Around 30 different wooden sculptures have been installed on the Strenči Gaujmala in honour of the rafters, so that memories of the difficult but common rafting trade in these places in the past are not lost. The annual Gauja Rafting Festival includes a wooden sculpture cutting competition, where new sculptures are created and later installed in the Wooden Sculpture Park, delighting visitors young and old.

Enjoy being outdoors, experience the splendour, diversity and variability of nature, and visit cultural and historical sites while walking along the Gauja Nature Trail. Along the trail you will see landscape features typical of old rivers, such as flooded islands, peculiar trees – the Drava oak, which bears witness to the oak farming, a fragment of an old cobbled road and the Strenči rapids, which are popular with boaters and other interested visitors. Watch the changing nature of the Gauja and, especially after the spring floods, realise the mighty power of the river.

The trail is marked in white with blue and yellow lines. One circle of the trail ~ 5km, the other circle ~ 7km.

Valmiera County Tourist Board photo archive