On a busy Friday, overwhelmed with work and various other chores, I was scrambling to get things done, when suddenly at noon a friend and his kid appeared behind our door, hell-bent on heading outside.
The day was beautiful, sunny and warm. After a quick re-adjustment of my plans, I moved some of my work stuff and decided to end the week early, to clear my head and get that much needed fresh air and sun.
We headed to the Türisalu military base, also known as Keila-Joa rocket base, a perfect place for spending time outdoors and grab some photos. It's quite a large area with enough green around to make you feel good and give your feet some exercise.
I've visited this place before (head to the end of the post for links), and it seems the owner has started demolishing buildings and structures. Perhaps he is just being cautious not to have any deaths on his property - some of these structures are flimsy, with roofs collapsing and dangerous holes on every corner.
So this is the right time to capture some shots of what's remaining.
We parked the car right at the entrance and headed in.
Some people have been using this vast area as a dumping ground, leaving their trash in buildings, in bushes. With real dumping yards in every district and with the affordable prices, I don't really understand, why people leave their old trash in nature.
Right at the entrance, someone had left his lawnmower. We tried starting it, to mow the entire lawn of this place, but no dice unfortunately. There seemed to be a tad of petrol left though in it.
This is probably the first building you'll see if you approach from the same side.
It seems paintballers use one of the internal walls as a target practice :)
We climbed in straight to the second floor, using the mound right at the building. Mind your step or risk falling into one of these holes in the floor!
Old newspapers, dating back to 1990, are visible on some walls. With some walls barely standing, I'm surprised to see newspapers still there.
A look back outside revealed our path forward, right between what seemed to be 2 apartments block buildings. Nature is reclaiming everything around here, roads are being buried in grass, buildings overgrown with trees, there's green everywhere.
Heading down to the first floor, we reached what seemed to be a large room with a stage, perhaps this was the recreation building?
We didn't head to the lower levels, there was moisture, dirt, darkness and a bunch of smells coming from down there.
Instead we took the overgrown road between the apartment blocks.
Trees are growing in the left building, with roof collapsed and floors too. We checked out the one one the right, that one seemed more intact. For now.
Is there a single wall without a scribble or graffiti? I guess not.
There's a hole with roof access in the stairway hall, but no ladder. If these buildings were more solid, we'd have checked it out, but there's a bunch more places here to enjoy the view from.
On the right there used to be a building we used to climb atop, just last year. And a chimney with rusted and loose ladder rungs. Now there was only a pile of bricks and rubble. That's one casualty of a building right there.
But if you have sharp eyes, you can spot a family of foxes right at the top right corner of this building in front.
Tiny foxes visible in the distance, right in the middle of the photo
Hey, where's my chimney!?
Trees growing inside buildings here is now the norm. This place has been uninhabited for so long, nature is coming on from every corner.
Moving on, we came to another pile of rubble. Right here used to be a parade wall of sorts.
Circling around, we managed to get on the other side of the family of foxes, but they disappeared into some holes in the ground right as they noticed us. There seem to be a bunch of empty space beneath of our feet. Pipes, likely, sewage and so on. Perhaps tunnels, but but probably sewage pipes and such.
I wonder how old this tin can is. The bottom has not yet fallen off, so I'd say a decade or two at most?
We pushed forward to what seemed to be sort of garages, again, bunch of trash inside.
Old ripped gas masks; my buddy found a 7.62 cal bullet. I remember that a few years ago I found a 50 cal bullet here, there's probably a bunch of ammunition here still buried in dirt and under all this rubble.
Attention! Carbon monoxide! - the notice reads! Yeah, probably the garages and workshops.
A large fox guards this place.
We exited the area where most of the buildings were clustered and headed on to the larger area, with smaller buildings.
Meadows, hidden bunkers are what to expect here.
Nice slippery tire
There are bunkers hidden beside every one of these small hills. Garages, depots, storage sheds, one even had age old remains of train tracks, with concrete poured over them.
This sign says something about the 100th anniversary of the Komsomol and Lenin. I've forgotten all my Russian skills these days.
We checked some damp, dark and dangerous bunkers, grabbed a mandatory shot of this shoesole and headed towards the car. Enough for one day. There's a bunch more to discover but stomach's are growling so next time it is.
You can check out some of my older visits to this place, when there were more buildings standing.
Abandoned places Part I - The Town - May 5th, 2018
Abandoned places Part II - The Meadows - May 12th, 2018