1836 – FIRST DAY OF THE FOURTH EXPEDITION

After a serious leg injury, Mārtiņš is going through rehabilitation and is happy to test Husquarna 701 in enduro conditions. At the old Ape motocross track Ikarus, from which many legendary Latvian riders have started their way to victory, we meet Matīss Karro, World Junior champion who is competing as a member of Honda team in the royal MX1 class. The season has not been a good one for him because of injuries, but Matīss is dedicated to get over this hard time and is optimistic about the future. While exploring the old bus, we come across an old helmet with Honda sticker which means that Matīss has to try it on. 

One of Matīss’ aims is to win Vaidavas cup, which he doesn’t have yet, but Mārtiņš has two. Alex circles the track and performs several stunts on the trampoline on which Jānis Kārkliņš achieved Latvian long jump record, he does several cool jumps, proving Husquarna 701 abilities as a sports bike.

Having warmed up in the track, we take off towards the border where the small Vaastse Roosa village is located. We are greeted by an Estonian man named Meelis Mottus and he has stories to tell about guerrilla groups that hid in underground entrenchments after World War II. In 1999, he founded a tourism attraction named Metsavenna Talu, which offers extreme tourism in the form of spending a night in the entrenchment. In the forties, men spent up to a decade and more hiding in entrenchments like these. Meelis Mottus father Harry Mottus became a guerrilla in 1940. He came out of the forest in 1954, after Stalin’s death, when the first deported people started to return from Siberia.