Lake Baikal July 16, 2006
We get up around 6am as we are scheduled to arrive in Irkutsk at 8am and we want to be able to clean up a little before we get off the train. We are met by our guide at the station. There are actually two ladies that met us, Tatiana and Svetta. One speaks English the other doesn’t. They are both very helpful and lead us to a mini-van where we load the luggage and head for the town. We give Lilly, our Finnish friend from the train, a ride to a bridge and then our paths part. She has been a nice traveling companion and we wish her well.
We drive through Irkutsk and then head for Lake Baikal where we will stay at a guest house in the village of Listvyanka, called the Nataly Guest House. It’s a nice place that has a shared bathroom and shower. It looks to be new and is located at the edge of the village with a view of the forest that surrounds the lake.
Lake Baikal is a natural wonder (UNESCO site) and one that we didn’t really know about before making this trip. It is the largest lake on earth and contains 20% of the world’s fresh water. It is close to 400 miles long and as wide as 30 miles in places. It can reach depths of almost a mile, also making it the world’s deepest lake. The only population of fresh water seals in the world lives in the lake as well as fresh water shrimp, sturgeon, grayling and numerous other species of fish. It is a beautiful area surrounded by dense forest in which roam bear, several species of deer, moose, wild cats, and other animals. When you get outside of the villages it is a wild and little-explored area.
Tatiana, our English speaking guide, takes us to the Lake Baikal Museum. They have several statistical displays that tell about the lake plus lots of stuffed animals. We move into another room where there are aquariums with the different fishes found in the lake and one large tank with two of the Baikal seals. Like all seals they are hard to resist and we spend several minutes watching them.
We leave the museum and walk down the lake shore where we decide to take a tour boat ride that crosses the mouth of the Angara River. There is an English speaking guide on the boat, but she often looks to Tatiana for help with words, although she is very entertaining. We enjoyed the hour long ride on the lake which is as smooth as glass today. The guide tells us we are very lucky because the lake can be quite rough.
The 45 minute walk back to the guest house takes us through part of the village which is made up of a mixture of older wooden houses surrounded by flowering trees and wild flowers. People barbecuing, working on cars, and relaxing on this sunny Sunday afternoon gave us a feeling that we were a part of the everyday life here.
Back at the guest house we have the much hated chore of laundry waiting for us. It’s been five days since we have been able to do any laundry and we have a rather large pile. The lady running the guest house is helpful after some interruptive help from Tatianna and she lets us use a tub upstairs and then a clothes line by their house.
Dinner was a salad of tomatoes, cucumbers and mayo, a great big bowl of soup with meat balls/potatoes/carrots topped with a huge dollop of sour cream plus a platter of cabbage stuffed with ground meat. My last adventure for the day was trying to order a beer. Tatiana had left by this time and our hosts do not speak any English. My first attempt got me two hard boiled eggs in a bowl. Time to get the Lonely Planet Guide and try again. This time she understood which netted me a beer and a lesson in Russian from our very helpful host. Holly, in the mean time, went to the sauna; yes, this little guest house in this little village on the edge of Lake Baikal has a sauna and a little tee-tiny indoor pool. Bake in sauna, dunk in freezing-cold pool, sauna, pool, etc. She came out a little pinker but happy.
Tomorrow we plan to continue our exploration of this area with Tatiana.
We drive through Irkutsk and then head for Lake Baikal where we will stay at a guest house in the village of Listvyanka, called the Nataly Guest House. It’s a nice place that has a shared bathroom and shower. It looks to be new and is located at the edge of the village with a view of the forest that surrounds the lake.
Lake Baikal is a natural wonder (UNESCO site) and one that we didn’t really know about before making this trip. It is the largest lake on earth and contains 20% of the world’s fresh water. It is close to 400 miles long and as wide as 30 miles in places. It can reach depths of almost a mile, also making it the world’s deepest lake. The only population of fresh water seals in the world lives in the lake as well as fresh water shrimp, sturgeon, grayling and numerous other species of fish. It is a beautiful area surrounded by dense forest in which roam bear, several species of deer, moose, wild cats, and other animals. When you get outside of the villages it is a wild and little-explored area.
Tatiana, our English speaking guide, takes us to the Lake Baikal Museum. They have several statistical displays that tell about the lake plus lots of stuffed animals. We move into another room where there are aquariums with the different fishes found in the lake and one large tank with two of the Baikal seals. Like all seals they are hard to resist and we spend several minutes watching them.
We leave the museum and walk down the lake shore where we decide to take a tour boat ride that crosses the mouth of the Angara River. There is an English speaking guide on the boat, but she often looks to Tatiana for help with words, although she is very entertaining. We enjoyed the hour long ride on the lake which is as smooth as glass today. The guide tells us we are very lucky because the lake can be quite rough.
The 45 minute walk back to the guest house takes us through part of the village which is made up of a mixture of older wooden houses surrounded by flowering trees and wild flowers. People barbecuing, working on cars, and relaxing on this sunny Sunday afternoon gave us a feeling that we were a part of the everyday life here.
Back at the guest house we have the much hated chore of laundry waiting for us. It’s been five days since we have been able to do any laundry and we have a rather large pile. The lady running the guest house is helpful after some interruptive help from Tatianna and she lets us use a tub upstairs and then a clothes line by their house.
Dinner was a salad of tomatoes, cucumbers and mayo, a great big bowl of soup with meat balls/potatoes/carrots topped with a huge dollop of sour cream plus a platter of cabbage stuffed with ground meat. My last adventure for the day was trying to order a beer. Tatiana had left by this time and our hosts do not speak any English. My first attempt got me two hard boiled eggs in a bowl. Time to get the Lonely Planet Guide and try again. This time she understood which netted me a beer and a lesson in Russian from our very helpful host. Holly, in the mean time, went to the sauna; yes, this little guest house in this little village on the edge of Lake Baikal has a sauna and a little tee-tiny indoor pool. Bake in sauna, dunk in freezing-cold pool, sauna, pool, etc. She came out a little pinker but happy.
Tomorrow we plan to continue our exploration of this area with Tatiana.
posted by Gary and Holly Davis @ 7:29 AM
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