This winter started with a sudden cold wave without snow which created perfect conditions for cross-country skating.
Such as this clear and thick (~10cm) ice on our pond:

The pond is a bit small though for serious skating so we headed for the bogs.

Since about 20% of Estonia is covered with wetlands we have lots of bogs to choose from. My partner happens to be a bog enthusiast so we tend to go to different ones too.

Bog pools are nice for skating for a couple of reasons. They are usually shallower than lakes so they tend to freeze faster. Secondly bog pools form interesting systems with lots of nooks, crannys and islands which might be a bit more interesting than skating on a big lake.

We started with a skating trip to Suru Suursoo with 360.ee on the afternoon of New Year’s Eve. There we skated on two different bog pool systems, Tallekesejärv and Suursoo umbjärv:

And here’s just a random picture of how nice the frozen bog looks like

Next day we went to Kõnnu järv which is located near our home. That one is more of a lake than bog pool:

And finally we went to Mukri soo where we skated on Lake Eidapere.

As you can see each successive picture has a bit more snow on it so it’s rather likely that by now there’s too much snow for skating. That’s really the only downside of cross country skating – the natural conditions suitable for it are present for a week or so per year and sometimes even less.