troopytracks

Woke up this morning to a clear blue sky and packed away for the trip up the coast. We stopped for a while at Palanga beach, which is the main resort on the short Lithuanian coast. It was really busy as you would expect at this time of year. It was full of bright colours and people having fun, and so just walking along the waters edge was surprisingly pleasant. A great place for people watching as there were so many to choose from!

We sat for a while watching the local volleyball players, just checking to see if the standard of our home team is up to scratch …. We concluded that we still have some lessons to learn!

Further along the beach I was happily snapping away with the camera, when I suddenly thought … hmmm that person is wearing a skin coloured bikini (not a very tight one either?). As I panned around I realised that not only were all the people naked, but they were all ladies! We had paddled across a stream which, unknown to us, was the boundary of the ‘ladies only’ beach. We quickly did an about turn and guiltily put the camera back in the bag … not before getting a very grumpy look from a lady laying just by the stream …. whooops!! I hasten to add that I did not take any pictures …. before you all think I am a bit pervy ….

Marjool was in two minds whether or not to stay, but in the end decided that without her factor 150 it may be a bit risky!! We later learnt that men are not allowed to hang around on a ladies only beach, but are allowed to access the water by going in a straight line to the sea (and back). Ladies on the other hand are just not allowed on a men only beach at all.

On to more practical matters, we saw that people tend to make themselves comfortable on the beach on waterproof bean bags (great idea) … maybe we have just lived a sheltered life, but we have not seen them on beaches before. We did not see any in the nudist area … maybe for hygiene reasons?

We carried driving up the coast as although we enjoyed visiting Palanga, it was not the place we were looking for to spend a few days. At around 2.00pm we stopped at a really nice campsite just on the southern end of Sventoji. We would strongly recommend it to anyone as it has a lovely grassy area, covered picnic huts, nice showers, great kitchen and wifi included. It is only about 150 m across the dunes to the beach. You can see the details on the following website.

http://www.osupis.lt

We are intending to do a few jobs on the car here and catch up via e-mail, and so will stay here a few days. If you need to contact us, now is a good time!

For the first time today we have had trouble getting the phone to link with the computer to update the site. It seems that the number of bars on the phone signal indicator have little to do with how easy it is to get data through the phone. I am sure that things are going to get more difficult in Russia, so maybe it is good that it does not work too smoothly now ….

More rain today as we headed out of Vilnius in completely the wrong direction (travelling west rather than east ….. not the wrong road!) towards the Baltic Coast. We thought that we still have time for the detour as we are not due to cross the Russian border until 15th August. The first place that we got to was Vente which is right on the tip of land on the Kursiu Marios, which is like a giant lake formed by a long sand spit (98 km long) that runs south from Klaipeda and is half Russian and half Lithuanian. I had not really taken in the fact that there is a bit of Russia called Kaliningrad which is completely separate from the rest of the country which borders Poland to the south and Lithuania to the north. Look on a map …. its odd and I am sure is a story worth reading!?

We again decided to stay in a little campsite. We are either getting soft, or maybe just cant resist what seem to us as cheap campsites. Other than the two city campsites we have not paid more than about £10. When we got to this one, which is right on the water and very close to the lighthouse at the tip of the peninsular, the skies started to clear.

This tip of land has bird traps used to catch and ring the birds to survey migration and numbers.

We then walked along the beach. The sea tends to be fairly calm as it is protected from the open sea by the sand spit. This means that the shells that are normally broken down to form sand are still almost whole.

All around Lithuania we have noticed all sorts of outdoor wooden carvings. Every park and most villages have sculptures of all sorts. This campsite is no exception and has at least ten.

Tomorrow we head up the coast to Klaipeda and beyond to spend a bit of time at the seaside. Maybe have a couple of days in one place, while we search for amber along the beach …. there is supposed to be lots washed up after storms.
I’m sure its going to be sunny!!