Franco Banfi Photography

Albatros Top Boat.

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I’m in Ushuaia right now waiting to board the Polar Pioneer for the first expedition of the year that will bring me to Antarctica. Ushuaia is the southern-most city in the world, situated in Argentina this city is the harbour from where to sail to Antarctica, that lies 1000 Km far south.
I have to wait another couple of day before to leave Ushuaia. I decide together with Martin our dive guide for the Antarctica trip and 3 other guests to go diving to the Beagle Channel, the broad fjord that is the avenue to the Atlantic Ocean and infamous Drake Passage.
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I have added a new photo-gallery about Galapagos Islands on my website.
Galapagos Islands are included in the UNESCO Natural World Heritage Site.
If you want to see the gallery click here:
http://www.banfi.ch/page.php?area=7&pagina=30&search=Galapagos%20Islands&met=dest
I hope you’ll enjoy.

Sao Paulo airport is our port of entry. Here I meet Shawoen, Jiri and Jana : we will share our time, experiences and life style for 3 weeks. First destination Bonito, located close to the south border of Pantanal, well known for the enormous quantity of limestone. The natural beauties of Bonito include incredible clear rivers, where numerous fishes and plants have adapted to the environment – caverns with deep blue lakes – hundreds of waterfalls and much more. In Bonito we meet our guide Daniel, a nature photographer and expert biologist, who will lead us for the all trip. The most common activity is snorkelling and this is what we aim to do, together with shooting photograph. We start by visiting the Balneario, a place where the natives go during the weekend for swimming and bathing the sun. It seams not interesting but the place have clear water, plenty of fishes. The water temperature is 21°C. It’s winter season and so there are not many people, especially in the water. We then visit and snorkel the Baia Bonita, a spring hosting a multitude of fish Piraputanga. They are so many that we have almost to move them away for shooting a good image.

The bottom of the river is surrounded by amazing sub-aquatic vegetation making nice contrast with the blue of the water. In this river it is also possible to encounter caimans and anacondas. After few days of easy snorkelling we go for “rafting” at the Rio Formoso. The water is not so clear but it’s possible to use the scuba gear in some deep pools. There is a chance to see freshwater  sting-ray. We load the zodiac, descent the river and stop when the dive seems interesting. We definitively see and photograph the rays. Almost at the end of our descent, when everybody is relaxed, we see an anaconda on the river bank. You can imagine the excitement to find mask, fins and camera and jump in the water before it. Result: it is faster then us. Jiri and I have to swim hard to reach it and be able to shot only few pictures: the snake disappears along the river coast. With our great surprise, we find a second anaconda only few meters away from where we saw the first one. This time we are already in the water and we can see the big animal gliding in front of us. Some more few pictures and the animal disappear in a cloud of sand. No chance to find it anymore.

The next few days we continue to visit different rivers and springs: Aquario Natural, Rio Sucuri, Rio da Prata. We enjoy snorkelling and diving in crystal clear water, surrounded by shoals of fish. But the highlights of these days are caimans and a close encounters with an 8 m long green anaconda. The last day we snorkel and dive more than two hours with a big anaconda. We actually found 2 snakes but one disappears at the beginning ; so we follow the other one along the river and we photograph it from every side. That evening was time to pack and move to the next destination, but we found the time to celebrate our happy time in Bonito.

We then move to the northern part of the region, towards Nobres, in the savannas of Mato Grosso. Our goals are freshwater stingrays. We dive in the Triste River and the Saloba Lake. The Triste River is a small river with quite clear water : we find and photograph several stingrays, especially in the second part of the river. Next day we go to Saloba Lake in search of catfishes. I jump into the lake : everything is surrounded by a white-green light, the visibility is limited at 2-3 metres … difficult to find something. I follow our guide Jadilson, who points a couple of fishes in between the algae. I can see just the shape and as soon I go close they disappear. In the afternoon we change destination and we snorkel in another small spring, with incredible clear water, plenty of fishes of all shape and size.

Having found what we were looking for, Daniel suggests to us to spend the rest of the scheduled days in the area of the Pantanal. Next day we drive back to Cuiabá and Poconé to reach the Transpantaneira Road where we photograph Caimans, Capybara, South American Coati, several birds (Jabiru Stork, Hyacinth Macaw, Egret, Herons, Cormorants and many others.) We take a boat to navigate the Pixaim River with the aim to search for the Giant Otters, but instead of the otters we have an amazing encounter with two Brazilian Tapirs in the water.

