Tuletulemine. From Karuskose to Hiieaasa

I had been in Karuskose about a month before and discovered a real monster-dugout in a dugout shed. Back then I wondered if this beast can ever swim. It appeared that it was to be brought out today for its maiden trip. It took ten of us to carry it to the river. But then it seemed to behave in a very civilized manner. Ain sat into stem as a true gray-bearded skipper, Aivar was in stern as helmsman and six paddlers sat into the boat side by side. Altogether 8. Soomaa legends talk about haabjas that was able to carry 13. I do guess, Aasa (thats how the big boat was christened, after the daughter of Aivar) could take 13 people of lighter kind, too. So possibly we have the biggest-ever haabjas here. I cannot really imagine much bigger haabjas, or the aspen it would require for making.

Ain ordered a speed test and Aasa showed some serious power. It also proved stable and relatively maneuverable, though, of course, not comparably with lesser boats. But it was sitting more deep and that was a cause for some worry - we would soon encounter some rapids and nobody had a clue how Aasa would tolerate stones.

But first we had a stop at Meiekose bridge. We had reached from Viljandi county to Pärnu county and this was a cause for a ceremony, with som big shots attending. Rapids before the bridge were easier than a month before, when I had been sitting on a stone right here with a canoe. Now water was higher and stones were nowhere to be seen. We were now through the emptiest part of Soomaa and 7 km downstream from Karuskose we reached Riisa village. Ain was in party mood and was greeting everyone on the banks loudly. Everyone was greeting us back equally loudly. Except for few easy rapids day was eventless and easy. By the time we reached Saarisoo - home of Ain and Aivar, and also a place where I had made my Tarred Lightning 11 years ago - we had 17km of quite easy paddling behind. Here we had lunch and as we were once again ahead of our schedule nearly everyone went to sleep. Previous hard day was still in our bones.

We went only some 3 kilometers to Viira suspension bridge, but there were more rapids now and It started to look like I got a job for myself. First encounters with stones had created small cracks in thick boards of Aasa (luckily no leaks yet) and Ain asked me to do some scouting. I was more maneuverable with my paddles and had some basic river-reading skills, so I took a position ahead of Aasa and became their early-warning-system and pathfinder. Everything went smooth, paddling became a lot more fun.

At Viira bridge we had another break where everyone prepared for festive entry to Hiieaasa - ancient holy grove, now party place of Jõesuu village. Fire-babe and fire-guy changed into nice national costumes, rest of us laid around, Lauri found bunch of local kids to chat and had fun on a high suspension bridge.

Finally we paddled final three kilometers to Hiieaasa. Many people had gathered, there was fire ceremony, theater and Kinobuss was showing old documentaries about Song Festival. We had short sauna but soon drove off to school where we had a dinner and lodging in a dorm. Sauna was exceptional and i was hoping to back there and then get to bed - I was really feeling that those long days were now squeezing me empty.

That was not to be, this time. All of a sudden appeared Liisa, blond angel responsible for getting our blog and pictures up for a national newspaper on a daily basis and asked if anyone knows where Aivar lives. Aivar and Ain had left already and it was pretty obvious they would be sleeping. But now Liisa need pictures Aivar had taken during the day. Incautiously I told i had been there 11 years ago and next I discovered my self in her car, driving back to Saarisoo. Bye sauna and early sleep. We found that Aivar was as happy to help as I was. Lovely smile is a terrible weapon... And when I finally crawled to my room Liisa was still picking and uploading pictures in a living room.