Lithuania. Curonian Spit Run

 

 One sunny weekend, I tried to delve deeper into the natural world of Lithuania's most interesting national park - the Curonian Spit. On Friday evening, after reaching the peninsula from Klaipėda by ferry, I set off along a pre-planned route. There wasn’t much time left until sunset...

   A bit about the spit itself... It is 98 kilometers long, with about 50 kilometers belonging to Lithuania, the rest stretching into Russia. In this reserve, an additional fee is collected for vehicle travel; for example, it costs 20 euros to enter the park by car. Camping outside of designated paid campsites is not allowed, and open fires are prohibited. The width of the spit varies from 400 meters to 3.8 kilometers. On one side, there are the fresh waters of the bay, and on the other, the brackish sea. The Baltic Sea is not as salty as other seas, and it was once a glacial lake. The uniqueness of the spit lies in its high level of biological diversity due to the varied landscape. Imagine, in such a relatively small area - both sandy dunes and coniferous forests... The spit also serves as a corridor for nearly 20 million migrating birds, many of which stop here for a "refuel".

  So, turning off the main bike path and heading down a picturesque forest trail, surrounded by untouched forests with incredibly lush grass, I saw deer...

  By sunset, I had turned to the shore...

   I spent the night in a shelter located on a dune, offering a panorama of the shore and the endless sea...

 I had a small sleeping bag, a bivy sack made of Tyvek for moisture protection, and a foil mat for sleeping by the sea, along with food for two days. About five kilograms, including water, fit nicely into an 18-liter backpack. I decided to gradually give up using a stove, pot, and even hot food and tea during hikes... To reduce weight and time spent preparing meals... Instead, I found a half-liter container with a screw-on lid. Into it, I pour a portion (200 grams) of mixed porridge with raisins and nuts (100 grams of buckwheat, or barley, or oats, 50 grams of nuts, and 50 grams of raisins), add cold water, and screw on the lid... Oats are ready in half an hour, buckwheat in three, and barley in eight... So, the main thing is to plan meal times... The schedule for consuming the prepared portion is divided into two or three parts, and eating begins three hours after waking up... The concepts of breakfast and lunch are completely blurred...

   Waking up at half past five in the morning and packing up my things, I continued my run along the spit... The ridge on the sandy-pine crest...

  The body of the spit is sand, covered with a thin layer of vegetation... 

 The forest is filled with the polyphonic singing of birds, merging into a melody, with some landmarks even noting this...

   On the other side of the spit, there is a sense of peace and quiet by the fresh water bay...

  Near the settlement of Juodkrantė, on a small area, more than four thousand nests of great cormorants and grey herons have been established... This place became the most interesting for me... To observe the bustling bird life, there is a viewing platform near the bike and auto road, but as my route went through the trail, I fully experienced the color of this place by running through the epicenter of the bird metropolis... The insane noise of thousands of birds, bushes whitened by constant showers of excrement, the smell of pine completely receding, here dominated by the pungent smell of seafood - the main food of cormorants and herons...

 I tried to avoid the largest clusters of nests to get as little of a portion of feces as possible... At the same time, something kept loudly falling from the trees to the ground, which made me a little wary... It turned out to be huge pieces - fish remains falling from heights of over 20-30 meters... I thought to myself - "cormorants, wasting food"...

   Huge trees with nests at their tops...

   Thus, I ran through the forest to the viewing platform... Of course, the impressions I got in the forest can never be conveyed by the platform...

 For hiking enthusiasts, there are such interesting signs with a beaver at the head... By the way, I never encountered beavers on my way, but besides many deer, I also saw a wild boar and a few fairly large hares...

  Reaching the largest settlement - Nida, I went to the beach... After 50 kilometers of sandy trails and asphalt roads, my legs were a bit sore... Resting for a few hours by the sea, I then walked along the shore, looking for a place for the next overnight stay... 

  After eight kilometers, I found such a place... Climbing a small dune that protected from the wind, I laid out my mat and unrolled my sleeping bag... Nearby in the forest, two deer rustled... 

 The next morning, I continued my jogging along the Baltic shore to the constant roar of waves, which at the same time both woke me up and calmed me...