17/06/08 - Pat gets stuck but a Berry berry nice day.

Today turned out a lot better than it started. First of all it was
raining again. Then Pat got stuck! After rejecting a number of camping
spots last night for just that possibility, we found ourselves a
lovely spot (if we ignored the now derelict Soviet era observation
tower) at the northern end of a peninsula in the Lahemma National
Park. However, this morning, as we were leaving, we were so busy
talking that Daniel's 3 point turned right into a sand hole - oops.
We do have one tire grip mat in the van so immediately positioned that
under the tire which looked the most dug in. Then with me pushing, we
succeeded in digging the other wheel in even further. It was time for
some serious digging of our own. We got down on our knees digging sand
out with our hands. A couple of locals seeing our plight helped us
pack stones and branches on the sand, and then helped with the
pushing. We were joined by another two, and with Daniel at the
controls Pat finally jumped right outa that hole. Phew! Unfortunately
both Daniel and I were now wearing, not so clean, beige shorts. Woops!
Not a good look when it will be another three weeks before we do
anymore washing;-)

We then drove around to Palmse where the information centre for the
park is located, we watched a slide show from which really inspired me
to want to get in there and explore.

After lunch, a snooze and a couple of very false starts we finally
found the right track through the forest - an hour later, turning for
home we came across little miniature strawberries, that we were first
introduced to at Magnus and Cina's, and taste fantastic. They are
about the size of a pea, so its not exactly a quick job to fill a
500ml empty drink bottle, but after a hour of searching we had us our
desert - yum yum!!

Our camp spot for the night had a fire place to make use of - but due
to the intermittent rain showers we'd had all day, the damp wood
required lots of huffing and puffing before we had a roaring fire. I
think the extra effort made our sausages and marshmallows taste even
better - then of course there was the miniature strawberries!!