half of it belonging to Russia.
Early morning in Lake Peipsi.
…to be continued
Finally I desided to take my FIRST bike out! And what a weekend it was! Almost 700 kilometers (>500km on sunday) with my first bike BMW S1000XR! It’s not difficult to guess what was my first first direction? Yes, to Inkoo and Fagervik! That road simply makes you smile everytime you ride it!
The Café wasn’t open but I didn’t mind. I only stopped to take this photo and then I continued to enjoy my first “real” motorcycle ride (of 2016)!
On sunday we had a groupride in eastern Uusimaa. There was 11 bikes in the start.
This picture is from the first break in Pukkila.
And this is from the last break in Kulloo. The route was just fantastic!! You can hardly find any better roads this close to Helsinki (East side). Only in the north side of Pukkila we visited shortly Päijät-Häme province, otherwise we stayed in Uusimaa province. Here is the route.
…but I can’t find that corner!!
I went to my garage anyway to install new levers. They are beautiful red!
And then I took the bike out and started it first time in 2016 like this:
Sehe’s quite young girl from Melbourne Australia! And for some reason she desided to come to Europe and make a 3 months roadtrip here. And what a wonderful trip it was!! http://www.bikergirl.me/ Here’s the route she made (or I think this is the plan):
I bought the BMW original Engine Protection Bars long time ago and I was thinking to install them by myself. There was a manual with all the parts and when I looked at it…. I was thinking “Oh my God!” -this is many hours for me! So I waited until the season ended and now I did it!
First you need to remove almost all fairings from both sides of the bike. Ok, in the manual it says “first the right side, then the left side…” -Like this:
I’m already removed 1 bolt where the bar will be installed. Then you start to install the bar itself: In the right side there is this triangle on the upper left that keeps the bar installed properly. I guess there must be some idea why they didn’t make the bar itself to go there?!
Then you remove the fairings from the other side and install the bar in its place:
Then you need to do some plastic cutting! From the left side you need to cut only a small piece -a kind of bridge from here:
Then there is a metal holder that needs to be installed (with the small hole drilled in to the fairing) and you put a screw (small silver one in the upper picture) to keep it all together without that small piece of plastic.
From the other side you need to cut a little bit more:
I had only a knife to do this! But it went well!
Then after cutting you can install the fairings back to the bike.
And when you’re ready, it should look like this (the right side):
And the left side:
It’s a little bit strange, since the bars are not symmetric it looks very weird from the certain POV:
But I guess the engineers in BMW know what they are doing?!
It was such a wonderful weather today! I took my XR and rode west. I had few motocache missing from my found list. But first I took Mustio ironworks area because I wanted to make a new cache there!
That is an old mining locomotive from 1903. Both vehicles are made in Germany.
Then I continued on with some gravel-road riding. This time of the year they are in very good condition! Then finally I reached my destination very close to Hanko city (Most southern point of Finland). There is a spring that bubbles clear water all year. And this spring is famous because the wife of Russian tsar Alexander III wanted to stop here and drink many times on her boat trips in the gulf of Finland. Her name was Dagmar.
The forrest around the spring is very nice!
And the water in the spring is crystal clear!
There are 2 different kind of stairs to the spring: The old stone stairs and the new wooden stairs.
It’s not difficult to guess what was my first first direction? Yes, to Inkoo and Fagervik! That road simply makes you smile everytime you ride it!
GoZa Mite 