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“Are you still British, or are you feeling Estonian yet?” asked Eda Veeroja, our smoke sauna guide and 60-something grandmother. “A bit Estonian,” we tentatively replied.
Welcome to Mooska Farm, a smoke sauna in southern Estonia, an hour south of Tartu, recognised for its important cultural heritage by Unesco. Wafting the warm air into our bodies is just one small part of Eda’s smoke sauna ritual that dates back hundreds of years – we’d already scrubbed ourselves with elder tree ash (the alkaline in the ash combats our naturally acidic sweat and acts as a natural soap, while elder is used to fuel the sauna), scampered into the still water of the peony-fringed pond, and rubbed the fragrant spring leaves all over our skin as Eda chanted ancient sauna salutations. As spa experiences go, it couldn’t be more earthy and invigorating, and I was totally sold.
Sitting in the sauna’s neighbouring stone hut after, sipping rhubarb tea and listening to Eda talk of the spiritual significance of sauna to Estonians over the centuries, it’s hard to think of a more liberating way to spend a girls’ weekend.
Estonia has changed dramatically since gaining its independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. One of just a handful of countries that can claim to have clean air, it’s also been named the most environmentally friendly country by the Yale-compiled Environmental Performance Index. It’s a wonderfully progressive country, very tech-savvy, and has a growing number of people keen to share its nature, its pagan-based traditions and life beyond Tallinn.
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Helen says there are no rules in her sauna as she guided us through her practice, involving steam delicately fragranced with ground elder leaves plus a finely ground salt and herb scrub she’s made herself. Leaping into the river after each sauna becomes surprisingly addictive, and a steady stream of fresh fruit and lemon spritzes kept us hydrated. There might not be any rules, but whatever Helen has done has a similarly invigorating effect as Eda had, and my shoulders end up significantly lower – and my smile broader – at the end of our session.
We weren’t just nourishing our bodies on this trip; our bellies and brains were getting taken care of too, and we enjoyed innovative seasonal dinners at both TOKO and the Michelin-recommended Holm restaurants in Tartu (the soup of locally caught fish with saffron rouille and garlic bread at the former is a hit). Tartu is this year’s European Capital of Culture, so between sauna sessions we caught a fashion show of Estonia’s up-and-coming designers and toured the street art.
No girls’ weekend away is complete without a swanky pad to stay in, and we saved the best until last. We drove up to the North Korvemaa nature reserve, 45 minutes east of Tallinn. In winter, it’s a hub of cross-country skiing, but in summer, it’s the gateway to a rich reserve of protected pine forests, bogs and rivers. Here, we met our nature guide, Marilin Pehka, and checked-in to one of the new Kuuse Houses, high-spec A-frame treehouses sleeping up to six people, all with their own saunas and cathedral-height open-plan kitchen and dining spaces.
Marilin runs and lives at the Small Lapland hostel, also within the reserve. Head of the Estonian Nature Tourism Association, her passion is sharing the surrounding nature, encouraging visitors to learn a little about the forest’s many medicinal plants, and running guided swims in the many inky lakes.
On our walk, raindrops fell through the high canopy, and I couldn’t imagine going from fully clothed, warm and dry on the lake’s shore to naked, cold and wet in the dark water. But there is something liberating about the camaraderie of a group of women, and with Marilin’s encouragement to scream and gasp as much as I needed to, I was quickly in the velvety water, up to my shoulders, rewarded when the clouds parted to reveal bright sunshine.
It had been a very female-focused long weekend, but on our last evening, we welcomed chef Ellery Powell, from Metsa restaurant, into the fold. The Brit moved to Estonia eight years ago and has embraced the country’s love of foraging and championing wild ingredients, which he uses to cook us a thoughtfully composed three-course meal. The delicious menu included a meadow salad with pickled quail eggs, wild boar smoked in apple-tree wood, and acorn and chestnut pancakes with fermented birch caramel and orange mascarpone.
To find out more, go to visitestonia.com
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