{"id":4886,"date":"2025-08-13T11:10:15","date_gmt":"2025-08-13T15:10:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.irelandbybicycle.com\/?p=4886"},"modified":"2025-08-15T11:10:51","modified_gmt":"2025-08-15T15:10:51","slug":"an-early-start-with-no-destination","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.irelandbybicycle.com\/index.php\/an-early-start-with-no-destination\/","title":{"rendered":"An early start with no destination"},"content":{"rendered":"

I left Nova this morning about 8:30 am.<\/p>\n

My bike computer went crazy again this morning (as it did last night), but behaved once I left the B&B. I theorize something nearby broadcast on the same frequency that the wireless bike computer uses. Wireless spectrums don’t match from country to country.<\/p>\n

My first destination today was Haapsulu. Haapsalu was too close to be a final destination, but the last place with accomodation for at least 50 km. I enjoyed the castle in Haapsalu – it was much bigger than I expected.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

From Haapsalu? I had to leave the EV routes. The EV routes included ferries to the islands and I’m disinclined to add more ferries! But that did mean a long stretch of highway along the edge of a national forest.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

I had plans to visit the ruins of Roude castle along the way. First I accidentally passed it by 2 km. Circling back, the access road clearly hadn’t been used in a long long time. I rode it anyway, fighting the undergrowth. I should have walked but riding, despite the struggle, meant I was moving just fast enough to keep the mosquitoes off.<\/p>\n

Linda has mentioned to me a few times that I should stay on the coast, because she has a friend who cycled in the central part of the country, and there were lots of mosquitoes. What that fails to consider is the number of mosquitoes on the coast. When I finally reached the castle, I could just view it through the underbrush. I managed to snap a single picture before the mosquitos swarmed. I killed six on the back of one calf, only to immediately kill as many on the other. I thought briefly about digging out my insect repellent, but by the time I found it I would have been a husk and probably never be found. I beat an expeditious retreat.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

While wild camping was high on my list of potential outcomes for the day, I had set my sights on a campsite marked on OSMAnd as a primitive camping\/caravan site. Arriving I found a large gravel parking area with nowhere for a tent, and a local fishing. I also arrived at 4:30 pm, a bit early to put up my tent.<\/p>\n

While yesterday I struggled against headwinds most of the day, the last 50 km I’d cycled with a tailwind. The next place to camp was another 15 km down the road, and also flagged as primitive, but managed by the RMK (national park service). Off I went, keeping an eye out for alternatives.<\/p>\n

One reason I prefer to not wild camp is meeting people. Well. I found a lovely campground. No shower, but water (one spigot) and power (one outlet). No people unfortunately, but I still ended up in a lovely place. With mosquitoes.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

I went ahead and made a reservation at a hostel in Parnu tomorrow. It’s about 70 km from here, a short day compared to the 114 km today, and 100 km yesterday. However, it positions me well for two 100 km days and arriving in Riga, where I’ll probably spend a couple days.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I left Nova this morning about 8:30 am. My bike computer went crazy again this morning (as it did last night), but behaved once I left the B&B. I theorize something nearby broadcast on the same frequency that the wireless bike computer uses. Wireless spectrums don’t match from country to country. My first destination today … Continue reading “An early start with no destination”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4886","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-touring"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.irelandbybicycle.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4886","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.irelandbybicycle.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.irelandbybicycle.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.irelandbybicycle.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.irelandbybicycle.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4886"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.irelandbybicycle.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4886\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4919,"href":"https:\/\/www.irelandbybicycle.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4886\/revisions\/4919"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.irelandbybicycle.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4886"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.irelandbybicycle.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4886"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.irelandbybicycle.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4886"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}