Back to Cuiabá we flight to Manaus in the Amazon, where we arrive late at night. Next day, with a speed boat, we go through the Rio Negro to Acajatuba Lake. We spend the following three days at the Recanto do Boto to photograph the Pink Dolphins. The tea-like brew of silt and rotting vegetation falling in the river make the Botos appear to glow orange while they are actually grey and pink.  Time has come to leave Amazon and head back to the civilization, first to Manaus for a stop and the next day to S.Paolo and back to Europe.

The trip has been intense, plenty of situations, encounters with animals, adventures and we have had great photographic opportunities. It has been a good mixture of travel, diving, discovery culture, people and place. I’m already planning to go back next year, if somebody is interested let me know. To take full advantage of the different opportunities, I will lead only a small group of four people.

We gathered in Ruka village, few kilometres from Kuusamo Airport, our gateway to the frozen land. A thick carpet of snow covered everything, muffled sounds and brightened even our tired thoughts and our souls.
A boring day spent among airports and airplanes, carrying heavy luggage, finally ended in the cosy and warm Rantasipi Rukahovi hotel, in the heart of the Ruka ski resort.
We were six mates of five different nationalities, different life styles, different experiences, but we shared a common great wish : plunge in the dark and extremely cold water of the unique European Sea whose surface freezes during winter, the White Sea, mostly unknown to common people, a terra incognita for Western Europeans and Americans.
But before this, we challenged the snow-covered slopes of Finland and enjoyed a full day trip of sledge-dogs safari with Lauri, our mater musher. We spent the whole day in the wild, relishing the essence of Finland and the majesty of the breath taking sceneries over arctic wilderness, crowned with trees thickly covered in snow.

We headed to the husky farm where we were given a short lesson on how to handle the sledge and we made the teams. Well, let’s say that not everybody paid the necessary attention at the guide. During our rides we had some fun trying to avoid trees and to keep the sledges on the iced-tracks.
Being with the dogs out in the elements in this remote location made us so enthusiasts. When we stopped for a break, the dogs tucked in their tails and let the snow drift over them, over their clear-blue glances.
The following morning, we left Ruka and the hall of the hotel was plenty of heavy luggage. Pavel – our driver – and one of his friend, after having already driven several hours to join us, were waiting just in front of the hotel’s entrance, ready to turn about and to get again onto the white-ways. We slowly set off, anxious to reach our destination on time, before the darkness of the night made more difficult our journey to the small village of Nilmaguba, in the Kandalaksha bay.
When roads are in good conditions, the transfer lasts about seven hours ; unluckily our trip was conditioned by an unforeseen heavy snowfall and it took about nine hours to arrive to the village.
We were driven through a secondary road when a handful wooden cabins in the middle of nowhere appeared. We met all the staff of the diving centre and lodge and made the general plan of our activities. White Sea is a different and odd destination: distant from our society, from our customs and known sceneries, even from our imagination.
The day after we loaded the sledges with our gears and moved to the first diving-camp, about ten minutes ride from the lodge. The fresh snow fallen during the last hours – together with the rising of the temperature and the consequent melting of the upper part of the iced-tracks – made our ride more difficult.

The diving-camp appeared with some wooden huts built on skis (easy to move), with attractive wisps of smoke coming from their chimneys, unequivocal sign of heating. Our first day at the Arctic Circle diving centre started with a necessary theory session leaded by Katya – one of the instructors – on how to interpret the signals and handle the rope, hypothermia, safety measures, etc.
Until one hasn’t tried, nobody believes how it is difficult to walk a few steps in an iced and water-melting camp, dressing the dry-suit and carrying the scuba-gear. Luckily only few steps are necessary to move from the cabin to the mania, the iced-hole. The organization of the Arctic Circle and the skill of the team revealed to be indispensable. At the first impact with the frozen waters, some parts of the equipment of everybody clearly showed that ice-diving was not our everyday sport. Dry-suit not really dry, regulators freezing, weight and trim systems not properly calculated, stress … few annoying equipment failures that have been quickly solved with the experience of our guides. We slid through the hole and made our first dive in the neighbourhood of Cross Island. Mainas are fascinating: they are the portals between the white frozen land and the mysterious, dark marine environment. The fairy green water of White Sea welcomed us with its absolutely astonishing beauty.

