I became a fan of the bogs a long time ago. There are still some ancient, mysterious areas of land in Estonia that remind me of a fairy tale. Today we are going to Männikjärve bog in the Endla Nature Reserve in Jõgeva County. Come and join us!
To get to Männikjärve bog you have to drive to Tooma. The nature trail is circular, so starting from the car park in Tooma center, you can get back in about two to three hours. The Männikjärve bog trail is over seven kilometers long. The village of Tooma is special because it has been studying the weather and the bog for over a hundred years!
Every wetland is different and you always get a completely different experience
For me, bogs and mires mean natural mysticism and space, special light, colors and sounds, indescribable smell in the air, and, of course, a nice boardwalk. I wouldn’t be such a big bog lover if I had to drag out my rubber boots that have sunk into the bottomless bog water.
Every time I’ve been in a bog, I’ve thought there is no more beautiful landscape.
And every time I’ve been wrong …
Landscape resembles an oil painting by a talented artist!
The pines and the tiny bog islands …
Pine is the only tree that can grow in the bog
Some of the pines here are eighty years old! Because of the low humidity, they remain pine dwarfs. In addition to the greenish-brown peat bog, the marshland was decorated with the heady smell of bog-rosemary, leatherleaf, cloudberry, blueberry and cranberry stalks waiting for berries. Have you heard of plants such as pod-grass and white beak-sedge that grow in bogs? I hadn’t.
There are also some nice handrails on the boardwalk by the rather deep and inviting pools. There are over a hundred and twenty pools in the Männikjärve bog, and the boardwalk leads directly across some of them. This kind of journey was super fun and a bit spooky.
A zillion-dollar view from the observation tower
After a while of walking, we reached the observation tower. Which way to pose when the view is so beautiful in all directions it takes your breath away? 360 degrees all around an uninhabited swamp!
And here, besides finding a thermos in my backpack, I was able to enjoy such a beautiful view of nature that I understood why all these people didn’t want to come down from the tower in the first place.
Another thing you can say about this bog in the Endla Nature Reserve: it’s a very crowded place when the weather is nice. Very.
You can also hike the shorter, Männikjärve hiking trail
From the training trail in Männikjärve bog, you can also take the shorter trail around Männikjärve. You can also hike this trail, which is just over two kilometers long, in case you discover in Tooma car park that you’re not a great hiker after all.
You should be able to walk through the forest and around Lake Männikjärv in an hour. Lake Männikjärv, however, had soft shores, so even the dog didn’t want to go swimming.
I went hiking again with a familiar dog, a husky. The friendly dog seems to be a tireless wanderer, keeping his friends firmly on the right track and always on the move. It patiently waits for the lost photography addict to catch up, when necessary, with joyful jumps and licking her face with enthusiasm. The dog’s body language lets you know there is no such thing as tired!
Husky has accepted me into his pack (although he would probably happily join in with all passers-by and oncoming hikers) and this time we went into the Männikjärve bog as a foursome: the friend-dog in front and his three two-legged friends behind.
When and with whom are you going adventuring?
