As soon as I got into Latvia - the border is a tiny sign in the middle of the town - the wind picked up. A stiff west breeze would face me head on for the 90km to Cesis.
This was a big day after the two short stints in the rain. The weather had picked up and the sun was out again.
The route along estonian path 3 and than lv2 in Latvia starts getting hilly. There were no really tough hills, just plenty of ups and downs, which makes momentum tough to build.
Smiltene is quite a nice town with a fun cobbled descent into it that, with heavy panniers, requires some serious braking.
There were some long, soul destroying roads that stretched endlessly into the distance. Open meadows look nowhere near as appealing as a forest when it is windy.
When I made it to Rauna was when the finish started edging closer in my mind. The pond in this village about 20km from Cesis is great, and plenty of people were out fishing. There is also a castle and I'm pretty sure I found it. Even more ruined that I expected.
Cesis rivals Tartu for the nicest town so far. It has a small square with a multi-coloured fountain and a sweet park with a black swan. The region also has plenty of stalks.
There is nothing like the rewarding feeling of completing a tough day so I even had a beer with dinner.
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