Engure is a quiet place on the Gulf of Riga, where the land is flat, the pine forests run right to the dunes and the water is shallow and cold. The village sits on a coast of pale sand and low dunes in western Latvia, with a long beach where you can walk for kilometres without meeting anyone, and behind it lies Lake Engure, a big, shallow, reed-fringed lake that is one of the most important bird habitats in the country. It is a protected nature park, with thousands of waterfowl, from ducks and grebes to cranes and swans, and in spring and autumn the migration brings clouds of birds.
This is the Kurzeme coast, and its history is wrapped up with fishing and the sea. Villages here were built by fishermen, whose boats were drawn up on the beach and whose nets were hung on poles to dry, and traces of the tradition survive in the little museums, smokehouses and boats on the shore. The smoked fish of this coast, flounder, herring and sprats, is excellent, and roadside stalls sell it still warm from the smoker. The Baltic Sea also produces amber, which washes up after storms, and local people hunt for it along the tideline.
The riding is easy and flat, with long straight roads running through pine forest, past farms and small villages, and the surface is generally decent, though some of the side roads are gravel. The scenery is gentle, a sea of green with the occasional church spire, and traffic is light except on summer weekends when Riga people come to the beaches. Be careful of elk and deer at dusk and dawn, since collisions are a real risk in Latvia, and watch for sandy patches on the road. The light is long in summer, and in June it barely gets dark at all.
The nearest larger town is Tukums, about twenty-two kilometres away, which has fuel stations, supermarkets and a pleasant old centre, and it is wise to fill there, since the villages on the coast have limited services. Engure itself has a shop, a cafe or two and guesthouses, though opening hours can be short outside the summer. Bring mosquito repellent in the warmer months, because the forest and the lake keep the insects well supplied.
The best time to come is in June or early September, when the weather is mild and the beaches are quiet. A swim in the Baltic is bracing, and the sunsets over the sea are long and gold.