The very beginning.

Riga saw us off in a pouring rain, reminding that the hiking trips has different beauties: sometimes they are wet, windy and not very sunny.
But, as I love saying, there is no bad weather, the main thing is to be ready for it. And we are!

The road to the border of the country was like a "window meditation." Always green coniferous forest, already stubbled fields, drooping under the weight of autumn fruits trees. Now we are watching all these from the bus window but after few hours we are going to merge with the environment and will play by its rules.)

Backpacks are somehow heavier than intended. Weather somehow is colder than desired.
But "C'est la vie!".  And "Life is beautiful!".
After all, we are choosing what to see, what to enjoy and what to be disappointed with.
We feel fit in spirit. As always ;)

having reached the Estonian border and made a photo by the boundary stone, we started our way. We decided to walk at least a little bit, just to steam in.

 

We walked about 5 km and bed down.
It was an old abandoned grain elevator, I decided to name it as the "House of Swallows". Birds platted a few nests on the ceiling. We couldn’t hear the chirp of baby birds, probably they had already been in the air.)

The first fire, quick but delicious dinner. We decided not to put a tent - mighty walls of a “House of Swallows” defended us from the rain and wind. Ground pads on the grains, sleeping bags on the pads – and bed is ready.
By the way, it was a responsible night  for sleeping bags. They were checked for warming qualities.) They are very new, very light, extremely thin and promising comfort  up to -7°C. So, let’s sleep and see.

The next day we started following one of the our few travelling rules - no alarms. I am a fan of putting the clock at the 6 am, Stephan is not always sharing my love of  life as an early riser.
That’s why we got up just at 8 o'clock. Neither early nor late, no need to hurry, all is fine.

* By the way, it was nice and warm in those sleeping bags. If someone values the compactness and the efficiency of sleeping bags, contact us, we will give an advice.

Just starting the way, we decided to ask for water at people’s place, whose house was on the way.
We were welcomed by a man of a good age Maris, and then we saluted his wife Dina.

As soon as we asked for some water, the mistress motherly offered us coffee, which we could not refuse.
Here the conversation started up. We talked about the way the couple lives here and what they are busy and happy with. Dina and Maris are retired, nevertheless, they are active and keep a good heart. They have a beautiful garden full of flowers, vegetables, apples trees and grapes. They also keep a greenhouse and beehives, a funny dog named Lucky and two big unnamed rabbits (one of them was immediately named Olesya :)).

Dina, as a generous mistress, could not stand us only a drink – she shared a bread, honey and just maturated tomatoes. Which were incredibly delicious, by the way.
Dina said that tomatoes seeds were collected by her daughter from a previous crop, and they couldn’t find better. It means we should not forget (!) to keep some.

 
Maris is engaged in beekeeping too. At the back yard there were few hives of cheerful colours. The weather was cloudy so all bees were sleeping peacefully with no great desire to greet us. Which is good for us, i guess.

After a short, but pleasant and open conversation, we continued on our trip. One more thanks to Dina for the warm morning entertainment, for terribly red and terribly tasty tomatoes, for glassy and sweet apples, for the jar of cherry compote that we were given.)

For the rest of the day we were accompanied by the rain. Protracted but not very strong rain. And again - if you're ready for the weather, you'll love it. Our boots were waterproof, raincoat, by definition, too).
This way we were walking long, not fast, but toughly.

During that day we got another life-lesson that is taken as a rule for future: do not try to "cut" the way, if you do not know exactly what surface you are going to walk on. Decided to shorten the path to the next city, Mazsalaca, we appeared on a field of high grass type never ever seen before. It took us long to cross it, but we did it, even if without great pleasure.

Accomplishing the day's march of 20km, we arrived at a decision to find a shelter.

And we were lucky again.

On the road there was a big house with lot of extensions. We thought it would be great to spend the night in the barn which was dry and covered.) We knocked the door and asked for a mistress’ permission. And she agreed! We were just happy.

We arranged a bed on a haystack, the table - on a wooden box. Then other necessary procedures took  place – clothes-drying and dinner-cooking. The dinner was the warmest and the tastiest we could imagine that hour - pasta made from rye flour with red onions and tomatoes, which the second mistress thoughtfully offered us.
The dish was simple, but as you can understand, it was delicious after a day-walk.

The morning was generous of beauty.
The creek of cranes, the wall of mist, pearls of dew, rays of a soft sun and the face of a white moon. No need so say much, better show...

Our next point, as it has been said, was the small town of Mazsalaca, where an extraordinary grandmother lives, who we wanted to meet very much. All about - a bit later ...)