Baltic Coastal Hiking trail - Little wave sea

At Cape Kolka, when turning towards the Gulf, you can clearly see the difference between the “Great Sea” and the “Little Sea”. The first 10 km of the Baltic Coastal Hiking Route lead through the coastal area of the Slītere National Park: first, past pine trees that are washed into the sea, past the building of a former fishing kolkhoz, a ship berth and Ēvaži Bluff which is surrounded by an unusually narrow sandy beach with overhanging black alders. The next section of the trail leading to Ģipka also has a narrow sandy beach with pools created by the rich springfens and the mouths of small streams that are shallow in summer. During Soviet times, the seacoast of the Slītere National Park was a closed territory for two reasons: it was a frontier zone and a nature reserve.

A sandy beach that is not too wide and has beautiful dunes and coastal pine forests stretches from Ģipka to Roja, but before reaching Roja it is overgrown with reeds. Conversely, the section between Roja and the Kaltene Church is one of the most extraordinary parts of the seashore of Latvia, where the coast is notched by small capes and coves with a very narrow beach. All over the coast, there are piles of boulders of different sizes with the green foliage of black alders hanging over them. In some places, the large gnarled root systems of the trees washed ashore rise before your eyes. In some places, an unpaved road goes right along the coast and a lot of former fishermen homesteads are aligned next to it.

A truly multifaceted section of the Baltic Coastal Hiking Route in terms of nature, cultural history and scenery. Near Kaltene village, the seashore is speckled with small coves with rocky beaches followed by a thickly overgrown coast where a narrow trail winds its way through reeds and lush vegetation. Further on, the seacoast covered in stones is only a couple of meters wide, in some places it has layers of clay, fields of reeds, in other places, it is carpeted with the algae washed ashore. Sandy beaches with shoals in the sea reappear between Valgalciems village and Mērsrags village. After passing Mērsrags village, the itinerary continues on a road, but when you reach the Lutheran church it turns towards the sea and goes through the coastal meadows as far as the center of Mērsrags village.

A forest trail surrounded by pine trees leads you from the center of the village to the beach. Next, the Baltic Coastal Hiking Route meanders between a rocky seacoast richly overgrown with reeds and other grasses on one side and wooded seaside dunes on the other side. In some places, the beach is paved with small round stones, in other places you can see grey dunes with a rich variety of plants. Near Bērzciems village, there are large coastal meadows with shoals appearing far away in the sea that are suited for birdwatching. Overgrown seacoast continues up to Abragciems village, while from Abragciems to Engure there is a beach.

At first, the Baltic Coastal Hiking Route winds through Engure village, then leads through a comparatively narrow beach on one side and beautiful woody seaside dunes on the other side reaching Plieņciems Dune after which the sandy beach becomes increasingly wider and large shoals appear in the sea. On the coast, overgrown bluffs equipped with stairs and plank-ways rise before your eyes and stretch as far as the road connecting Kolka and Tukums. You have to take into consideration that on warm summer days a lot of holidaymakers come here. The last third of the itinerary is located in Ķemeri National Park.