What we found at the end of the road

As foreseen yesterday, today was spent driving around and finding some hidden corners. Whereas the walks we'd done on the previous two days were planned and waymarked (albeit at least in parts really quiet), today we wanted to see some non-touristy sights, and make our own routes. This we managed through a combination of a tourist map we picked up in the airport which contains the basic routes around the place, plus maps.me, which is Mr A's preferred mapping app (it functions without data on, but just with location services on, provided you have downloaded and updated the relevant map). So we headed off down lots of unmarked roads (generally not made up, of course), often towards lakes, and found various interesting sights. The three best were this spot (Piikstammi), which is obviously a favourite of fishermen, but also sports a lakeside sauna, several dry toilets, and the ubiquitous fireplace; a turquoise, possibly abandoned but definitely neglected house (first extra; also by a lake, but without such easy access); and a open clearing right by a lake full of whooper swans (which buggered off into the distance when we approached), which also sported the ubiquitous fireplace and a load of rowing boats (second extra of the lake).

In terms of photography opportunities, this was Mr A completely in his element, and funnily enough he took far more photographs today than on the previous two days. Generally the weather played ball. There were a couple of generally light showers, and a bit of sunshine (in both cases whilst we were in the car). The rest was grey. The temperature rose to the dizzy heights of 13 degrees. We covered about 250 kms in all, I think, maybe a little more. Quite a bit of it was in close proximity to the Russian border, and it was interesting to see that a lot of people have their lakeside country cottages right up against the border, which is not the most obvious thing to choose, I guess.

It's been a very relaxing few days.