Wednesday August 11th mileage 5023 Riga in Latvia

Weather sunny all day.
Said goodbye to Argol and the owners wife and set off for Riga in Latvia.

Noticed that the roadside warning signs have changed from mouse to red deer, however it doesn't seem to make a lot of difference to the animals I've seen.

If I was a mouse or a red deer or a lynx or fox or badger or beaver I would want to see an orange Suzuki V-strom, they are very rare in these parts.  They'ļl not see anything by staying in the deep forest, you need to be at the roadside to see the world going past.  No wonder they are thick and badly educated they are just not taking life's opportunities as they come along. 

The picture of the deer on the road sign is of one prancing across the road! I do hope I don't just see one standing still that would be a huge dissappointment !!   The only thing I've seen at the side of the road is tyre treads from big lorries. Now if we were in Kenya they would have been quickly snaffled up and converted into shoes by the Massai.

Did see an interesting building so pulled up to get a better photo.

Went to the building entrance to ask what it was and was told it was a hospital for the mentally ill, and the building in the chimney was a water tower.  Now that's the way to build things.  One structure two purposes and still make it look interesting.  Emma and Rob take note !!

Have a little problem with the big lorries.  I am tootling along at about 45-50mph with my Hein Gericke jacket on but fully open to allow me to stay cool and these vehicles come up behind you. At first I moved over to the verge side of the road to help them pass, but they just pass without moving over and you nearly get sucked under them they are so close, so reverted to the plan of staying in the middle of the lane and making them overtake properly.  Now they get right close up behind you and are obviously pissed off because they are having to slow down and overtaking is not their strong point !!  Still not sure what is the best option for dealing with this little problem!!

Have decide to conduct a survey on the taste of "Sprite" on the continent.  Norway was very lemmony almost bitter, Estonia was like washing up liquid, Latvia seems normal to me at present.

Read my guidebook and decided to go to Sigulda about 50km north east of Riga.  It sounds to have interesting things to do.  Arrived and went to the tourist info office. They gave me a map and pointed out the various interests.  Decided to settle for the cable car and riverside.

Wow !! what a place.  The cable car area has sking in the winter, but in the summer there is a dry toboggan run and also a massive Tarzan style jungle experience/adventure park.

Went first to the river and it looked so inviting I went for a swim.  I forgot to pack my swimming costume so went and removed my underwear and swam just in the shorts of the trousers. Brilliant and very strong current.

You can camp here and I thought I may do so later, The camp owner will take you 25km upstream and then you can canoe back over the next 4 hours if you want.  Quite fancy this and may do it tomorrow.

Went to the activity centre and thought whilst trousers dry I will do the Tarzan activity.  For 9Lat (ten pounds) you get tuition in all the safety features.  You wear a harness with two caribeener loops and also a cable slide mechanism.  After the tuition you have to do a little exam to prove that you can do it safely.  I should have started to get alarm bells at this point but inside I still fell 18 years old!!  As I was about to go I said to the chap how long will it take me to complete  He said " Oh most people get through it in 2-3 hours"  !!!!!

He suggested I might want to miss out on the first green stage as this was really just for children.  Ok so off we go on the blue route, black route, then the BlackII route, and then finally the yellow route !!

F**k me !!! all I can say is I was absolutely knackered.  At one point I had a couple of goes and thought I would have to bail out, I looked around and could't see how to bail out !!  There were rope climbs, ladders,  swings, everything.  The hardest for me was a section of about 15 ropes hanging with just a single horse saddle type stirrup at the end of each rope.  As you set off you start to rotate, and then you are pulling to try and stay orientated and trying to move your weight from one stirrup to the next.  On two occasions I was so tired just hanging on and as you try and get a breather to recover you are having to expend energy just hanging there.  I had a few shakey moments where I thought I had bitten off more than I can chew here, but somehow I managed to do the course.  I now have rope burns, and I know over the next day or so I am going to come out in bruises all over my arms and legs, and my muscles ache from lack of use in these areas.  But overall what a great experience !!

Here are some photos that try and capture the course.

 

These activities I should say were all done a very high distance from the ground.  At all times you were safe if you fell off you had the harness to save you, but when I thought about it I wasn't sure how you were going to be rescued after you had fallen.  I think the onus was definately on you to recover from the situation.

At the end of the course you do the yellow Tarzan slides.  These take you from the very top of the hill to the bottom via abvout 20 different rope slides.  They give you a leather glove and strict instructions only to brake with the glove on the upside of the runners, otherwise you can loose your fingers.  In the UK we would never get this thing off the ground for safety reasons, but I have to say it was all very well got up so to speak!!

As part of the Tarzan ticket you also get to do the dry toboggan run.  This is a welded pipe that runs down the hill and they simply hook on a toboggan and away you go.  There is a brake, but wthout braking it gets up to some pretty fierce speeds around the bends.  Great !! day   Oh to be a teenager again !!.  The pictures are taken from the cable car that gets you back up the hill. 

After recovering from the above experience I set tomtom for the campsite in Riga.  What fantastic machines satnavs are.  You want to go to a specific location in a large city and it just takes you.  When you take a wrong turn, no problem it simply just routes you round the one way system and hey presto there you are !!

The campsite was great.  Though I noticed there was 24hr guard at the gate !!  Tent pitched, washing all done and off to local tesco look-a-like called Rimi and at the deli counter bought chicken leg and potatoe salad, two bananas and a peach drink.  Sat outside Rimi and as it started to get dark and ate my lovely meal.  Noticed that the taxis waiting to take people from the supermarket were called "Lady Taxi" and driven just by women.  Started to wonder whether there was a crime problem here!!  As I went to wash my clothes noticed a full size coach parked with about 20 "old" people sort of camped adjacent eating an evening meal.  On closer inspection the coach was done out as half seats and half beds with curtain dividers.  This was an organised tour but camping style.

More later,all my regards

TOR