It was 2pm by the time I had posted my cold weather gear to Hubert and done my final packing. There was a power-cut in Tallinn last night so I didn’t get as much done as I expected. Finally I had the bike loaded finished flirting with the receptionist and reluctantly left.

The last few days had been quite stressful, the bad news about Belarus following Russia’s suit and being a pain in the arse about Visa issue outwith the country your passport is issued, but after much work I made some decisions and found some solutions. This too was another delay, but I was glad to be finally on the road. The first port of call was the petrol station and once the tyres were at pressure I headed off.

I was certain that bike route Number 1 ran on one of the streets parallel to where I was at the garage, however it wasn’t the one I choose and after a brief but illuminating visit to one of the rougher Russian areas of town I eventually joined the route and I made very good time to Paldiski. I had wanted to visit the various decaying Russian installations, fire control, Nuclear testing area and the nuclear labs that are all still there, but it was already late so I headed off in the direction of Padise and my prearranged bed for the night.

The road from Paldiski to Padise was awful.They are resurfacing it and the clouds of dust and stones sent up by the trucks were tough to navigate, the trucks that were speeding were a nightmare. The other sights were fabulous. The road was dotted with old graveyards and I stopped at a few, these pictures are from my favorite. Supposedly there is something special about these circular crosses and one of the graveyards I passed had the largest number of circular gravestones in Europe/ the world.

I had just crossed this railway line and was thinking about the north of Germany, its freight rail network and the remote concentration camps there, when I passed this sign:

I had been in a rush when organising the reservation so didn’t pay much attention to location, name or address of the Hotel, I just expected it the be the only one there. It had just gone eight when I arrived in the town and started looking for the Hotel, but everyone just looked at me as though I was crazy.

It was then that I spotted the local Tourist Info sign, with the Hotel marked some 20km distant. I would have chosen another solution but I was long past the last shops so camping was out and there were no other options, so I did what every good adventurer does in this situation. I ate some chocolate, drank the last of my water and got to it. The bike is despite being heavily laden is moving very swiftly and I made fair time along the last stretch despite the cramps I was getting in the tops of my thighs and eventually as the last of the days light was fading I joined a land-rover track decorated with multiple “Hotel this way” signs and headed into the woods.

It is a great location, quiet, remote and thats saying something considering I did nothing but cycle through “remote” all day. The restaurant closed at 20:00, it was 21:30 and there were no shops for long distances, but the woman at reception was delightful, made me some sandwiches and let me keep the bike in my room, what’s more there was Wifi and beer.

The place was pretty quiet except for one group who kept going out to smoke and were pretty noisy but that stopped around three when I told them to be quiet and put my earplugs in. I was pretty tired in the morning and took it very easy, late breakfast, late departure etc., etc.