Gardai Esker Nature Trail

This 1 km walking trail runs along the Gardai esker, the largest and most impressive in Samogitia. It is a geomorphologically exceptional landform and one of the most distinctive in Lithuania. An esker is a long, narrow ridge made up mostly of sand and gravel. This ridge formed 12,000–13,000 years ago from sediments deposited inside the glacier, in channels of meltwater streams. The complex, crescent-shaped ridge stretches as far as 3.5 km north-west from the Varduva River. In places the Gardai esker rises 10–15 metres from its foot to the highest crests. In Soviet times there was a gravel pit here, and later an illegal rubbish dump. The landscape is dominated by open spaces with kame hills shaped like loaves of bread. Complex glacial and post-glacial processes created this undulating, picturesque mosaic of relief.