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| Listviyanka |
Excited to be heading into the Siberian countryside we jumped off the train in Irkutsk and headed straight for the village
of Listviyanka on the shores of Lake Baikal.
Unsure of exactly how to get from Irkutsk to the lake we gambled and
jumped on a trolley bus heading into the centre of town, having read we should
be able to catch a minibus from the central market. With a little luck and a friendly Russian who
kindly drew us a scribbled map we eventually found ourselves heading off at
breakneck speeds on icy roads out of the city.
Passing towering fir trees and wooden houses we ran alongside the Angara
River and its frozen inlets before Lake Baikal opened up in front of us… or at
least the first 100 metres of it that we could see through the heavy snow did! Arriving in the little village we began the
2 km walk up the hill along the snow covered road. By the time we reached our chalet Hannah had
nearly collapsed with exhaustion and I had nearly frozen to death! We were rewarded though with a beautiful log
cabin room and a balcony over looking the village and the lake below.
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| The fish market |
We soon headed
back down the lane towards the lake for lunch and as we reached the water front
an excitable local sold us two smoked fish (omul from the lake) and sent
us off into the restaurant behind his market stall to sit and eat. We ate our omul
with some Russian potato cake (imagine a scotch egg but with a mash potato
filling and a sweet bread crust – yes, it was shit) on a paper plate in the
near deserted restaurant wooden hut.
As the hut blared out Russian folk music that was accompanied by a flashing
disco light we felt as if we had arrived on the set of Phoenix Nights! Feeling
not entirely full we left and set off along the shore of Lake Baikal in search
of a second lunch. The facts about Lake
Baikal are mind blowing. It holds a
massive amount of water—approximately 20% of all the liquid freshwater reserves
on earth! If you were able to “pull the plug” on the lake it would take all the
water in all the Great Lakes to fill it again!
Although not the biggest by circumference it is the world’s deepest and
oldest lake, plunging to more than a mile below the water’s surface in some
areas. As we walked along its shore we
could not see the far side through the snow clouds and so after a second, more
successful lunch we headed back to the chalet to shelter and rest before our
big day of dog sledging.
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| Preparing for the off! |
Although breaking
our budget to go we could not visit Baikal without going through the forest on
a dog sled. We arrived at the centre
mid-morning where a local family breeds and races Kamchatka Husky dogs. They have nearly 60 dogs on site and the
noise was deafening (and a little intimidating) when the owner went out to set
up our sledges for the three hour tour into the woods. Expecting to be sat on the sledge we got a
shock when Hannah was placed at the back of the first sled, standing up whilst
the musher (what a job title!) sat down.
The sledge had barely been untied when it shot forward around the corner
of the hut and with a loud yelp Hannah had disappeared. I followed shortly after expecting to see her
in a heap but it took another 5 minutes before I saw her face plant into a snow
drift (much to my amusement – and of course deep concern for her well-being). The dogs can travel up to 50 km an hour but
soon slowed down (luckily as you are not strapped onto the runners) and we
travelled for about an hour. My experienced
musher, Nicholay, spoke no English but he pointed for me to tilt the sledge in
the right direction and shouted at the impeccably well trained dogs when he
wanted them to follow one of the tracks through the beautiful fir tree
forest. We were both exhausted from
trying to steer the sledge by the time we stopped for lunch and rested whilst
the instructors made a fire and cooked some Russian dumplings for lunch. The heavy snow had stopped by the time we had
eaten and our journey back allowed us to glimpse the imposing mountains on the
far side of the lake as the cloud rose.
We walked back from the centre gazing across the lake at the most
dramatic view of our trip across the immense lake. The mountains cascaded into the water from
all sides and were very sharp in the cold winter air. The scene grew more dramatic as the blanket
cloud turned orange and pink over the lake at sunset and we headed back to our
cabin having had one of the best days of our trip so far.
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| Sunset over the lake |
Before boarding
the train we headed back to Irkutsk for an afternoon to explore the city. Despite the previously mentioned flaws from
Yekaterinburg we discovered another line to follow around the city sites, which
by now consisted of the familiar statue of Lenin, Marx Avenue and monument to
Russian workers. The city cathedral had
been knocked down by the Soviets and replaced by a giant grey government
building but the huge frozen river through the city centre made up for the drab
looking city. As we dodged the falling
snow and ice falling from the sloping roofs the freezing temperatures began to
bite. In the end we were only able to last a few hours outside before heading back to the
hostel to spend our last evening in Russia before we crossed the following
morning into Mongolia.
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| The snowy beach at Lake Baikel |
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