After a very peaceful nights rest we awoke on the banks of the Gauja River in Sigulda.
With the weather being so good and such a good location, we decided to go for a run down the river through the forest. Looking at the tourist map there was a track that went about 4km down to the next bridge and you could come back up the other side, finishing right near the bridge across from where the van was parked.
We set off in the humid weather and it was a great run down the track running along side the river. As we crossed to the other side of the river, the track started to climb up a fairly steep hill and into more dense forest. Claire and I took different routes, with me keeping close to the river, while she went up higher and ran along the ridgeline.
After meeting back at the van, it sounded like her route was smarter but longer, as she did not have to contend with a number of huge bog holes and a constant plague of mosquitoes. In the end, we covered about 10km and were dripping, so it was well worth it.
With the days exercise out of the way, we headed to the Sigulda Bobsled track, which was the main reason for us being in the town. The track was an official Olympic sized track and used by many countries during winter and summer for training due to the size and complexity.
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| One of the old school winter bobsleds outside the Sigulda sledding track. |
Our guidebook had said it was possible to ride the track in a summer sled (i.e. one with wheels) on weekends. As it was a weekday we enquired the day earlier and the man behind the desk said there was a slot at 12:40pm the next day, which turned out to be just behind a group of people doing some sort of corporate team building exercise
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| The group before us just about to head down the track. |
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| Slowly going into the first corner. Things got faster and faster from there, with the sled going horizontal on the final 3 corners. |
Once the corporates had gone down, we got our chance to don the hair net and helmet and jump into the summer bobsled. After watching the previous groups go down, it didn’t look like the sled went all that fast with it’s rubber wheels so we weren’t expecting too much and climbed in the tiny little metal machine with our driver in the front, Claire in the middle and myself down back.
It was a pretty tight squeeze into the sled and one of the staff gave us a quick safety briefing – i.e. keep your limbs inside the sled, keep your neck stiff, don’t lean back etc. and we were pushed on our way down the track.
As expected, things started off pretty tame with our rather large rubber wheels but then got dramatically faster. The advice about keeping the old neck stiff was welcome as we started to build a fair amount of speed and be flung around steeper and steeper corners.
By the time we got to the last two or three corners we were doing some serious speed and really getting whipped through the corners. It was quite funny sitting right at the back as I got to see the driver’s head and Claire’s head bobbing around (as was mine) like you see on replays at the Olympics.
In the end we did the track in about 1 minute, while if you do the winter version you cover the track in about 45 seconds, which is a huge difference considering how fast we felt going down the track in a summer sled. Definitely one to do next time in winter I think!
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| Claire with the Summer sled after our spin down the track. |
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| Standing at the top of the track looking down at the finish line - only 1 minute away. |
Now with all the activity of the morning and afternoon you would think we would take a bit of a rest, but no we had lined up a tour of an ex-Soviet bunker for the afternoon as they were running an English tour.
When you think of a bunker, you would probably imagine something no bigger than the size of your typical garden shed or garage? In this instance the Soviet bunker was built to protect the leading government officials of the day (i.e. Gorbachav) incase of nuclear attack and was housed under a fully functioning rehabilitation centre. The bunker was run by over 200 individuals and it was built to be self sufficient for a period of 3 months, which was believed to be enough time to safely leave the bunker to assess damage and whether there was any chance of life being able to be sustained above ground.
The bunkers equipment, furniture and layout are still in original condition, as its existence and location was only released by the Russian government in 2004.
Our tour group ended up being myself, Claire and the tour guide, so we got a really good insight into how things worked and far greater access to the facility and exhibits.
The first room we viewed was the communications room, which housed all the original telephony and telegraphic equipment used during the day. It wasn’t the most advanced equipment as it was designed to be able to be repaired by a large amount of people, rather than just a select number with specific skills. Our guide also explained that none of the people on site were allowed to speak to family or friends outside the compound, although with a bit of bribery currency (i.e. Vodka & Cigarettes) you could convince the operator to patch you through to people on the other side.
