Once feared as homes to spirits, Estonia’s bogs cover a fifth of the country and are vital to its culture and ecology. Today, travellers can explore them on guided bog-shoe treks.
At first, the heathery ground simply felt springy underfoot. But as we moved deeper into the Kõnnu Suursoo bog, it grew wetter and softer until my guide, Marilin Pehka, stopped and handed me a pair of curiously oversized plastic frames.
“We must put on the bog shoes now,” she said. “They spread your weight so you won’t sink.”
I strapped them on and stepped forward, feeling the earth shift beneath my feet. Black pools rippled between hummocks of russet moss as I moved around their perimeters – no longer on solid ground, but on spongy layers of peat. Spindly pines stood in silhouette against a deepening sky.
“Stop. Listen. Breathe,” Pehka said, pausing on a grassy tussock. I expected a bird call or the rustle of wind. There was only silence and a rich earthy smell perfumed with rosemary. She bent to pluck a sprig of greenery. “Labrador tea,” she said, pointing to clusters of white flowers renowned for their hallucinogenic properties, growing alongside blueberries and cloudberries. “Estonians have always foraged in the bogs. They are a place of rich pickings.”
To understand Estonia, you must understand its bogs. For centuries, bogs have been seen as bleak and forbidding, yet in Estonia they are central to national identity. They shape the landscape, sustain biodiversity and are now a focus of both conservation and tourism.
Kõnnu Suursoo is one of Estonia’s largest, covering around 25 sq km. I was walking here in summer, when dragonflies skimmed the dark, mirror-like pools and cotton grass swayed above clumps of peat moss. “In autumn the moss turns crimson,” said Pehka. “In winter the land sleeps under snow and ice, and in spring the bog breathes again with green shoots as cranes, storks and swallows begin to nest.”