Kolga Bay is shallow and full of boulders, which is how the whole Lahemaa coast looks if you ignore the trees. The name Lahemaa means the Land of Bays, and in 1971 this was declared the first national park in the Soviet Union, a minor miracle in an era that did not care much about protecting land from factories. It covers about seven hundred square kilometres of low coast, with pine forest, bogs, limestone cliffs, fishing villages and old manors strung together along a series of long, flat peninsulas that point out into the Gulf of Finland.
Kolga itself is a quiet village at the head of its bay, and the thing you notice first is the manor. Kolga Manor was the seat of the Stenbock family, Swedish-Baltic nobles who owned much of the land here in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Like many Estonian manors, it was nationalised after independence in 1919, then abused by the Soviets and left to decay. In recent years it has been restored and opened to visitors, and the grounds are pleasant for a walk. The bay beyond is dotted with small islands and reefs, and in spring it fills with migrating birds.
The riding along the coast is flat, quiet and green. Roads in Lahemaa run between pine woods and meadows, and often turn to gravel on the smaller routes toward the peninsulas. Corners are few and gentle, and the main pleasure is the sense of space and the long northern light, which in midsummer lingers until nearly midnight. You will see boulders everywhere, left by the last ice age: giant granite erratics sit in the fields and in the sea, some of them as big as a room. Take care on gravel, and watch for elk at dawn and dusk, which can be dangerous on the road.
Fuel is not on offer in the village. Loksa, about ten kilometres east, has a station and a supermarket, and Tallinn, about fifty kilometres west, has all you need. Estonian food tends to be hearty, with dark rye bread, smoked fish, soups and boiled potatoes, and the local cafés serve simple food with dill and sour cream.
Aim for a calm evening in June, when the bay is flat and the sky stays pale until bedtime.