Team Basil is nicely settled in to Karkles Kopos Camping. The campsite lost it’s electricity for 8 hours today as part of a planned upgrade. The loss of electricity meant little to us with our solar panel and always on 3g connection giving us our much needed wifi. It just reminded us that we don’t really need campsites except for the luxury of being able to set out our table and chairs and relax in the lovely Baltic sun. Finland and the other Scandinavian countries we are travelling to next have the right to roam, fish and camp enshrined in their laws and so we will be doing more wildcamping in those countries, not least because of the price of campsites in the height of summer.
After Sarah had returned from walking the dogs on the nearby beach and we had finished breakfast, I was dispatched to the local shop to try to find bread. We are camping in a tiny village on the Baltic and there is only one shop. Upon entry I realised, when I asked if they had any bread, that I didn’t speak a word of Lithuanian and the lady behind the counter did not understand a word of English. Out came Google translate and I was soon being shown a choice of grey bread or black bread. Not feeling adventurous I chose the grey. The shop was fascinating from a tourist’s point of view. Half of the counter was made up of a chiller cabinet full of different types of smoked fish. I recognised mackerel and herring, but there were all sorts of fish of different types, including a long thin one that looked a bit like eel, but was in fact some type of fish. It’s at times like this when I wished there was a babel fish, like the one in Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, which instantly translates all languages. I would have loved to find out more about the smoked fish, but technology is not quite there yet. It won’t be long I’m sure.
After lunch Sarah, the dogs and I went for a long walk in the beach. On the way to the beach we spied a sign on the local village noticeboard which caught our eye. We didn’t understand the Lithuanian, but we did spot “Boston, Spalding, Peterborough….” etc. All these towns are near to our home, in fact Boston is my home town. When I got back to Basil Google translate simply told me it was an advert for “people and parcels” travelling to these places. Since these towns are the heart of Britain’s vegetable production I presume the people responding to this advert are travelling to work as vegetable pickers or in the processing factories.
Calling all travellers to Suffolk, Norfolk and Lincolnshire
On the beach, the Lithuanian’s were doing what all peoples from cold climates do: making the most of the short summer. Sunbathing, taking a dip in the icy Baltic and generally enjoying the sun. The dogs of course love the beach and they are making the most of it, since it is the first one they’ve seen for two months or so. Little do they know that they will be seeing much more of it in three weeks when we start our journey down the Norwegian coast.
Our beach
I may have mentioned previously that Sarah is an inveterate stone and shell collector. This beach does not have any shells but it has the most fabulous assortment of brightly coloured stones. Since it is on the Baltic shore it also, potentially, has a large amount of amber, the fossilised tree sap which has been treasured by people for millennia. We both had fun trying to spot amber, which apparently the locals fish for with nets. Sarah had much more success than I did in finding translucent amber coloured rocks, but when we Googled how to find amber we discovered we had been going about it the wrong way and what Sarah had found wasn’t in fact amber. It is apparently much lighter than rock and so tends to be found with driftwood and other more buoyant items, not amongst the rocks! I presume this is why the locals use nets, because perhaps it floats above the sea bed. That’s just a guess.
We tried finding amber among this lot. We were looking in the wrong place!
What a nice way to relax on a stony beach. Sarah had a go and said it was more difficult than it looked!
Once the electricity came on Sarah got our laundry done. All in, out and dried in just over two hours. She now has it down to a fine art. The days of laundrygate are, we hope, long behind us!
Our site has been the scene of a pantomime in the early evening. It has become apparent that a German touring group are staying at the campsite 200 metres further down the road from our site. At least 10 motorhomes have pulled onto our site only be redirected. The last one didn’t even get as far as our reception, when the driver looked confused at the lack of his compatriots, we just pointed and shouted “200 metres further” and his van further churned up our host’s site turning around and making a speedy exit.
Tomorrow Basil goes to the motorhome doctor to have his annual check up and oil change, so we have got to be up bright and early. We had intended to stay next to the sea for a few days, but Greece has spoilt us and so we will take the opportunity to move on after Basil has been seen to.