Lähte

On a warm Sunday afternoon, we decided to cool off by going for a swim. We did not want to go to the heavily trodden swimming locations; we wanted to have the quite of a Sunday evening all to ourselves. We asked my brother a BMW 3er nomad to suggest a secluded and serene location. It turned out that he had heard of just such a place and he himself wanted a drench down.

We agreed to meet at Lähte, a small borough in Tartu County, at 17th kilometer mark from Tartu town. Even though Lähte is etched in my memory as, I did one year of my schooling at the Lähte High school I could not figure out where this little lake was. Well, no wonder I did not know where the lake was, it was a secluded lake hardly frequented by anyone other than the locals.

To my amazement, the road, which leads to the lake, passed jus a few hundred meters away from my old school. We parked our cars and walked a few yards toward the lush green cove of tall trees, and amidst this verdant greenery was a small and welcoming lake reflecting the surrounding like a huge mirror on the ground. The bank of the lake was surrounded by luxuriant growth, interrupted with a few sandy openings, probably made by the locals, to enjoy an undisturbed outing by the lake.

Upon arrival, most of the sandy banks were occupied, but fortunately, one was very soon abandoned by a young couple lost in each other oblivious to the surrounding on-goings. We soon settled down and hastily made into the water for a much-needed respite from the afternoon sun. The very instant our bodies hit the water, the water seemed almost near-freezing, but it was just what we needed to escape from the sun glaring down at us. We soon acclimatized ourselves to the water, which was a pleasant 27-degree Celsius.

We spent a couple of hours frolicking. We had to cease our fun and games and haul ourselves onto the bank as hunger began to send subliminal messaging to our brains collectively. We dried ourselves up and had our first picnic of the summer amidst a tranquil and serene setting. As we rested after satisfying our hunger pangs, a family arrived with a young German Shepard to our location, soon followed by a group of youngsters with an even younger Wolfhound and all hell broke loose when the dogs began to have a go at each other abruptly disturbing the quiet and peace of the place. Yet, we left the place with our minds at ease and cheerful.