Siberia

Had a great time the last few days camping a t Lake Baikal, one of the biggest lakes in the world. It is huge, about as wide as the English Channel and 400 miles long, but apparently in Winter it still freexes enough to be able to drive cars across it.

Had a guide for this part of the trip, so met him in Listviyanka a small village at the southern end of the lake. Spent the day walking alomg costal tracks to the village of Bolshie Koty where we camped.
In the evening we did consider going swimming in the lake but the water must of been close to freezing, after just a few seconds it made your feet numb.

Our guide Valera was excellant as he had done a lot of field biology work in the area, so new about everything and spoke relativly good English, although we did have a few misunderstandings, like he carried a tent for us when we had one as well. He also carried all the food for the 3 days and cooked all the meals for us, normally while we just lay around on the beach. Could easily get used to that way of camping. Valera also turned out to be a Russian equivalent of Ray Mears, lighting fires, making great teas and soups from anything he found in the forest. The village where we camped was a small place only accessable by boat or on foot, there are only about 50 people that live there in the summer and nobody stays in winter.

The second day we walked further along the coast and then back to the village. In the evening we had a kind of Russian auna called a Banya, which was an experiance. It was basically a shed in an old womans garden. It had in it a stove surrounded in rocks that you poured boiling water over, it made the hottest sauna I've ever been in. Then, you were suppossed to hit yourself with bundles of birch tree branches soaked in either boiling water or cold water, well at least we think that was what the old woman was telling us to do. After that, the lake was certainly refreshing.

Yesterday we walked back to Listvinyanka by a more inland route over a mountain through the forest, which was a good contrast to the costal route. Apparently there are bears up there but unfortunately/luckily we didn't see any.

Back in Irkutsk today to get on the train for another couple of days until we reach Mongolia.