Estonia has one of the top ten bogs in the world at Soomaa National Park. I knew I wanted to see it, but I also figured I’d need a guide. There’s a company that does guided tours there, but they don’t do them for solo travelers. Knowing that, Marko offered to go canoeing with me if I was already going to go! This was very kind of him and a win-win for us both, I think though obviously more of a win for me - he got a free canoe ride (though he paid in gas and time to get us both there!), and I paid less than it would have cost if I had even managed to join an existing tour (and as far as I know, there were no existing tours) and also received a personal guided tour from him.
We canoed for two hours down the river, which was really fun! (About six hours later, my arms were really feeling it as I’ve pretty exclusively been walking for workouts here.) After the canoeing, I successfully petitioned to do a short bog hike as I really, really, really wanted to see wild sundews.
The bog was beautiful. Folks here often call bogs “green deserts,” as they are hostile to quite a lot of life - but I thought Soomaa’s bogs were otherworldly and had a variety of plant species to admire, as well as insects and some small lizards. (Presumably there’s more fauna, but that’s what I saw!)
The wild sundews were present, as promised! Sundews are relatively small on the size hierarchy of plants, so to get good photos you want to get close. Marko took some pictures of me again; I usually travel solo, particularly when on research trips, so I really appreciate having some images documenting my work process!
