Day 4 - Dvarci to Kozori (4km west of Rezekne)

34km (134km) - 8 hours 10 minutes - weather hot

It was Ziedonis' last day on the track today. We said farewell in the main street of Rezekne. Ziedonis caught the train to Riga and tomorrow will drive to Liepaja where he has a renovating job.
Ziedonis has been a great companion. The walking has been very tough but he never complains. Ziedonis completed 106km in the four days. We were able to have great conversations - the day-to-day stuff in Latvian, but when we turned to more esoteric subjects like the political relationship between Latvia and Belarus, Ziedonis would resort to English.
Ziedonis' spoken English is better than my spoken Latvian - my vocabulary is less and I tend to swallow the word endings. While we were talking, I thought it would be interesting to record a conversation and post it on the blog. I have the technology in my mobile but the moment has passed. Ziedonis has helped so much to get me on the road and to guide me through the first few days in the border country and rural Latgale.
My last contact with Ziedonis was a quick phone call from the train. He asked if I was all right and said something had happened to him in Rezekne which he would tell me about later. He should be just about back in Riga by now.
Not much to report about the day's walking. It was a road bash. The first part around Raznas lake was quiet and scenic. There must have been about six small cemeteries we passed around the lake, all in the narrow strip of land between the road and the
shoreline. This is not unusual - Nita's mother rests in a beautifully treed cemetery next to and overlooking the beach at Jurmala.

Ziedonis and I found the church at Zosna open. The woman (caretaker) inside told us that it was the church of St Michael and was the smallest Catholic church in Latvia. Latgale is largely Catholic. There are also small shrines in the remotest of places.
Our next section of road walking was mainly on a gravel road. As we got closer to Rezekne the traffic increased. Each vehicle (mainly trucks) which passed sent up clouds of dust. It was a relief to come to the bitumen sections which at least have wider and flatter shoulders.
I will leave the topic of how to cope with constant road walking to another blog. The next three days to Madona will mainly be a road bash.
At Rezekne, I went to a restaurant and had chicken and chips and vegies. I am a little restored, though the unrelieved heat on shadeless roads has taken its toll.

Rezekne is one of Latvia's largest cities, Ziedonis thought fifth or sixth. I went an extra km to again look at the famous statue of Mara, and take a photo.

Then through the backblocks, with directions from a couple of men who volunteered their services in both Latvian and Russian.
Tonight's accommodation, 'Kaleji' at Kozori was just a spot on the tourist map. I saw about twenty cars parked on a property and guessed it must be home. There was a wedding in progress. There is a large dam (lake?), with sweeping grassed areas.

My accommodation is a single room fisherman's cottage 20m from the water's edge. The toilet is about 100m away, in the bush. The hostess is Haide and she has been terrific. She only speaks in fast Latvian, and when in response to my query about where the toilet was, she kept on saying, 'it was in the bush', I didn't know what to expect. It was fine and a shower in the sauna building was most welcome.


Ziedonis had phoned ahead to enquire about clothes' washing. I now have clean socks and undies again. Now all I need is a sleep and a relatively easy day tomorrow.