I had been planning this trip for some time. The obstacle had been the length of the day so far. The days are not very long yet, but the snow is on the ground and it adds light.

In fact, there were more places in the original plan, but a choice had to be made because I just wouldn’t make it to them all. For example, Porkuni, Simuna and Väike-Maarja were left out. I drove through the latter, but did not stop there.

Choosing the day was not an easy task this time. The main problem was snowfall and wind. Snow has been falling almost every day lately, so the trip had to be postponed a few times. Why didn’t I want to go when snowing? Because it is difficult to fly a drone with snow.

I studied the weather forecasts for a long time and thus selected the most suitable day. It wasn’t the perfect weather that day, but the choice was either that day or not to go at all. The weather was completely cloudy that day, the sunshine was nowhere to be seen. There was also some snowfall by the Äntu lakes, but it was not the kind that would have prevented the drone from flying.

The trip started in the morning from Tallinn. The road conditions were snowy. The major roads were relatively clean and could be driven normally.

Onboard camera video from Piibe highway.

 

The first destination was Vao fortress in Lääne-Virumaa. I approached it along Piibe road. I drove through Aegviidu, Jäneda, Ambla, Tamsalu and Väike-Maarja. After Ambla, the road conditions became quite bad already. The road was snowy and icy, so I didn’t dare drive fast. It took about 2 hours to drive from Tallinn to Vao.

In Vao I took pictures of the fortress and some outbuildings.

 

When the pictures of Vao were taken, I drove to the neighbours, i.e. to Kiltsi manor. I had plans to take pictures of the manor with a drone, and I did.

When the drone had flewn, I packed things up and started moving on towards the Äntu lakes. The road was very beautiful there, a row of snow-covered trees on both sides of the road. Great sight.

A small drive and I reached the lakes of Äntu. I parked the car in the parking lot, took photographing and camping equipment with me and set off. I walked there for about 2 hours, taking photos in the meantime. I didn’t go through the whole hiking trail because time was running out. Mainly I walked around 3 Äntu lakes (blue, green (also known as Vahejärv lake), and white). I took pictures with both camera and drone.

When I had seen all the places, I slowly started to move on. Had some lunch before the drive. The next destination was Koeru, but before that I drove by Emumäe. Unfortunately, the weather there was too cloudy to get anything properly captured.

From Emumäe I headed towards Koeru. The road there was very slippery and the drive was slow. But I got there. I parked my car in the parking lot next to the church and flew the drone there.

The day was slowly getting darker. Since I still wished to take pictures with drone in Aegviidu, it was time to set off. Piibe road was quite snow-free and the slipperiness did not disturb me. So I arrived in Aegviidu in time before it got dark. In Aegviidu, I flew the drone around the train station. One train had also settled in nicely at the station.

When the pictures had been taken in Aegviidu, I set on the way home. The drive home was already in considerable darkness. I got home about 18:00. Thus the trip had lasted about 9 hours.

---

• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MinuFotoretked
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/andres_piht_photography/

---