Day run fast among preparations, dives, relax in the wooden-huts of the camp, chats with mates and the guides. Soon was time to return to the lodge and enjoy our first banja, a traditional Russian steam bath with a real wood-burning stove. Don’t worry because of doing a sauna after the short and shallow water dives at White Sea : in healthy divers, this does not cause decompression diseases or cardiovascular illness.
After a tasty and relaxing dinner, time came for our first session of the underwater photography workshop. This was organized in five encounters, during which I spoke about the problems of shooting good images in the difficult conditions of the White Sea and gave everybody some good tricks. Every lesson has been tailor made considering the diving-spots of the following day. Obviously the main problems were related to the lack of light and the cold.

Finally the day came that we got up with a dim sun hidden behind the haze. The weather seemed to change and temperatures to drop. This should allow us to go further without dangers and to dive the Bio Filter Bay, approximately 30 minutes skidoo ride across the sea to a rocky cliff face on the far side of the channel. We crossed the iced-sea without any problems and without thinking that we were travelling upon a column of water more than 50mt deep. A thick layer of solid ice floated upon the salted water and moved up and down, following tidal waves and underwater currents.
When we arrived at the dive camp, the huts were already heated and we found our underwater gear ready to be dressed. Even if the maina has been dug only half an hour before, the surface of the hole was already hidden by the shaken-ice.

We all did two dives and we enjoyed the view of the underwater iced-sculptures found under the ice platform.
At the end, we were tired but satisfied and happy to have put to the test our abilities. A shining sun welcomed us at the exit of the hole. Everything was shining and the snow reflected the rays of the sun with iridescent gleams.

During the evening, we made our plan for diving with the beluga whales the following day. In 2006, marine biologists from St. Petersburg’s department of Utrishsky Dolphins’ Aquarium decided to build a natural pool close to the Arctic Circle lodge and Nilmaguba village, to keep few belugas. One of the main aims of the project was to make a “place of retired or vacation” for the white whales sold on purpose of performing in dolphinariums. This artificial enclosure (bounded with nets) housed two belugas and Sasha, a trainer, took care of them. Being in the water with a marine mammal is different from any other experience. We knew the difference because we formerly have snorkelled with humpback whales or dolphins or the curious sea lions. When a marine mammal comes up to us and swims by, it looks us right in our eyes. They turn around to inspect us again and again, and I’m sure they’re trying to figure out what we are and where we came from. We can perceive that they are thinking.

We returned to the lodge and little by little we started to feel sad because we were almost on the point of leaving. We had only one day and the two latest dives, then we would have to wash and to package our equipment and return to our daily life. This experience at White Sea took up all our energy and we were deeply involved in every instant of this adventure ; it seemed really incredible that was already time to leave.
Last evening at the lodge we get all annoyed because we were told we had to get up a 2 a.m. for the transfer to Finland. Roads were in very bad conditions due to the snow fell in the latest days and we had to make the best of things. We went to our rooms and try to sleep a couple of hours. When we got up, temperature was minus 25 °C and nature was lit by a strange light; we supposed it was due to our tiredness …but White Sea kept by a great surprise for us.

Ela came very excited and called quietly, as if it would have been there a wild animal. We followed the girl and immediately our bad mood changed in a great excitement : a beautiful aurora borealis was performing in the sky dotted with stars, flashing with its greenish light the darkness of the Russian tundra. We were pervaded by the impulse of shooting this strange phenomenon. Everybody ran to catch his camera-body, set up lenses, manage ISO, f-stop, shutter-speed and try to find a steady support where to put the camera. Everybody held their breathes; it seemed a dream.

As all the beautiful dreams, it lasted few time because we all had to hurry up and catch the minibus in time for the departure. We said goodbye to our Russian’s mates and slowly made for the white and dirty road.

We all didn’t expect such a warm welcome in White Sea and we were positive touched of the skill, care, organization : we all found a seriously diving experience in a remote and beautiful corner of the world.
For these reasons, we all want to say a big and sincere “THANKS”  to Lauri, Katya, Ivan, Misha, Sasha, Sergei, Dmitrii, Ela and her mother, and all the Russian guys that worked for us and made our experience unforgettable. A special thanks to Marlynda from Waterproof Expeditions too, who organized such a special trip.

BYE – BYE