If Day 1 is about testing the gear, Day 2 is usually about testing your patience.
We left Kallaste Turismitalu ready to put some solid kilometers behind us. I felt good and the pace was steady. Then, about 2 or 3 kilometers down the road, I reached up and realized my head felt remarkably light. I had left my helmet back at the campsite. There is nothing quite like the crushing blow to your pride when you have to turn around and do a 5-kilometer round-trip “U-turn of shame” right at the start of the morning.
Helmet successfully retrieved, we got back on track, but the roads decided to test us next. Our route took us down several stretches marked as regular public roads on the map, which turned out to be loose, vibrating gravel. To make things better, we hit a massive section of roadworks where the makeshift detour road was in an incredibly rough, bone-rattling state.
Needing a break from the vibration, we took a brief detour and stumbled upon Risti Church.
Risti Church (the Church of the Cross) is one of the more unique looking historic churches in the region, known for its distinct, somewhat asymmetrical tower that was actually built without proper foundations back in the day.
It was a peaceful, quiet spot to escape the noise of the construction.
From there, we pushed toward Keibu Beach, looking forward to some coastal views. The Baltic Sea had other plans. The wind that day was absolutely relentless—blowing a howling gale off the water that turned the ride into a miserable fight for every meter. We quickly scrapped our beach-lounging plans and pivoted inland toward Nõva. Exhausted and wind-blown, we found shelter at Mõisa kohvik (the Manor Café), which served up a fantastic lunch that completely revived our spirits.
Then, the tour threw us another mechanical curveball between Nõva and Haapsalu: my front tire went entirely flat. When I pulled the tube to patch it, the puncture was surprisingly on the inside facing the rim. I inspected the rim tape thoroughly, but everything looked pristine. The only logical culprit? The Pakri peninsula sand from yesterday. Some fine grit must have snuck inside the rim during my sandbox experiment, slowly grinding away at the tube until it finally let go. Drivetrain sabotage yesterday, a flat tire today. The sand was playing the long game.
As we continued our push toward Haapsalu, physical reality caught up with us. Rike turned to me and mentioned that one of her knees was starting to flare up with some serious pain. Anyone who rides knows that a rental bike will never fit your geometry perfectly like your own rig back home. We immediately dropped our speed to a maximum of 15km/h and started playing the classic touring guessing game: adjusting the saddle height, shifting it back and forth, trying to find a sweet spot. Unfortunately, the adjustments barely helped. From that point on, Rike was powering through on pure grit.
By the time we rolled into Haapsalu, Rike needed a pharmacy. Since she had already visited the town a while back, she selflessly sent me off to explore the city solo while she took care of her knee and rested up.
I spent the afternoon playing tourist. I rode along the beautiful, sweeping waterfront promenade and explored the haunting ruins of Haapsalu Castle.
We eventually reunited near the historic Haapsalu Railway Museum.
The train station looks like an old film set. It features an incredibly long, 216-meter covered wooden platform built in the early 1900s specifically so the Russian Tsar and his family could step off the imperial train into the mud-spa resort town without getting caught in the rain.
With Rike stocked up on pharmacy supplies, we picked up the EuroVelo path and made the final, determined push to the ferry port in Rohuküla. We caught the evening ferry across the Väinameri Sea, watching the mainland fade away as we headed for Hiiumaa island. We rolled off the boat and directly into the hostel right at the Heltermaa port. After a grueling, windy, and mechanically challenged day, that hostel turned out to be surprisingly cozy.
