Day 8 - Vilnius - Mindunai

Dear all,

Yesterday night my Kaunas host, Zita, suggested to come to Vilnius. Thank you very much Zita, but I have decided to leave Vilnius one day earlier. Sometimes the Capital is not the place a person wants to be!

In spite of loads of clothes, linen, sleeping bag and a blanket that Zita gave me before leaving Kaunas - cheers once more Zita! - I woke up sometimes during the night quite cold. However in the morning I woke up with quite hot tent. The marvelous feeling of camping! Or you love it or you hate it!

I woke up early but decided to make everything slowly... Shower, shave, charge electronic equipments, buy some music (really good idea), some checks at the cycling equipment, organize my handlebar pannier, etc.

Almost everyone has left the camping by then. Nice to see some very expensive caravans from German and Norwegian people. I do not really get why they do bring satelite and TV for camping, but let me not talk about it here...

Unimog camper!

Are you looking at me??

 

Well, I was only ready to start cycling around 13h, quite late I know! But maybe everything has a reason, and you'll find out later on that I am glad that I left so late!

I decided to cycle through a park that was on the way to the city. What I did not expect was to cross the river once again so I was getting away from the centre. Well, maybe I really don't want to go to Vilnius.

Park in Vilnius

After some time I recognized one of the bridges and decidid to give it another try.

Headed to the centre, made some stop at the supermarket to buy supplies for the day and cycled through the centre and old town. Unfortunatly the camera's lens was dirty, so the pictures are not good. Anyway, from the ones are acceptable, here you are some pictures.

Locks with love mates names

Cathedral of Vilnius

After I passed this cathedral, there is a bridge some meters away and I stopped just after it. There was another guy in a bike, without panniers and waving me to go near him. He asked me where I was heading and he told me: you can follow me! It is not where I planned to go but I will cycle with you!

We have been chatting on the way. His name is Ramunas, 71 years old but kicking my ass with his shape (well, I must say that I am carring about 15 kg and I was hungry, ok?), and he is an experienced traveller. He have cycled the Caminho de Santiago in Spain, have cycled from Tunisia to Mongolia and several other trips. Well, we have cycled together around 12 km so I did not to bother at all with navigation, which is not always easy within the cities! Thank you so much Ramunas and keep on cycling!

Me and Ramunas

Before he left he said that the place I was heading is indeed very nice, although the stop I was planning to do on the way was not worthy.

I was too hungry after I left Ramunas, so I decided to try the local burgers, Hessburger. So nice to know that you can have it because you are burning all those calories just after it!

I took the main road, A14, from Vilnius to Utena. There is some traffic but there is enough room for cycling, as you can see on the picture below:

A14 towards Utena

Cycling on A14

This road passes just very close to the geographical point of Europe. It was the French National Geographical Institute that have determined the point, considering the Northern Spitsbergen, the Eastern the crest ofvthe Urals, the Southern the Canary Islands and the Western the Azores.

Well, Ramunas was right, there is only a rock with the signal, plus a small square with the flags (portuguese one is there but it was not windy so it was pointless to have a picture. Anyway, here are the pictures of the Europe Centrepoint.

Centre of Europe

Me and bike near centre of Europe

When I was leaving this place I have passed through a couple of bicycle travellers but it seemed to me that they were going south.

Due to the fact that I was quite late and the traffic in A14 was not that intense and the there was room for cycling just attached to the driving lane, I decided to continue on A14 insted of the planed road 172. It was not bad though! The cycling was done with the Dire Straits and Sting. Average speed was over 20 km/h with no wind, which is not bad at all!

Cycling with music is way much better, nevertheless, from time to time, I took some pictures. Here you have the best ones:

Cycling on A14

Over the line

Keeping the pace

 

There were basically two options for campings today. Either a 4 star resort before Moletai on road 172 or turn already on the road 114 towards Ignalina and the camping is close to Mindunai.

Well, the thing is, when you cycle on A14, the signs are close to Moletai, so you have to cycle the back for 10 km. Although I had already 76 km on the wheels at that point, I decided to go to Mindunai.

Approaching Moletai, because I took a smaller road, there was time for some silly season (after all it is August right?)

Look mummy, no hands - cruising at 28,5 km/h

One hand waving, other taking the picture, who's driving??!

Well, back to the main road, sun was starting to be low, I thought about taking the typical picture of the end of the journey. Here you have the result:

After that sign, to the right, there is a cyclepath and bicycles are forbidden on the road. Time for some more pictures, which I like the final result:

Peter's shadow leading the way

From up above

Another angle of cycling picture

 

When I reached 92 km I had no idea how far was the camping, but suddenly appeared this sign:

Almos there!

Well, I have cycled for some 600 meters and could not find anything, I decided to come back and figure it out what is happening. I have found a board, almost all in Lithuanian and in English had a price list and a message to contact the responsible for the camping via telephone. I have phoned him, but he did not pick up. Well, according to camping map I have there should be one camping in this area. Fortunatly, the name was different. Well, back to the main road to look for the camping. Finally I have reached Mindunai:

Arrival into Mindunai

The camping is 2 km away on a sometimes sandy road, which is a nightmare for my bike. After sometime fighting against it and a close to a fall, I finally reached the camping.

The camping is really close to the lake, having access from the tent zone to the lake. Pictures were difficult with that lighting, anyway, here is the spot for my dinner today:

Camping's access to lake

 

Summary of the day:

• Daily distance: 96,60 km
• Daily time:5h13m35s
• Average speed: 18,67 km/h (considering I was cycling in Vilnius and the average dropped from 19,00 after the sandy road, I think it is great!)
• Maximum speed: 38,91 km/h

 

• Total cycled so far: 409,92 km
• Total time cycling: 22h55m50s

And that's all for now folks!

 

Best,

Peter

 

Things I forgot to write above:

1. There is a buch of drunk guys about 50 meters from my tent. It is already 00h17 and they are still in hot water bath ( they have attached to the car one trailer with a sort of a barrel where they have water and inside of it a place where they burn hood and transfer the heat to the water. Looks very professional, even has a chemney!!
2. I have been contacted by a Potuguese girl that lives at the moment in Latvia. I had a couchsurfer confirmed for that day, and I do not like to cancel, but I won't leave that place without meeting the Portuguese girl. It is great to feel welcome!

 

Postado com o Blogsy