From Kaunas, the biketour cycled for 5 days to reach the Curonian Spit, a long piece of land that starts in Kaliningrad (Russia) and streches for 100km in the ocean next to Lithuania, where you have to get a ferry back to Klaipeda on mainland Lithuania. We took the ferry to Nida (again, some kind of a puzzle in which we had to fit 14 bikes, 3 trailers, and tons of luggage into a small space…), the most southern part that belongs to Lithuania, and cycled north from here.
The spit is a protected area of land and a UNESCO world heritage site. It is made up of different types of dunes, and it is home to the highest moving sand dunes in Europe, with the highest being 60 metres. It has a mixture of landscapes – dramatic sandy beaches and wooded pine tree areas, long coastlines and hills.
We started in Nida – which was crowded with tourists and bikes. Some people followed the bikepath north to scout the route and some people started out going south, climbing the most southern dune still on the Lithuanian side of the spit. The view was totally amazing, after 6 weeks on the bike tour it was great to see the sea again!
Also at the top of the dune was an amazing sundial!
We also saw a moose through the trees as we followed the road to the north, it was so close but when we stopped we startled it and it ran away.
All of the south of the Lithuanian side of the spit is highly protected and it’s not even allowed to walk away from the path, so we cycled almost to the very North to find a sleeping place, stopping for lazy beach lunches and swimming, and to bury Knoedel in the sand (again).
The next day, after some morning rain showers, the sun was shining again, and we chose a nice meadow to discuss the future of the biketour. It was a long discussion, but productive and inspiring.
Afterwards we all ran over the hill onto the nudist beach and into the sea!
After some tanning of all the parts which don’t normally see the sun, we cycled the final 2km to the ferry port and crossed to Klaipeda.
