Sooma

Estonia is a beautiful country and still has, unlike other places, quite many pristine landscapes. If 40% of its territory is covered by forests, up to 30% of the land is covered with bogs. These marshlands are a fantastic reservoir of freshwater, but also have an incredible biodiversity. Plants, birds, insects, though they might seem barren at first sight, they are full of life. Sooma is one of the biggest and impressive humid zones in estonia. Located not too far from Viljandi where our training was. To protect this fragile environment (any alteratrion can take up to seven years before disapearing), a natural parc was created. We set to discover part of it by canoeing 4 hours on the rivers which go through Soomaa. it was very peaceful, a bit tirering after a while, especially carying bags we could have not carried with us. I’ll remember the apple fights between canoes, Margus fixing tea with his stove, the good laughs when we would run into the banks (except one where Amélie fell backwards). After that we hiked a bit into the bog, on a boardwalk which led to an observation tower and small ponds, with very deep and dark waters (had a swim there as you can see). In the peat around, one can put a 5 m or more pole in without hitting the bottom. A very dark storm was approaching, with menacent roars of thunder, but though it passed very near to us, it did not hit us. This is how we got this wonderfull light on Soomaa (see movie and picture).
That night, we fixed ourselves some panckakes on a campfire, with the homemade jam we had brought, then slept in a barn on stacks of hay. We loved it (the mosquitos too.)