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| The communications room in the Soviet Bunker. |
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| Teletype machines, which are still used today by many banks as they are a highly secure way of passing information, as it cannot be intercepted or altered. |
Our next room was the conference room, which had a large statue of Lenin as it’s centre piece and map of Latvia on the wall, outlining the separate regions and locations of other similar bunkers. This room was used for important strategic meetings with senior government officials. Our tour guide was kind enough to let us take a seat at the boardroom table and also take a photo of us with Lenin’s figurehead.
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| Everyone, I have an important an important question to ask - where did we find this amazing lino and why is the scotch bottle empty? |
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| Old mate Lenin in the conference room. |
Moving on, we visited one of the most interesting rooms, which was the ‘Map’ room – literally a large room wall to wall with maps of Russia and Latvia showing specific points of interest and other bunkers. There was also large maps of Western targets such as the United Kingdom and U.S.A. We were not allowed to take photos in this room due to the confidentiality of the maps, although our guide did say that you could Google many of them on the Internet and get them in detail.
From the map room, we were taken into the Secretary of States office, which was basically the man second in charge of the country. Our guide explained that the Secretary of State never visited the bunker, but he had written a letter inviting him for a free tour if he so wished in the future. This room was the most elaborately decorated and regal of all the rooms and in the corner stood a picture of Gorbachev and some newspapers – all originals from the 1980’s.
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| Original newspapers and calendar from the 1980's. If you zoom in on the clipping in the middle you can see the McDonalds icon. Our guide said that it was an article about the balance between Socialism and Capitalism. |
Not having any other members on the tour, he allowed us to take a seat at the Secretary of States desk and explained that the red phone in the corner had a direct line to Moscow (which had since been disconnected). Nonetheless, it was the Red Phone and got you straight to Gorbachev!
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| The Secretary of State office and one State Secretary looking very serious. After all the red phone goes straight to the Kremlin. |
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| Original gas mask. The soviets had manufactured 50,000 of these for the bunker alone and they could be purchased at the front desk for about £4. |
There were albums by Diana Ross, ABBA and a bunch of Russian artists that we did not recognise. Our guide explained artists like ABBA were acceptable, as they did not pose any threat to communism, as did black artists while groups like The Beatles or Rolling Stones were forbidden. As a little business on the side, the rehabilitation centre (who managed the bunker) allowed groups to hire out the Recreation Room for parties and functions, complete with gas masks and original vinyl records!
Our final room was the cafeteria, which still sported dated table clothes, vinyl chairs and fake flowers – a significant icon of Soviet times. It was so interesting to see how basic and functional everything was and our guide explained that they still served meals in there on weekends for paying guests. There was a large amount of disappointment in his voice as he explained that they could not cook in the original kitchen as a result of moving into the European Union and its strict health regulations.
As we left the cafeteria we walked past the restrooms and rounded a corner to where we originally started. Our guide gave us a few more details on the bunker and then bid us farewell, moving us on up the 9m-stair case to the surface.
After the two hours or so touring around the bunker, I can truly say that it was one of the most fascinating things I have ever seen and had the U.S. or U.S.S.R. put the finger on the button, the Russians would have been far more prepared.
Once we returned back to our van that evening, there were a large amount of cars parked near our wild camp spot. Luckily we had ridden the motorbike out to the bunker so didn’t lose our position, but it was strange seeing all the cars vying for a spot near the river. We didn’t take much more notice of it until more cars came down and people got out and headed towards the bridge.
Not wanting to miss out on anything, we put dinner on hold and went to see what all the commotion was about. As we rounded the corner there was about 30 – 40 people all waiting on the bridge and more cars trying to get parked on the side of the road. It finally triggered as to what they were waiting for, when the cable car slowly appeared overhead – Bungee Jump!
The people must have been friends and family of those in the cable car about to leap out. Although the jump was relatively small at 43 metres we hung around to see how the people would fair. A few of them must of done it before, as you didn’t hear a peep out of them while there were a couple of ladies that screamed for their life, which was quite entertaining.
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| 3, 2, 1 Bungee! |
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