The fifth season
A spring flood across meadows and roads.
Monique Mich — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Ivar Leidus — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Ivar Leidus — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Marrx — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Ivo Kruusamägi — CC BY-SA 4.0
Soomaa National Park, whose name means land of bogs, protects 390 square kilometres of southwestern Estonia. Created in 1993 to safeguard raised bogs, floodplain grasslands, swamp forests and meandering rivers, it comes as close as anywhere to the country's untouched nature. Rivers of the Pärnu basin separate its mires, among them the Navesti, Halliste, Raudna and Lemmjõgi. The most notable is Kuresoo Bog, whose steep southern slope rises 8 m over just 100 m. It has been an Important Bird Area since 1989 and a Ramsar site since 1997, and in 2009 it joined the PAN Parks wilderness network as the largest intact peat bog system in Europe preserved as wilderness. On its eastern edge stand the highest dunes on the Estonian mainland, including the 12 m Ruunaraipe ridge. Its best-known phenomenon is the so-called fifth season, when rivers overflow in spring and flood meadows and roads, leaving trees standing in the water. In other seasons you walk boardwalks across the bog between dark pools and stunted pines, such as the one at Riisa Bog. People also paddle here, including in traditional dugout canoes. The park lies about 30.8 km from Pärnu and 38.5 km from Viljandi in a straight line. Roads may close during floods, so check first. Stay on the boardwalks, since the bog can be dangerous off them, and bring mosquito repellent in summer.
A spring flood across meadows and roads.
A wooden path among the bog pools.
A mire sloping towards the Lemmjõgi.
Pärnu and Viljandi counties, Estonia
A spring flood when rivers spill over meadows and roads, transforming the whole park.
It is not advised, since the bog can be dangerous away from them.