Days 44, A night at "Canyon Ranch" in Latvia

Log Housekeeping Cabins - Canyon Ranch in Latvia

For all the photos Click HERE.

Friday Morning, July 25

Signe prepared crepes with cream cheese, fruits and jellies for breakfast before we took our leave around 10:00 am. We headed south from Tartu towards Latvia,, leaving the predominantly blond headed people and flat lands behind. The countryside south of Tartu developed some rolling hills and by the time we crossed the border into Latvia, the road undulated through small hills and valleys. While many people ae fair haired, we see many more people with darker heads of hair and many red heads. Not sure if the reds are natural or not as most of them are women. The building structures look much as they did in Estonia. Newer buildings are bricked. Older buildings are often plaster or unpainted wooden buildings. Churches vary more from the single tall steeple to two symmetrical steeples on eithe side of the enty door. Latvians have their own language, but unlike the Estonians who have reclaimed their native language as primary, the Latvians seem to speak primarily Russian.

Crossing the border was a non-event. We took a photo of what was once a stately border crossing building. Now it sits empty, with no sign of human life around as we whizzed across the border. It is quite nice not having to go through immigrations and customs in each country that has signed onto the Schengen agreement. It is disappointing though not to collect stamps for these countries into our passports. At one point just prior to crossing the border into Latvia, we could have turned left and crossed into Russia, but make sure we turn right!

Our Airbnb stop tonight is going to be a lakeside resort with log housekeeping cabins, so we stop in a town with a market to buy some dinner and breakfast provisions. The only other stops were to take photos of things we thought were quaint and to find a geocache in the old White Castle in a rural countryside that is in a terrible state of disrepair.

After seeing the end products of reconstruction on several Russian palaces nearly demolished in WWII, we know it can be done, but it sure looks hopeless. Thank goodness there are people who can envision it back to grandeur and are willing and capable of doing so. This castle however, perhaps due to its location in the middle of nowhere or perhaps the lesser nobility of the aristocrats, it dosen't look like reconstruction is fully funded or eminent. If it hadn't been for the geocache, we would not have even found the place.

Late in the afternoon, we arrived at Latvia's "Canyon Ranch" in Berzgale. We got a little choked up as memories of Mom and Dad and their place in Sierraville bubbled to the surface. There are four new red roofed log cabins situated in a meadow by a large pond with a fishing deck. On the opposite side of the road from the pond, the owners have a farmhouse and professional kennel built on a knoll overlooking a beautiful lake. Storks are plentiful here, and there is a nest in fron of the farm house with five large birds, the parents who fly off, and three large juveniles who flap their wings, but do not fly from the nest. Irena tells us they migrate to Africa in the winter.

The owners Irena and Anatole raise Malmutes for dog sledding. They have nine for their own team and breed them to sell puppies. There are no puppies here today, but the Malmutes sing to us in howl harmony when we walk close to the farmhouse. The kennels are clean and the dogs well kept. The cabins are winterized and we can just imagine this area in the snow, frozen lakes, and guests with visiting dog sled teams (kennels by each cabin) dashing through the meadows and forested roads in the winter.

Once we are settled in our cozy little cabin, we changed into our swim suits and walk across the road to the lake. After a brief swim to cool off (temp in high 80's) we use the little red guest canoe to paddle around the lake, take a small walk with our neighbors from Saint Petersburg who speak very little English, but enough to invite us to see an old peasant house. We enjoy their company, but cut our hike short when the biting flies and mosquitoes begin to attack us at the peasant house. We scurry back to our cabins. After showering and applying cortisone to our bug bites and some repellant, we sit by our cabin with a glass of shiraz and watch the sunset, before we eat dinner and snuggle up in our beds.

All is Well with Worrall Travel Rs