Estonia

This morning we leave Latvia on a small gravel road and enter Estonia very close to the Russian border. The main road would take us through the Russian Enclave on Estonian territory but our chosen trail is to lead us around it.

The track has some of the most demanding passages so far (for me that is, Anke chooses to take a walk with Paula) and I am very much impressed by the offroad capabilities of the Buddha.
But that bloody tunnel is just not wide enough so we turn back and detour for several kilometers.

We come by a famous cave system today known for the bat breading sanctuary. While we pass along we notice a border patrol and a police car on the side of the road. I am sure they will stop us, but they don't . At least not yet.

Searching for an advertised restaurant we realize many of the places are already locked down due to the end of the summer season. So we turn around and...we're stopped by the police and border patrol.
The young policeman is a little stiff and seems to go by the book while the elderly boarder patrol guard is mainly interested in our truck. The tone is very friendly and helpful and we have a good chat while they check our data and those of the Buddha.

One point arises their attention: it says in the German registration in one column "1950" and the elderly gentleman is sure that there must be a mistake. He remembers that they had Ivecos like ours when he was a young border guard - and that was definitely not in the 1950ies.
Explaining the registration we point out that this vehicle was first registered in Belgium in 1989 and that matched his memory.

As we have another frosty night ahead of us again we decide to book a cabin. What a surprise to find out that the landlady rents out her private house and stays with some friends for the night.
After an interesting conversation she leaves us with her huge property and the big house.

It is during unloading our stuff for the night that I discover one of the antennas dangling from the roof of the truck. As I check on top of the roof I discover the antenna had torn out an aluminum shindel and left a hole of about 10 x 18 cms.
So I spend this evening glueing the shindel back to the roof with some silicone bond. Let's hope that it holds the roof water tight until we get back home.Read more