European ERE meetup, August 2024

[bos]

Both of you convinced me to take the ferry at Travemünde

I came up with this rough plan this morning

1 Hamburg to Travemunde - Days 1-2

1. From Hamburg to Travemunde
2. Ferry from Travemunde to Liepaja

2. Liepaja to Kuldiga - Days 3-4

1. Take a 2-hour bus ride from Liepaja to Kuldiga.
2. Stay at a hostel or couchsurf in Kuldiga to explore the city.
3. Start the hike on Baltic Trails, Section 93, departing 1 or 2 days later.
4. Wildcamp in Kuldiga area.

3. Kuldiga to Sabile - Day 5

1. Continue hiking on Baltic Trails, Section 94, to reach Sabile.
2. Wildcamp along the trail.
3. Next day, hike to Loutfard from Sabile, which is approximately 15 kilometers.

4. Loutfard ERE party - Days 6-8
5. Return Home - Day 9

1. if someone comes by car, happy to share the cost and travel back to Germany.
2. else Head to Riga with Bus (4 hours) and fly home

[guitarplayer]

Ok that's the tickets in my pocket! There between 17 and 27 and DW is coming along.

ETA: as in, in Latvia, with a tent, ready for helping out with building stuff, definitely ready for foraging and generally ready for adventuring

[loutfard]

Happy to hear. I'm soon off to Latvia for the summer myself. Exciting!

[bos]

I will be in Latvia from the 19th to the 26th. I opted for the plane instead of the boat because I couldn't get more days off.
Also with the tent. Would need to find a store in Riga to buy camping gas, but after that i'm ready to start the baltic trail all the way to the meetup. Looking forward to it!

[loutfard]

I will be in Latvia from the 19th to the 26th. I opted for the plane instead of the boat because I couldn't get more days off.
Also with the tent. Would need to find a store in Riga to buy camping gas, but after that i'm ready to start the baltic trail all the way to the meetup. Looking forward to it!

- https://virsotne.lv/ is probably the most specialised camping and outdoor oriented store.
- https://gandrs.lv is a popular outdoor oriented store .
- https://ksenukai.lv is a diy chain that seems to have this in its assortment. Can't seem to check online if the specific brand you're after is in stock in physical shops, but if needed, I can hop in to check when passing by.

[bos]

@loutfard thanks for checking. The second two links seem to have gas cartridges online (can't clearly see if in-stock physical). Last few times I bought this one from decathlon, but all brands work.
https://www.decathlon.de/p/schraub-gask ... 565&c=blau

[loutfard]

FYI, I saw camping gas yesterday at a physical shop 25km from here: https://cenuklubs.lv .

[Jean]

I arrived in liepaja late yesterday. I stayed in town, visited the city and then walked on the beach. I am now about 20km north from liepaja. It's windy, i'm having a good time. If i walk a leisurly 20km per day, i should arrive late on the 20th. Would that be ok?
If not i can walk less everiday and try to meet bos at the last town before your place, the one that start wirh a K.

[guitarplayer]

Ah Jean so great you are there already! You prompted me to do some actions around the trip. As it is now, we will be at the Riga airport in the early afternoon of the 17th of Aug and I think the best course of action as I see it is to crash for a night at a campsite that is located practically in the city centre (!!!) of Riga for a mighty price of 17EUR/2 people (12 EUR per for a single person with a tent).

(https://riversidecamping.lv/en - 3km walk from the old district!)

We can then explore the capital and I might take my triangia and will then need liquid fuel (which I am on the fence if I am taking it, main purpose would be to cook mushrooms we find on the way).

Then start making our way along the Baltic Trial wild camping along the way from the 18th onwards.

@Jean, maybe you want to connect to the other side of the meetup place and do a bit of the forest walk with us?
@bos, how are you planning the first day, are you hitting the road straight off? Equally, we might want to meet up somewhere on the way.

@loutfard, how are you getting on with all? Join us for a walk if you are up for it !

I'm gonna pm you my contact details.

