Curonian spit; Lithuania, again

There has been a fairly short account of going along the Curonian Spit.  To add a bit.  The spit is a quite extraordinary place. Lots of sand, but also the forests are well established and the soils may be sandy, but they are not only sand.   The forests at the Northern end are mainly pine. We arrived on the ferry from Kaipeda.  Went to "I" where they had quite a useful overall map. This point was the start of the resumed Iron Curtain Trail  We cycled aAcross to the other side, the Baltic side of the spit, and off Southwards, under a huge continuous dune, like an embankment, with the Baltic the other side. Paths up it, to the beach, and we went one or two times; the beach was almost deserted and beautiful; the sea quite rough with lines of breakers; the sun was shining and the wind was blowing.  But the path we took itself had little of this.  Then it veered from the sea. On the other, East (left), side at times the land rose quite high and in one place seemed to go to moorland.  In my mind I compared it to Yorkshire, but you would have to be a bit funny in the head for this really to hold.

Then, after maybe 25km, turned inland up a quite steep hill - had to get off to push - and down  the other side to the village of Juodokrante, an ordinary village but one where in former times, wealthy people from Konigsberg had villas.  We got on to the beach and stopped for lunch in a fish restaurant.  The first gastronomic event on the iron curtain trail this year, and a good one.  After this, continued in the lagoon side, no dunes and much more peaceful on the water.  Past a part of the forest full of cormorants, and back to the Baltic side of the spit.  The cycle way resumed under the dune-embankment but then turned inland and ran for a while along the main road.

I (Tom) was getting quite tired by this stage.  The track went through some villages and got to Nida.  I was glad of arriving at the camp site