Day 12 - Daugavpils - Jekabpils

Dear all,

 

The day started at 7h30.

After some breakfast and no goodbyes, but a see you soon in Portugal, I went to supermarket for some supplies for the day!

Maria, once again, thank you for your kind hosting a the share of your time with me! Cheers miuda!

Me and Maria early in the morning!

When I was leaving the supermarket and storing the things, Sergej appeared and come for some talk. Unfortunatly we could not understand much of each other because he is Russian and I only know the word priviet. Anyway, with some gestures and some effort Incould explain where I was heading and he helped me out with some navigation. Cheers Sergej.

Me and Sergej in Daugavpils

I started to cycle a bit before 10h00 but soon I had to stop with some mechanical issue. I have lost one screw for the SPD cleat on my right shoe, so I cannot have longer my feet attached to the bike. Not a big deal though...

I have decided not to go on the main road because it is the main connection to Riga, so I decided to cycle on the left bank of the river.

Cycling till Ilukste was somehow easy as I was fully rested.

Leaving Daugavpils

On the way to Ilukste

Time for navigation

I have made about 30 km untill that point and it was quite early so I thought that was going to be somehow an easy day, in spite of the distance that was planned.

There was time to do some blogging and write and send some postcards.

Blogging

I can still write... Postcards!

Hopefully it will arrive to destination!

My plan at that moment was to cycle on road P72 towards Bebrene, but after few kilometers on the road I realized that was going to be a hard day. Road P72 is unsurfaced!!

Road P72 on the left

I decided to take the road on the right and gonalong the river (at least I could be sure that is not hilly)

Till Dviete, not really a big deal, but then appeared this road sign:

Troubles ahaed, end of tarmac!

When I reached this point I have cycled around 40km since Daugavpils.

Start of unsurfaced road

Scenario changes from time to time

I stopped about 6km after for some meal because there was a park.

Lunch spot!

No idea what it means, butbdecided not to eat it!

Back to the road again I started toncycle quite close to the river. The problem is that the ground is somehow "heavy" and with a lot of humidity, which means that you need perhaps more 25% more energy to make your bike move...

Along Daugava river

Not enen on half way!

PeterLamb and the rivervDaugava

After some time I have reached the 100 km cycled on the same day (I have never cycled to much before!).

100 km since Daugavpils

I was pretty much tired when I reached Jekabpils, but I had to take the picture of the end of the day:

Arriving into Jekabpils

The real problems started here!

I had booked a hotel (the cheapest one, but seemed nice) near Jekabpils. I was too tired for navigation, so I asked a lady at the fuel station. Needless to say, she could not speak one word in English. I understood that I should follow the road and then was somewhere on the left.

I have cycled 8 km and no sign at all of the hotel.

I phoned there and the guy said: don't speak english. I told him the number of the road and the name of the bus station, but he said: No English! And switched off the phone.

I realised then that actually I have made a reservation for the nextvwednesday, not this one. So I phoned booking to try to cancel the reservation.

 

Now I had a problem, no internet and no place where to stay. There are no campings in this area. I asked some people on the way, but they justbspeak Russian... Had to talk to Carla and my family - thank you so much for your help.

Anyway I found a hotel in the "city" center but was fully booked! Fortunatly there was a very nice young woman at the bar, Kseyna, who gave me the password to use internet and phoned the other hotel to make a reservation for me. Thank you very much Kseyna, I was already dead and in need of some help! Cheers!

I headed then to Citrus hotel, that is nothing special, but all I needed was shower and bed to sleep!

Just a remark: booking was asking for 51 Euro for this hotel, while I payed only 19 Lats (about 30 Euro!!).

 

I have absolutely no clue where I am heading tomorrow, but I will see it in the morning. Today was enough to understand that Latvia has the main roads and a lot of unsurfaced ones... Not an easy choice!

 

Summary of the day:

• Daily distance: 125,35 km
• Daily time: 7h33m55s (less than a day in the office!!!)
• Average speed: 16,68 km/h (the unpaved roads are killing this)
• Maximum speed: 37,09 km/h

• Total distance so far: 682,14 km
• Total time cycling: 38h25m18s

And that is all for now folks!

Best,

Peter

 

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