🗁Added 103 photos to album Lithuania, Sept 2018.
A walk. I found a library, and the 6th Fort, and parts of Kaunas technical university campus.
I was bound for Kaunas Lagoon Regional Park. A giant reservoir some two hour walk from the city center surrounded by trees, trails, beaches and preserved areas. I angled my approach to arrive at yet another a historical fort by the water. Some of the trails on maps.me are not so functional in real life. I ended up following a railway track a little way, before coming upon construction work carving out a new highway. Recent rain meant the whole place was extremely muddy. I scuttled along grassy embankments as best I could and also got stuck in and covered with mud on a number of occasions, whilst passing digger drivers watched me with amusement. I found the fort, but not before getting lost in a bit of swamp, and climbed damp and rickety steps to get up and down the mound that remained.
I stopped for lunch on a small bit of beach, just in time for the skies to open and drop everything they had. I waited it out under the roots of a tree protruding from the side of a cliff. Watching and listening to giant raindrops spreading in waves across the vast surface of the water.
I wanted to track south, to reach the grounds of the Pazaisliui monastery, but to reach a trail I'd have to go back the way I came, through the muddy construction site. I didn't fancy that, especially not after a further downpour, so I decided to try following the coast around. This involved occasional undergrowth scrabbling or wet feet as the beach gave way to foliage but by and large worked out.
I found the monastery (which is closed to visitors on Mondays) and by then the sun was well and truly out. It's a great domed building, set in grounds of well kept parkland that anyone can use.
I headed back to town along the river, and then through Basanavicious park.
The day wrapped up with a well earned pizza roll from Mamma Pizza and a fight with a disappointing 'freak shake' from Holy Donut.
