Bikepacking expedition 3: first multi-day test ride for the Eurovelo 11 attempt

The Lahemaa national park on Estonia’s northern coast

My third bikepacking trip is a test ride for a big multi-day trip I want to do later in summer that would see me riding all the way across Estonia following the Eurovelo 11 cycling route towards the end of summer when the weather has got a little cooler. It would be 500 kilometres (c.300 miles) so I will need to be used to spending multiple days out on the road.

The part of the Eurovelo 11 route is more challenging than I’ve previously done as it goes through the Lahemaa national park, area of approximately 700 square km on Estonia’s northern coast, where there won’t be as many fuel stations to get food and water from at all times of the day, adding layer of complexity in the planning.

I also want to camp out for 2 nights (where I’ve only previously done a single night), so that I can pressure-test my routines a little better and see how they stand up. From my previous military experience, I know that you can survive for a night on poor sleep, water, and nutrition, but it’ll take a toll, so I want to find the pain points I can start to polish up early into my Silk Road Mountain Race preparation.

I set off around 4pm on a weekday afternoon and ride for a few hours into the route. I’m still finding a balance between work and my own adventure ambitions, but I resolve to keep searching to make this type of lifestyle sustainable as I reluctantly enter my forties next year.

Cycling through the park is stunning, and I stop on the beaches to camp and eat whenever I can. On the third day, I accidentally stumble upon the Hara Sadam water adventure park, which is a former soviet ‘demagnetizing’ submarine base during the cold war, that has been repurposed into a water activities centre, restaurant, and a museum. I take the opportunity to educate myself more about this era as it happened during my lifetime when the Soviet Union collapsed in the early nineties when I went to school. I can’t recall it specifically happening; however, it does remind me that Estonia has achieved a huge amount of growth given the turmoil it has sustained over the last three decades of independence.

The weather is warm, and my fears start to come into realisation on the third day when a shop I was planning to visit turns out not to be open forcing me alter my route to a large fuel station a few more hours away. I’m running low on water and the temperature is in the thirties, so I make a note to myself to carry a water filter to prevent me having to alter plans like I have done.

I get to the fuel station, stock up on water and snacks, and set off for the train station in Rakvere – the point at which the Eurovelo 11 route takes an almost 90-degree turn to head south after hugging the beautiful coastal path. In carrying out this test ride, I’ve inadvertently found a new angle for bikepacking adventures by cycling to or from a train station – meaning I can mix things up and experiment with riding more remotely, which will help to develop me for the Silk Road Mountain race over the coming years.

The former submarine base turned into a watersports adventure park at Hara Sadam, Lahemaa national park, Estonia