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Lithuania: Road Trip - Lithuania, Day 9: Baltic Sea, Ventė Cape, Boat Trip on Nemunas Delta and Raudonė Castle

Until 2002, women in Lithuania were required to undergo a gynaecological examination before receiving their driver's license to make sure they aren't suffering from any "female illnesses". Some medical officials still opposed changing the law, saying that certain gynaecological disorders could cause enough pain for a woman to pass out behind the wheel.

Since we were just a few steps away from the Baltic Sea, I decided to try the water. Temperatures outside were around 10 °C, but the water was warmer, it had around 18 °C, so I took a short swim. Nada almost joined me, while others remained back at the apartment. When we returned back it was time to leave. Our first stop was Ventė Cape in the Nemunas Delta, one of the first bird ringing stations in Europe still in operation, and was opened in 1929. We continued exploring Nemunas Delta with the boat and our last sightseeing stop was Raudonė Castle, before we went to bed in Marijampolė.

Previous day of our road trip to Lithuania: Day 8, Day 7, Day 6, Day 5, Day 4, Day 3, Day 2, Day 1.

Our previous road trips: Romania 2017, Ukraine 2018, Bulgaria 2019.

 

Through the pine forest to the sandy beach.

 

We couldn't decide if it was cold or warm.

Adriatic, Mediterranean, Black Sea, Atlantic, Pacific and now I also ticked the Baltic Sea.

The Baltic Sea is connected by artificial waterways to the White Sea via the White Sea-Baltic Canal and to the German Bight of the North Sea via the Kiel Canal.

Refreshment was successful.

Nada and Tuši finally at the seaside.

Greetings for our van "Dizlca".

Sunrise and time to move on.

Ventė Cape - Ventės ragas was our first stop of the day.

We climbed to an 11-metre-high lighthouse, built in 1852 during the Prussian period. From there we had a good look at the Curonian Lagoon.

The cape is known as a resting place for birds during their migration, particularly in autumn.

 

On our way back to the ground level.

Towards the end of the cape.

Dizlca passengers: Maja, Tadej, Ana, Rok, Tuši and Nada.

Ventė Cape is an ideal geographical location for catching and ringing birds. The eastern cost of the Baltic Sea includes one of the largest bird migration routes. It is one of the most mysterious, unexplained and gripping phenomena of nature. Every year in the spring and autumn, millions of birds fly above the country while travelling to or from their native lands together with their young. In September-October, there are often days when more than 3 million birds fly over the Lithuanian seaside near Klaipėda in a single day, of which 70-80 percent turn towards the Curonian Spit and 20-30 percent continue their journey across the eastern coast of the Curonian Lagoon towards the Ventė Cape.

In Rusnė we hired a boat with a one man crew.

 

Smoked fish for starving sailors.

 

Since we were on official international trip near the Russian boarder, we had to wear uniforms.

Captain Tuši and sailor Nada.

On our boat trip we explored a little bit of the Nemunas Delta. Our crew visited 5 rivers, Neman, Atmata, Skirvytė, Pakalnė and Šyša.

Happy sailors.

 

Since we were on the boarder with Russia's Kaliningrad Oblast, we had to hang a flag.

Rusnė town and Rusnė island is very popular place for angling, as Nemunas delta is rich in various kinds of fish.

 

View to Russian coast.

We soon became familiar with the Russian language, as this was the best way to communicate with our guide.

 

A good sailor shouldn't be thirsty.

One of four main distributaries is Skirvytė river, that is also the boarder river, so we could at least took a few pictures of Kaliningrad Oblast.

As you can see, our pirate flag didn't attract any Russians, so we decided to explore another distributary, Pakalnė.

Air attack.

From Atmata distributary we navigated to the Šyša river.

The Nemunas Delta wetlands are considered globally significant and are protected under the Ramsar Convention. To safeguard the delta's wildlife and facilitate research, the Nemunas Delta Regional Park was created in 1992. It covers 239.5 km² and consists of 14 reserves and one water reservoir.

The delta undergoes annual flooding, but the greatest threats to its integrity are posed by pollution, agriculture, the fishing industry, and tourism.

We parked our boat straight into the tall grass and after another explanation in Russian we started retuning back to our home port.

Flood management.

 

We successfully finished our boat trip and after a geocache we continued driving to our next destination.

 

Raudonė Castle is a residential castle of the 19th century in Raudonė. Today it is used as a public school.

 

The castle has since been renovated couple times (in the 18th century by the Olendzki family), and today is an example of 19th century neo-Gothic architecture.

 

The castle is surrounded by an old park, in which rare trees grow: the silver fir, Swiss pine, grey walnut, lime with nine trunks, Gediminas Oak.

We entered the 35 m castle tower.

Ana and Rok.

View to the longest river in Lithuania, Nemunas, that flows past the castle.

Tuši and Nada.

 

The tower with the State flag of Lithuania.

 

Today we really loved the stairs leading into the towers.

I guess they still use it in school.

Monument for eternal memory of Soviet soldiers killed in 1941-1945.

  

It's been a while since we ate, so we tried something from the nearby inn.

Church of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in Raudonė.

Crossing The Nemunas, Nioman, Neman or Memel river in Jurbarkas.

Today's Dizlca driver was Tuši.

Live in the horror movie - one beer for the whole evening for 4 people. Lithuania is just not for people, who like to buy last minute beers. Stocks are highly recommended.

Road Trip - Lithuania, Day 9.

Geocaches found (all received a visit by trackable item "Filmmusik", TB7370F):

- The edge of the world, GC1EB24

- Peterso tilto liekanos (old bridge remains), GC87EXW

- Raudonės pilis(Raudonė Castle), GC5ZJJ4

- Raudonės Švč. Jėzaus Širdies bažnyčia, GC7CCD3

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