The Curonian Spit is a 60-mile-long sand dune peninsula that separates the Curonian Lagoon from the Baltic Sea. The southern end of the spit is in Kaliningrad Oblast, Russia, the northern end in Lithuania. It is a UNESCO World Heritage site shared by both countries.
On our full-day tour of the spit, 22 June, we headed south. We approached the border with Kaliningrad, gave it a look-see, and turned around. Visited a nearby beach, which offered a no-clothing-allowed section, and each of us stuck our feet in the Baltic.
After lunch back in Juodkrantė (“Blackbird”), Julia wanted to go for a swim. I didn’t. We split up, with her walking to a nearby beach and me driving back down south to the Parnidis Dune. When we met up later, Julia said she wouldn’t describe her time in the Baltic as a “swim.” It was more like a “workout.” The strength and frequency of the waves often made it difficult for her to stand and required lots of effort to stay up. My experience on the dune was much more placid.
Here’s video (2:36).
For many decades, perhaps a couple of centuries, grey herons nested on what locals call Heron Hill, near Juodkrantė. Within the last 45 years, though, the herons have been nearly supplanted by cormorants. There are now an estimated 2,000 cormorant pairs and 500 heron pairs in one of the largest bird colonies in Europe. Both species are protected so there has been no effort to counter the cormorants. As you’ll see in the video (1:50), the biggest impact of the birds has been on the trees.
Also nearby is the Hill of Witches. Once the focus of pagan rituals before Lithuania was converted to Catholicism, the hill is now festooned with wood carvings of figures from regional folklore, including many devils and witches. As the Curonian Spit has seen artists colonies develop, Lithuanian artists began carving the sculptures and placing them on the hill beginning in 1979. Here’s video (2:45).