Wild camping in Estonia

Estonia is fabulous at wild camping. The RMK app (with an English option) is the national resource for telling you where all the best facilitated wild camping spots are and what is there. Often there are composting toilets and fire places, complete with firewood. All for free. Some are accessible by track, others you have to walk to. The Komoot app, as always, is useful for giving ideas of hiking ways and routes.

Elva National Park by train

The forest at Elva

Not far from the border with Latvia, on the train line between Valga and Tartu, is Elva. It’s perfect for a hike into the forest and trying out this luxurious form of wild camping. There’s a co-op supermarket near the station which has some tasty vegan items, and then off me and the dog went into the woods. We had to take enough water for our 24 hours there (3 litres). The dog can also drink out of the river and lakes.

So I probably had about 16-18kg for 2.5 hours hiking to a delightful spot above a ravine. A few kilos less on the way back, so I took a more circuitous route and found the cross country skiing marathon finish and cute wood carvings. Paganism was big in the Baltics till 13th century when Teutonic knights stamped it out, but spirited wood carving remains strong to this day.

Camp spots with fire places often have free wood and chopping devices!

It was late May, the forest smelt deliciously of pine and lily of the valley. Wildlife was all around, especially birds and ants, with deer footprints too, and even 2 young red deer grazing by the river in the morning. Birds included wood warblers, tits, robins, and I even saw the fleeting flying custard of a golden oriel! Mosquitos were a bit of a problem, but the site above the ravine was better than the swampier areas. Noticeboards, with information in Estonian and English about the wildlife, abound in this national park.

Good visual explanation of much of the glacial geomorphology of the whole of the Baltic region, from east Poland to Southern Sweden

Quake bogs – they don’t hold your weight, but they hold Baspie’s!

A quake bog overgrowing a kettle lake. Beware the false ground surface!

Wild camping near Paldiski and Tallinn

Sunset in North West Estonia

I wanted to go to Lahemaa National Park. However it is not accessible by train and Baltic buses are not dog friendly. Wearing a muzzle for 1.5 hours seemed a bit much to ask of Railway Dog. So I looked at where railway lines go close to the Estonian coast and where RMK had nice sounding camping spots. The Paldiski region came up.

Glacial erratics, American long distance cyclist, Railway Dog, sunset, map, sunrise, camping on the sea, mosquito blood, more glacial erratics

I hoped to get a taxi from the forlorn port town of Paldiski to the north coast, but there were none that I could find on Google or Bolt that would pick me up there. So it was a 2 hour hike from the supermarket along hot local roads. I was also carrying a 5 litre bottle of water from the shop, as I wanted to be there 36 hours. Not ideal. Hitching didn’t work either, except for that last 500m with a lovely local couple, their baby, dogs and cat, in their campervan. The tough walking was worth it to get to this magic spot.

Magic camping spot right on the sea

Baspie and Toby

We had a happy social evening on the beach, fortuitous meeting a fellow solo female traveller. We sat on Devonian Old Red Sandstone bedrock, surrounded by erratic gneiss and granite boulders carried hundreds of miles by sheet glaciers more recently. Toby came complete with a fun game, and my 5 litres of water meant I had some to share. She’s a cyclist heading slowly to Turkey and maybe beyond by bicycle. Thus she will be covering in reverse some of the route I did, but with far more opportunity to deviate, given her mode of transport. The cycle paths in the Baltics and Poland are fabulous, so the first weeks will be a revelation in cycling luxury.

Free fireplace and benches. The fire didn’t put off the mosquitos in the trees. So locals have fires on the beach.

Dawn in the small hours

Packed up ready to go. Dog waiting patiently, fully clothed against the mosquitos

Hike and train to Tallinn

My route out from this glorious wild camping spot to Tallinn was easier and more pleasant than the hike from Paldiski. Not only did I have about 5kg of food and water less to carry, I headed by a far more pleasant and slightly longer route to a different station, eastwards along the coast to Pollkula Jaam, an EU renovated station in the middle of nowhere. It soon won’t be. This regeneration means a 50 minute regular train to the Estonian capital. It may have encouraged the many large houses that are now being built on this coast. I would want a home here too. Note there are currently no shops near Pollkula station, so if you head out to camp this way, bring supplies on the train.

The path to the station, only 200m away! Full of birdsong