A short tour in Saaremaa

Before the midsummer we made a tour to Saaremaa Island on the western coast of Estonia. The island is very famous for its nature and “white nights” as the song tells us about it.  

To get to Saaremaa one must go to Muhu Island by a ferry where there is a causeway to Saaremaa.

On the ferry to Muhu

Our cottage was on the northern side of the island so we decided to drive along the northern coastline. First we stopped in Orissaare village where we enjoyed some refreshment in a tavern next to the “stadium” – the tracks probably made of car tyre material and certainly made by USSR.   

Refreshment by the stadion: rhubarb, mint and lime

The next stop was on the Panga cliff – the northern coast is a continuum of cliffs starting from the Estonian main land and continuing in Gotland Sweden. Panga is the highest cliff in Saaremaa but as such its’ height only a bit over 20 meters.

The Baltic Sea seen from the Panga cliff

A typical Estonian swing and a typical Finnish maiden swinging. A typical Soviet watch tower on the background.

Our cottage was situated near Küdema village and it was made of logs taken from some old house. The steep ladders led to a low attic for sleeping. There was a modern bathroom with shower but because of the chemistry of the soil the water stink terribly of hydrogen sulphide. The cottage area was surrounded by pastures for sheep and highlander “Beatles cows”.

Our camp seen from the road

The cottage

Ladders

Attic

A window scene to the backyard

Our faithful friend, too friendly to guard anything

Our interests in the Saaremaa nature were many: Birds, orchids, butterflies and hopefully seals. However our skills are quite limited except the bird so we just enjoyed what we saw and hoped that we would see some more. What comes to bird we didn’t see any specialties. Seals we saw none. We saw lots of orchids but most of them were the most common species and the rest were impossible for us to define the species. 

Heath (maariankämmekkä) was the most common orchid

Buds of an unidentified white orchid

Melampyrum nemorosum

Campanula persicifolia

Geranium sanguineum

What comes to butterflies there were lots of white rowan butterflies who tend to glide somewhat like monarchs. The other numerous big butterfly was Vanessa cardui.

A gliding rowan butterfly

Vanessa cardui on a viper's bugloss flower

The song tells about the white nights of Saaremaa. For Finns it is not especially mystical thing. However we saw a magical combination of red sun and green grass which we unfortunately failed to catch to camera at its best. 

An almost magical moment of the night

On the second day we traveled westwards and spotted some more cliffs. The nature varied and we could enjoy the wonderful scene of flowers. 

Surrounded by bugloss flowers at Ninase cliff

Unfortunately some of our destinations had signs of private place and we couldn’t get there – the feature not so common in Finland for the nature sights.   

No fossils found in limestone

Saaremaa cultural environment is not yet severely damaged by the modern world. The nicest example of it was the Ninase fisher village near one of the cliffs.

Ninase views

In the afternoon we ended up to Kuressaare, the main city of the island. We had our lunch in a fish restaurant near the medieval castle. I ordered cam pike and was surprised by its’ green bones which naturally helped the eating a bit.

At the Kuressaari castle

The fish restaurant in Kuressaari

The whole cam pike

Only the green bones left

Having a break while shopping in Kuressaari

Some catches

The third day was the last and we had a ferry tickets from Tallin to Helsinki this evening. We still had some time to visit places on our way. One of them was Kaali meteor crater in the middle of the island. It is not very big but it has it special feeling with elm trees surrounding the pond in the center of the crater. The Estonia is full of big stones that actually don’t belong to the places they are now. The folklore claims the mythical person Kalevipoeg has thrown them when he got mad every now and then. The real thing that happened was that the ice has transported the stones from Finland during the ice age. But maybe the Kaali stones really were thrown by him, at least they have definitely come from the air.

A pond in the center of Kaali crater

Old elm trees by the Kaali crater

We had the lunch on our way in Laitse castle in the mainland. The castle was somewhat like an English manor made of gray stone. We were the only customers so we had our own private servant. We ordered mallard in calvados sauce and of course it tasted noble - with common expenses. We asked how come it is possible to have mallard round the year in Estonia and had an explanation it also can be hunted round the year.

Having a lunch in a castle