Vladimir is always telling me that Lance says “the wind is your friend” and I would be inclined to agree with him if it were ever to decide to blow in the direction Im heading. Weather men please take note, what ever direction I follow in the morning the wind will be blowing in the opposite direction.

I can think of two distinct occasions when the wind was in my favour.
The first was my return journey across from Stromness to Kirkwall, the return took less than two hours and closer to one if my memory serves. The journey out towards Stromness took over six hours. There was one point where leaning downhill into the wind you could balance on the bike without making a millimeters progress.

The second time that I remember clearly I just gave up and turned to the direction the wind was blowing.
I find the wind demoralising. I do and am working on this, as it is a purely psychological problem but there is nothing exhausts me more than cycling into the wind, well that and explaining something technically inconsequential to me, to some one from lets say an art history background.

The wind was the second of my three challenges today, stupidity was my first.
I had followed cycle route Number 1 from Tallinn to Haapsalu and after buying a replacement fiberglass rod for my flag, the last one was stolen in Chennia central by the village idiot, I passed a sign for for said cycle route number 1 and dutifully followed it.

It took me past the train station, a magnificent example of what a train station should look like Glasgow central, Budapest Keleti Pu so on and so fourth. It took me past all sorts of interesting bits of concrete sticking out of the ground, an Airstrip that I snuck onto avoiding the ineffectual guard on two occasions, past beautiful and historic buildings now in ruins and at the end it took me to the sea, where I could watch the wind multiply, advance and froth up the waves.
The waves were initially not easy to see as there were three big roll on roll off ships in the way but they did herald the realisation that I had arrived in Rohukuela. It had taken me a while as I had been shopping, eaten lunch and visited the numerous interesting places on route, however it was the wrong bloody direction.

I followed a secondary then third class road to Vilkla, it would have been faster heading back and after leaving the lodging in Haapsalu two and a half hours before, I had made it 8km down the road to Parnu, thats a new record even by my standards. It was at this point I realised I would not be spending the night in Parnu and new that the next place with reliable lodging was Lihula, Virtsu was better distance wise, but the Tourist Info woman advised against it.

Im glad this was my destination as the short section from Kirba to Lihula took an hour, the wind was punishing. I even got off to walk for a while I was that miserable, this and the third of my challenges was irking me.

Another cyclist carrying gear passed me and as I was thinking about doing a u-turn to chat with him when my right foot flew off the pedal. Chastising my lack of dexterity, I put my foot back on the pedal and it happened again and I realised it wasnt my fault.

On closer inspection at least one of the ball bearings in the pedal had cracked/ shattered, which means that I spent the last 10km grinding whatever ingenious metal bits are in there into a fine powder. It didnt sound or feel good or comfortable, but it did keep working. I suppose I will replace it in Parnu tomorrow, though I would have expected much greater distance from one set of pedals, newer Shimano gear seems less robust, my old XT hubs did 15,000 km and 28,000km respectively and I didnt intentionally or necessarily replaced the rear.

Arriving at the Hotel & Hostel I was told it was full Tada!
While I made some rough calculations about the tensile strength of the skirt material the buxom reception wench was wearing, she told me after some discussion about other options that there would be a room available in an hour, but at 750 EEK so I said no thanks and as we were discussing nearby camping grounds and the like and the conversation went on I nipped out to get my valuables bag for security. On my return I was told there would be a Hostel room available in an hour @250EEK – surprising.

I had a whistle stop tour around town and 15min later went into the supermarket for tomorrows essentials: chocolate, fruit juice and a can of beer. Arriving back in significantly less than the prescribed hour I tried to get a coffee, which was unavailable and as the new receptionists proximity was making my eyes water and at the same time making me feel faint, I had a seat and distracted myself with some cartoons. Surprisingly this gambit didnt work and I spent the time contemplating the psychology of the black bra under white blouse mode, I didnt really reach a conclusion.

After completing the usual form and paying, she showed me to my room, I would have paid the 250EEk just for that short walk behind her.