On our first morning on Reunion Island, we set off to hike the trail leading us to view Cap Noir, a stunning mountain landscape. As we ascended, the scenery became increasingly breathtaking, and I couldn't wait to take my FPV drone out for a flight to 'surf' these magnificent mountain ridges and dive into the valleys below. This had been a dream of mine since we started planning our trip to Reunion Island.
We reached the viewing point, and after soaking in some of the views, I pulled out my drone, set it up, and off I went. Taking off and gaining altitude gave me an even better view of the landscape and revealed just how massive it was. The area was covered in steep ridges, dropping down hundreds of meters to the rivers at the bottom of the valleys. I was ecstatic to experience this dream come true.
Since FPV drone batteries only last a few minutes, I was soon headed back, landing safely. But that wasn't enough for me;
I put in the second battery and sent the drone for another round.
This time, I headed in a different direction, and as I reached my target location, I started diving down the ridge, riding it like a wave until, suddenly, nothing. The drone transmission cut out, and there I was, waiting for it to come back. It took about a minute, longer than usual, but when it finally did, I saw the problem—an eagle was attacking it!
I immediately started flying back, but the long interruption meant it would be a close call for the battery. Nevertheless, I pushed on, and as I came closer to home, I realised the battery was going to die, and the drone entered limp mode, making it even more difficult to fly because of the steep incline I faced to get back to our location at the top of the mountain.
All the while, I kept Maryke updated on the situation. As the battery reached 10%, I started counting down... 5... 4... 3... 2... 1... and it was gone!
My heart shattered. How could this happen? On our very first day! I was speechless, unsure what to do next. The terrain was vast and impossible to navigate without a path; I had little hope of retrieving the drone, even with the last GPS coordinates it transmitted.
Maryke and I had a quick chat and decided we at least needed to try to retrieve it. So, we hiked back to our van to retrieve the exact location from the laptop. It seemed to be close to one of the hiking paths, so we continued our search and hiked to where it was.
As we approached the exact location, I lost even more hope; the terrain was just absolutely impossible to navigate once you went off the path. On one side were steep drops, and on the other, steep ascents.
I decided to use my mini drone to scout the area. Even though it was only 15 meters from us, it was about 30 meters above us. The landscape had such a steep incline and was covered in so much greenery that I spent probably an hour looking for a way to reach the location. Eventually, I had to decide whether to risk my life or leave the drone.
As sad as it was, I realised I had a choice to make. The options didn't involve retrieving my drone but rather how I would deal with this loss. Would I let this ruin our trip on the first day and be sad about it for the rest, even though I couldn’t change what happened? Or would I accept the loss, learn from it, grow from it, and overcome it to enjoy the rest of our trip, which we had looked forward to so much?
Every day, YOU have a choice. Lie down and feel sorry for yourself and your circumstances, or get up and take on the challenges you face to learn from them, grow from them, and overcome them. I chose to get up.
What is your choice?
Get up and face your challenges!
Lie down and quit...
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