Gathering bilberries
I timed my ninth visit to Latvia to co-incide with Ligo - Herbs Day (23rd June) and Jani (24th) the main summer festivals in which the entire population gets involved. In these traditions, the Latvians re-affirm their particular relationship with the land, something expressed even in people’s surnames - many of which are the names of animals or plants. They also have a lot of fun.
Medicinal plants gathered on Ligo are believed to be more potent on that day than any other. Indeed folk medicine is still widely practised not, this time for economy, but because the collective memory of how to use different plants properly remains alive and people get relief from their symptoms. At Ligo, we watched not only herbs being gathered but armfuls of other wild flowers from the fields - larkspur, spiked speedwell, maiden pink, various bellflowers and cornflowers. These wild plants - encouraged by the lack of inorganic fertilisers which foster rank weed growth - the insects they support and the predators that feed on them represent the sort of biodiversity that elaborate and often expensive management plans and compensation structures are devised to achieve in this country - at no financial cost. It’s hard not to wonder if the funding directed to say, black stork conservation in Belgium or white-backed woodpecker projects in Norway, would not be able to achieve much more in Latvia where there are core populations of these species - and so little money for conservation work.
What Latvia lacks in topographic drama, then, it makes up for in the wildness of its fields, forests and bogs. And this lack of relief is in part responsible for the fact that Latvia and Estonia have some of the most extensive and intact lowland raised bogs left in Europe; Teici, in eastern Latvia alone extends to 19 337 ha, dwarfing the fragmented scraps remaining in the UK.
I returned to Kemeri in July. We lounged on the boardwalk through the bog, watching the clouds colour up at sunset. No mosquitos or “dunduri” (cleggs, some of which are 35mm long...) here thank goodness; it’s too open. A female goldeneye scored a line of bright water as she scuttled across a bog pool the colour of stewed tea. Wood sandpipers voiced their concerns from stunted pines stooped by anaerobia. Deeper into the bog than it is possible to reach without webbed feet we heard the slightly metallic symphonics of a crane family, a sound that in the dead calm reverberated off the tall pines at the edge of the bog way behind us. Bilberry fingered, I pointed to three whimbrel that trilled overhead - perhaps early migrants moving south from their breeding grounds. On its last patrol before nightfall a dragonfly clattered past, a dry ancient sound from the Jurassic. To the high bugling of the cranes was then added a bass line as thunder rumbled like distant shed doors. Time to get back to the woods, back to the scents of the night and a final feast of sweet bilberries.
FURTHER INFORMATION
At least 6 months before you go: consider having the vaccination against tick-borne encephalitis. Many ticks are carriers of this serious condition and Lymes disease and are the only dangerous animals you are likely to encounter.
Getting there: No visa is required. British Airways operates flights to Riga out of Heathrow on Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Tuesday each week. If you wish to visit Estonia as well, cheap fares from Riga are available from Baltic Air. www.britishairways.com
Car hire from Budget, Hertz and Avis is available at the airport, although much cheaper deals can be struck out of Riga. Beware of the poor state of many roads and hire an appropriate vehicle. Observe speed limits carefully and if stopped, be prepared to pay the, by UK standards, modest fine directly to the traffic policeman.
Currency: It is not possible to buy Lats in the UK, but cash machines accepting credit cards are to be found even in quite small towns in the provinces. Books: there is very little in English available but the Bradt Travel Guide: Latvia is a good introduction
There are currently no companies in the UK offering wildlife holidays in Latvia.
Sites not to miss: Kurzeme province: Slitere National Park - beaches, migratory birds, pine forests; Kamparkalns - rolling country with lots of beavers; Lake Engures - water birds; Lake Pape - koniki wild horses; Zemgale province: Kemeri National Park- everything from black storks and white backed woodpeckers to lampreys and wolves; Vidzeme province: road from Berzkrogs to Madona - flower meadows and old rural architecture; Gauja National Park - number one place for autumn colours, with sandstone cliffs; River Salaca - outstanding flood plain meadows and sandstone cliffs; Latgale province: Lake Lubans and Idena - water bird and reedbeds; road between Aglona and Livani - sylvan idyll; Teici Nature Reserve - lowland raised bog of gigantic proportions Must eat: Karbonade; wild boar; pirags; quail’s eggs (farmed); Laima chocolate.
Must drink: Birch sap; mushroom tea; kvass; Rigas melnais balzams, Aldaris Zelta Gold beer.
