White Around The World

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.

After several days sight seeing in both St Petersburg and Moscow getting on the trans-siberian train for a few days was a welcome break and a rest from the cities. It's a great way to travel, very relaxing sitting around all day watching the scenery gradually change as we travelled from Europe into Asia, reading and playing cards. So relaxing I've completly lost track of days and time, but I think I was on the train for 3 days, 4 nights. Travelling across into different timezones everyday (and not knowing where the chages occurred), but with the train and stations still running on Moscow time just got too complicated. This wasn't helped by the carriage attendents seeming to bring meals at random times of the day and never being quite sure whether it was suppossed to be breakfast, lunch or dinner. Instead of judging things by normal time I've been working on distance from Moscow instead, as beside the track there are posts marking every kilometer.

Arrived in Irkutsk, in Siberia (5185km from Moscow) this morning. It's a bigger city than what I was expecting and have just spent the day walking round it as everything seems to be closed on Monday. Heading off to a nearby place called Listvinyanka tomorrow to get out into the countryside for a few days treking.

So after the first few days away everything is going well and having a good time. Despite the majority of people speaking as much English as I speak Russian(which has improvedto at least 5 words now), everything has been suprisingly easy. Getting by using a combination of sign language and trying to read Russian. I've found that the best thing to do is try and translate the cyrilic into the normal alphabet and then with a bit of imagination you can make a guess about what it means.

Have spent a few days in St. Petersburg going to some of the main sights and just wandering around. Its an amazing city just to walk round,even outside the tourist areas all the buildings are unique and most of them were palaces at some point.

Last night got the overnight train to Moscow. Went for the third class budget option as it was a lot cheaper than both 2nd class or just a seat, but it was suprisingly good. Had a bed in a carriage with about 40 people but slept OK. I think all the weekends away with GUMC have been good training for being able to sleep anywhere.

Have spent the day walking round Moscow, seems quite different from St. Petersburg, with a lot of stereotypical communist tower blocks. Planning to go the Kremlin and Red Square tomorrow.