Yelnya bog for the young romantic ones

The flight on a balloon with the musicians to record their concert in the air above the unique wetland of Belarus.

How to attract the public attention to the wildest places of Belarus? How can young people of Belarus get interested in their natural heritage, and how can foreigners view our country in a new way?

I have always been concerned about all that - therefore I did not hesitate even a second when I received an offer to fly by a balloon together with a famous artist, and to record this flight on video.

The project was organized by the team of “COURSE: RA”. Their goal was to impress the public with the beauty of the Yelnya sanctuary, to draw people’s attention to the problem of swamps drainage, and to show that solving social problems is not necessarily a boring thing to do.

COURSE: RA produce the music videos of the shows given by the electronic musicians in picturesque places of the planet (and of Belarus, of course) in order to attract the public attention to important social and environmental problems and initiatives. COURSE:RA is a project of the team named “Collaboracia”.

The Yelnya performance will result in two videos: one will be an hour-long concert given by an electronic music artist Modd in a balloon. The second video will be a documentary one. Belarusian video production KROCK FILMS will shoot the pre-dawn reserve and tell about the uniqueness of this place, about the problem of the swamp draining, and about people who has restored it. The story will be presented in the form of motivational poetry written by Belarusian poet and co-founder of Collaboracia – by Yulia Kravchenko. The artwork will be read by the following participants of the project: musician Modd, director of the tourist project YelnyaTrip Denis Laguna, the representative of the project COURSE:RA, and by the travel blogger Leonid Pashkovsky.

On Sunday, August 24, all members of the crew gathered on the eco-barn "Yelnya of cranes", which temporarily became a headquarters of the event. All equipment had been prepared in advance, thus the artist could arrange a concert right on a hot air balloon! The most interesting route over the Yelnya bog had been suggested, in different points of this itinerary the video-operators with drones were supposed to stay waiting. However, the problem with the wind remained unresolved... It was solely depending on the wind where the balloon will go. Nevertheless, everybody were in hope that the forecasts will be acceptably accurate, and the results would be the best possible.

Monday, August 25, 3:00 am. The teams of operators are starting their way to get to the agreed places on the swamp. The main group with a balloon and the artist leaves at 3:30 am. We must reach the village of Buda at the southern edge of the Yelnya bog. According to all forecasts, the wind in the morning should be north – thus yesterday the optimal place of takeoff was determined.

Before turning to Buda the balloon pilot decides to play it safe. A column of cars stops on the road, the air probe rises up, and … drifting southwest.

It changes our plans drastically: we realize that we can’t start in Buda, because we will be taken by wind in a completely different direction, and Yelnya won’t even be visible..

We decide to keep driving, and to take off near the village of Yamno.

Yeah, it sounds great: "We make the decision to take off". But the reality was that you need to find a new safe place in the dark. So, where the balloon can rise up into the sky?

The decision takes some time, meanwhile the dawn becomes more and more soon…

It’s not enough for us just to prepare the balloon for the flight…

… But we also have to equip the work place for the musician!

Oh, the sun comes over the horizon... we're behind schedule!

Modd climbs into the basket and it turns out that the column is placed in a very uncomfortable way for him: it means, we need to redo the whole design.

There are some technical problems with sound as well.

But all problems are overcome, the pilot adds gas - and we take off…

We take off to feel the first disappointment: the wind has changed again!

Although the beauty around is really amazing.

Fog spreads over the land, the islands float through the swamp like huge ships.

The slender birches look like a weak army attempting to restrain the attack of a powerful enemy.

But only the wind is our main enemy for today! Rising a hundred meters, we immediately see that the balloon starts drifting away to the North-East. It means that we will only pass upon the edge of the Yelnya bog, and will not see the most interesting places.

But experiencing the swamp with the instrumental music is really unusual. I shoot photos and videos, but out of habit I keep thinking of how to solve the main problem. In general, so far we have a solution – we need to descend down to the ground. It turned out, that the air flows are absolutely different even on the height of a hundred meters! The wind above is North-East. But close to the ground the wind turns ninety degrees, and gives the balloon a chance to fly over the Yelnya Lake.

We get down to the tops of the pines - we are flying almost touching those.

The trees in the swamp are covered with cobwebs. That’s the first harbinger of the autumn coming soon.

At this background the music - as I feel it - acquires a completely new sound. Anyway, that's my personal perception, despite all the problems with the wind.

Guys “from the land” require us to map our position and to report them, when we’re about to pass the first control point. But we already know that we won’t be able to get there – however, there is a hope yet to approach Yelnya and Kurganistoye lakes.

But to do that we have to keep close to the ground…

Flying at a minimum height, I take the opportunity to shoot the cobwebs, but it's not the goal of this whole project - the balloon with all the equipment have been brought here not for that!

After crossing a small rivulet named Almanca which derives from the middle of the swamp, we keep moving in the direction of Yelnya Lake, but we fly slower and slower. Soon the movement of the wind almost stops near the ground. We realize that we won’t be able to reach Yelnya, and even more the Kurganistoye Lake.

We decide to rise up higher.

Over the Yelnya Lake we see a tiny rover, with the photographer waiting the musician Modd to get closer.

Alas, today we fail to fulfill the task…

We can see half of small lakes on Yelnya, but the wind carries the balloon to the East.

This kind of results is possible during the complex expeditions, and it is important to be prepared for that...

We’re flying over the "smiling" Yelnya bog, and we understand that to continue the project we’ll need a new photo and video expedition.

Because the islands on the lake Kurganistoye are the must for documentary movie about the Yelnya reserve.

The Ozeranki area with its ecological trail is also not to be missed – as well as many other interesting spots of the Republican sanctuary "Yelnya".

So all the work is still ahead!

Translated by M. Shaturin