No 30003
Military heritage
Military heritage Latvia, Kurzeme

Kolka: Coast guard post

The work of a botanist on the seashore

I ended up feeling sorry for the guy, because I kept going up into the dunes to count plants. He couldn’t know whether I was going there for personal or scientific reasons, and that created some discomfort for him.
Fishermen in Mazirbe were not allowed to go fishing. Locals were not allowed to go swimming. Everyone had to carry documents which could be inspected several times in a single day. I’m a botanist, and I was “caught” on the beach several times while I was doing my work. Once the director of the Slītere National Park reached official agreement with the Border Guard to allow me to walk the beach from Saunags to Mazirbe. A border guard with a Kalashnikov accompanied me. There were portable telephone sets at that time with phone boxes all along the beach, and he stopped at each one to report something or another to headquarters. I ended up feeling sorry for the guy, because I kept going up into the dunes to count plants. He couldn’t know whether I was going there for personal or scientific reasons, and that created some discomfort for him. I wasn’t allowed to take any photographs. Looking back, I can say that it was quite funny. We didn’t conflict with the military, we did our work, and they did theirs. There was a border guard facility on the corner of the Kolka-Ventspils and Mazirbe roads. The border guards usually went there when a bus was approaching. The place where I live now used to be a firing range, and the land is full of bullet casings. I’ve been told that there were once plans to create a helicopter landing site here.
Tourism objects involved in this story
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The Cape of Kolka is freely accessible to local residents and tourists today, but the border guard facility still serves its purposes and is not open to civilians.