[loutfard]

If i walk a leisurly 20km per day, i should arrive late on the 20th. Would that be ok?

Fine with me as long as you don't expect perfect organisation from my side. Life here has been rather busy. I've been combining the roles of a tour guide, translator and driver for visitors with supporting a contractor working on the house.

[guitarplayer]

- https://virsotne.lv/ is probably the most specialised camping and outdoor oriented store.
- https://gandrs.lv is a popular outdoor oriented store .
- https://ksenukai.lv

Excellent, thanks. Gandrs open 10am-6pm on weekends (10am - 8pm weekdays) bang along the 22 bus line from the airport, close to a campsite I will be using.

@bos, if you are interested in the shop it is at Kalncinema lela 28.

[bos]

Great to hear you got started and having a good time @jean. I'm excited to go!

@guitarplayer I will hit the road the 20th. The day after I arrive.
Section 102 till 96 will brings us to loutfard, which takes around ~7 days. I don't have so many days, so I need to travel a part by public transport. I'll plan to take the bus to section 99 just after Ķemeri park and start from there. You will probably be around that area if you start on the 18th.

Thanks for the links. I had the same outdoor shop in-mind, but the camping is a great tip. I'll book the same one

[loutfard]

@loutfard, how are you getting on with all? Join us for a walk if you are up for it !

I will be available from the 19th at the earliest. Happy to see you all seem to have your camping gear with you. We have quite a bit of room inside and plenty of room for tents, but I still need to arrange extra mattresses and beds.

To be honest, I underestimated juggling attention between my wife, old friends visiting, work on the house and preparing for this. You can count on my best effort. In the very worst case, you'll have a roof over your head, a shower, a kitchen and great people to talk to.

I'll probably stay home and try to get things a bit more ready around here...

[Jean]

Maybe @bos could create a signal group and add us to it?
I'm quite decided about walking the whole way, but Could see myself walk back to K town after i reached loutfard place, to buy some food and walk back with you.
Or maybe i'll be slower and reach k town at the same time as you.

[J_]

I have planned to arrive on the 20 of August in Riga by plane with DW. We intend to visit Riga some days to see that beautiful town and its surroundings. Loutfard do you have suggestions? Can you pm me about your address and how to get there by public transport? We leave Riga in the morning of 27 of August at the airport. Look forward to see you all. And yes I have also signal, so please @bos inform me about a connection.

[Jean]

When I'll reach a specific place in a few days, I'll ask loutfard if my presence at his place would be more helpfull than stressfull at this point, and if he say no, I'll try to catch a bus to join the group still hiking.

[loutfard]

A very nice piggy bank from J_ and his wife is now my profile picture.

Jean built himself a bed inspired by Enzo Mari's Autoprogettazione plans. Some rejected 20mm ceiling planking and about 30 screws. Quite comfortable to sit on too. Jean has also cooked for us a lot.

Plenty of apples around. We've dried two batches and eaten them as snacks. Who am I kidding, I ate about half of the dried apples I think.

We've been hunting for mushrooms. Excellent chanterelle harvest. Some of these went into a barley risotto. Guitarplayer and x know quite a bit about other species. Some interesting boletes we found. Those we still have to cook.

The blueberries and lingonberries we've picked we've not done anything with yet. Maybe with breakfast today or tomorrow. Or with some ice cream for the non-vegans.

Interestingly, out of seven of us, four eat plant based and one is a vegetarian.

Also, while I have always been the out-of-the-box thinker, one in our company beats me on that by miles and miles. Refreshing and funny.

[ertyu]

Please do share more! I could not make it to europe this time around, but i'm still excited to hear what you talked about and maybe to see pictures

[loutfard]

Mostly vegetarian barbecue in the garden this afternoon. Jean and I collected the stones for the fireplace in our garden, on the side of the driveway and the field.



Interesting discussion. Some random themes: health and Dr. Greger's "How not to die", Taleb's "Anti-fragile".

Bos has made a few rather nice drawings. One of us will no doubt post them later.

[loutfard]

Bos has made some nice drawings, of Jean picking berries and my piggybank: