Lake Baikal

Hi all! So I kind of underestimated how long we were going to be on the train for. Turns out it was 4 nights. No matter though, I had a bloody good time. We spent most of it playing cards, drinking beer, and eating noodles and soup. As lame as that sounds it was excellent! Siberia from the train wasn’t the white barrenness I was expecting, though the new honcho told us that most of the villages and towns are there because of the train, and they just sprouted up from the amount of trade there. The babushkas were all very friendly, though some don’t seem to take much notice when you tell them you really don’t want a 5 foot stuffed animal! By Tuesday though, I was very happy to get off the train. The train itself is quite stuffy and too hot, and started to smell after a while of not being able to actually wash! We arrived in Irkutsk on the Tuesday morning around 5am Moscow time, which is 9am local time and 3am GMT. My body clock has readjusted now but I was feeling a bit of… train… lag?! Yeah train lag.

Irkutsk itself is nothing special, and there’s not a lot to see. The bus to Lake Baikal took around about an hour; everyone was basically asleep for it though. We stayed at the south west ridge of the lake and the view was absolutely stunning. Lake Baikal is biggest lake in the world by volume and even though it is spring, the majority of the lake is still frozen over. We were skidding on the lake, having snowball fights, and trying to play football (not a good idea!) for literally hours! It was so much fun. We stayed in a little cottage right next to the lake, and were given authentic Russian breakfast and dinners. I tried the local fish Omul, which only exists in the lake, it’s really nice. Yesterday I went husky sledding, and got my chance to drive the husky’s myself, they went a lot faster than I thought they would and at times I thought I was going to come off! Afterwards we went for a Banya. It’s a Russian tradition and many Russians go for a Banya once a week. It’s a very, very hot sauna where you go in once until you are dripping with sweat, come out for a bit, go back in until you are really out of any remote comfort, come out, then finally go in and get beaten with sticks and leaves. Once you come out again you are covered in freezing cold water. You then stop for a tea before dinner. It was brilliant and very refreshing.

Today we walked up the side of the mountain to the observatory where I saw possibly the most fantastic view of my life. I have tried taking pictures but because the lake is white, the mountains are white, and the sky is mostly white – the pictures don’t do it justice at all. We had fun coming back down through the forest. I stayed in front picking out some very fun routes to go down though. We then had some Omul and got the coach back to Irkutsk. I have the afternoon now to have some coffee and chill out until I get on the train for another 2 nights heading into Mongolia. I’m not too sure how likely it is that I’ll get on the internet in Mongolia but I’ll keep you updated when I can.

Hope you are all doing okay. Ian. x