Estonia

Estonia offers an abundance of piece and nature. A third of the country consists of forrest. There are many lakes, a long, silent coastline with big and small, inhabited and uninhabited islands and wild animals in several national parks.

Area of Karula National Park

In the far south of Estonia, to the Latvian border, are the provincies Valgamaa and Võrumaa. The sledtours go through five communities within these two provinces. The area we cross is very sparcely populated and covers some 400 km².

Here nature rules. Its a landscape of small hills covered with forest, swamps and many rivers and lakes. Wild animals have their living space here. Moose, bears, wolves, lynxes, foxes, bevers and many birdspecies. The area of the Karula National Park is perfect for naturetourism, such as dogsledtours, kayakroutes over the "black rivir", fishing and hunting.

In and around the park are naturecampingplaces with simple facilities, with free use for everybody. These campingplaces are situated at beautiful places near a rivier of lake. On many places you can find informationsigns and the park offers mapped out bicycle- and hikingtrails.

Climate

For its northern location, Estonia has a surprising and almost magical climate with pronounced seasons. The winter is cold and snowy with long evenings by the fireplace.

Estonia lies on the border between marine- and continental climate. Especially during the winter this can lead to significant inconsistancies between the west coast, Tallin, the north coast and the eastern interior. Quite often the islands remain green with temperatures above zerro, and there is some wet snow in Tallin, while it freezes day and night and there is thick snow in the southeastern regions. The permanent snowcover inland at Karulas Wolftrail begins in December and can last up to April. On everage there is snow on 120 days, on 90 of them of very good quality. Temperatures fluctuate between -35 degrees and +3. When the cold from Russia reaches also the coastline the sea freezes and a road is made across the ice, so that the inhabitants of the islands can drive back and forth to the mainland by car.