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Ice Jeep Safaris, Season 2013

Tough March is now over – the month of best under-ice diving in the world, the month of BaikalTek’s ice jeep diving safaris at Olkhon and Maloe More. Safaris are over, but the dragon has not left yet. This year extremely cold March has prolonged winter not only in Moscow, Kiev and Warsaw, but also here at Baikal. Ice has not changed a bit (did not get less clear or smoothed out). Cracks and underwater ice constructions are not becoming less apparent, as it usually happens in the beginning of April. Moreover, new cracks and strains are forming, and old ones are getting deeper. This March the weather is brining surprises all over the northern hemisphere and Baikal is not an exception. For entire March we had snow, wind and relatively low temperatures. The spring is holding back. But all of this has not stopped us from holding a series of Ice Jeep Diving safaris. The popular program was not ruined by winds and snow, but they ‘put a cherry on top’ of each safari. Each year is special at Baikal as ice is unique, and even if you come for these safaris every year (as many of our friends do) you will never see same landscapes and always will be pleasantly surprised. That’s one of many beauties of our most popular program.

In total we had five safaris in March. Our guests were clubs OOPS (Moscow), Doctor Vodolaz (Omsk, Moscow), Diveacademy (Novosibirsk), a group of underwater photographers (Moscow), underwater photographer and head of company Santi Tomasz Stashura and his wife (Poland), Austrian artist, and Vera Dodokova, who among everything else also writes about diving.

Safari number 1 started on March 1^st. This was the first time when we tried to cross Baikal via route Olkhon – Ushkanii isles – Svyatoi Nos and back. Rest-stops and overnight stops was at meteorological station at Ushkanii Isles, where conditions are quite reasonable for such a remote place - warm clean house, clean soft beds. Cooking we’ve done ourselves, but as it’s said a trip cannot be without some challenges. Ushkanii and Svyatoi Nos pleasantly surprised with ice constructions two stories high. Baikal-crossing was done over ice hummocks, which posed some challenges for our cars, but jeeps managed just fine. Diving at cape Khoboi as usual brought beautiful ice landscapes. A magical place has a magical beauty. This was the first time this season that we saw nerpa under ice.

Safari number two followed the standard route for the season. Isle Elenka was our home-site, and ice-holes at Khoboi were the end-point of safari. We celebrated 8h of March, Women’s Day, by a dive with roses. Olga Kamenskaya captured underwater masterpieces this time with roses under water. The masterpieces of course were taken at Khoboi. There Dima Melamed also filmed unique ice figures.

Among the achievements of these two safaris one was that Olga Kamenskaya learned how to use side mount and now recommends it to all underwater photographers as convenient safe configuration for under ice photography.

Safari number 3 was unique because all its participants were underwater photographers. Sergey Shanin, Andrey Narchuk, Vitaly Volchenkov, Sergey Gurky, Denis Degtyarev, and Marina Kochetova as a cheerleader. These folks were joined by our friends from Hong Kong. Roma Doroshekon (another photographer) and Nikolay Andrianov, as well as BaikalTek’s own Katya Boyarintseva. We had not an easy task to bring photographers to different ice holes and makes sure everyone had a ‘model’. I think we’ve achieved our goal and have great photos to showcase on Sergey’s Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.526932837357842.1073741827.100001233909008&type=1 and Andrey’s live journal http://torchuck.livejournal.com/103750.html . Unique, under ice rotational photos were done for the first time, and of course each photo translates photographers’ unique view on Baikal. Some burlesque photos of under ice tiger shark and under ice manta were taken to put in shock Baikal’s limnologists. Nerpa also posed for our photographers. On the last day of a safari we had big snow storm, it lasted not long and was replaced by bright sun. During all this weather changes one of our participants commented, that any landscape photographer would pay a lot in order to be here at this moment, in the middle of Maloe more, at rock Elenka.

Safari number 4 was joined by a group of our dear friend Sasha Martynenko (Doktor Vodolaz). Sasha Martynenko taught course Ice Diver to Tatyana, Sergey and Ivan, who were lucky to get such training in this special place. Snow storms of the first and second day were not a distraction. And as a bonus for challenging conditions the group was joined at Khoboi by nerpa, who hasn’t left divers for quite some time.

The last safari number of 2013 season took place from 25^th to 29^th of March in usual friendly atmosphere. Underwater photographer Tomesz Stashura took great shots, which can be found on his Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151385037052879.1073741825.702402878&type=1 . All participants said that they hope to come back to Baikal. Tomek and Barbara are still deciding on when, Vera Dodokova will join Belyok (baby nerpa) program in April of 2014, and Dive academy will be back this summer for dive safari aboard Valery or Myth.

The regular sites for these safaris were Olkhon gates, rock Elenka and cape Khoboi. The ice was different from safari to safari, and these constant changes reconfirm Baikal reputation as best place for under-ice diving.

Our transportable banya was welcomed addition. Ice this year allowed putting it right by Khoboi on the northern end of Olkhon. Ice lunches were either brought in lunch boxes or cooked right there on fire in the middle of diving camp. Dinners were at Nikita Bencharov’s guest house – sagudai (raw omul), pozy (buryat style ravioli), bukhler, fish and huckleberry pies – all the delicacies of local cuisine were at our service. Additionally to our transportable banya, in the evening we could enjoy banya at Nikita’s place. Particularly helped by the fact that Nikita Bencharov just built a special separate complex for our diver’s needs with large all—glass common room, banya, toilets, living quarters, office, drying room and an equipment room. All these make evenings easy-going and relaxing.