Lake Baikal - о́зеро Байка́л - Ozero Baykal - Байгал нуур - Baygal nuur

[mendeleyev]

Lake Baikal





Welcome to a very magical place! Lake Baikal is a holy place where pilgrims from remote parts of the world come to feel excitement and delight, fill the soul with elation.


Called "Shaman's Rock"


Local people have always been thrilled by the mystical power of the lake. For them it is not just 23 thousand cubic kilometers of water; they think it is alive, it is magician or a healer that should not be irritated or vexed. They never call Baikal a lake, it is a sea or an Old Man, or just "He."



 

Different nations that inhabited the shores of the lake used their own name for it. Chinese in their chronicles called it Tengis or Tengis-Dalai, Mongolians and Buryats called it Baigal-Dalai which could be interpreted as “big water”. Several scientists have attempted to locate a definitive origin to the name, Baikal. One of the most commonly accepted versions is that Baikal is a Turkic in origin and means reach lake, bai-reach, and kool-lake.
   
 

 
 
Baikal is the oldest lake of the world, its age it defined by the scientists as 25 million years. Lake’s usual life-time is 10—15 million years, after that period they get filled with sediment and disappear. Baikal does not have any of the features of aging. On the contrary, geophysicists think that Baikal is a very young ocean. Its banks extend for two centimeters each year.

At 1.637 meters, nearly a mile deep, it is without doubt the world’s deepest lake. Compared to the other lakes of the world, Lake Baikal is enormous. Baikal’s volume is greater than any other freshwater lake and makes up to approximately 20 percent of the world’s surface fresh water. Aquatic and animal life of the lake is varied, despite Baikal’s cold water and low winter’s temperatures, 2/3 out of 2635 known species are endemics.


Too cold?  Guess not! 


In December of 1996 Lake Baikal was designated by UNESCO as a world’s natural treasure.

[mendeleyev]

12 Hours
That's how long it takes to go by large/modern hydrofoil boat from one end of Lake Baikal to the other end, north to south. Weather permitting there are two such trips each day with several scheduled stops for fuel and picking up passengers.





It is home to the only variety of freshwater seals, called the "Nerpa" seal. Of the over 1700 types of animal life found in and around the Lake, two-thirds cannot be found anywhere else in the world.





Locals put crosses to stop Kremlin pipeline.


You can camp at hundreds of thousands of points along the Lake.  Safe?  Guess that depends on how you define safety. There are a few places where you can rent cabins. Also there is the  Derevenka Hotel in Listvyanka (Листвя́нка), a small village right on the lake. Its very beautiful, just what is needed after four days on the train - and 5,200 kilometers from Moscow. 


Road from Irkutsk to Baikal.


On the way to Listvyanka there is a place called Taltsi. This is the ethnographical museum with the stop at the 47th km of Baikalskaya highway. Taltsi is translated as 'spring'. A few kilometers from the highway, on the shore of the Angara river, there is a museum of Wooden Architecture. It consists of several exhibit areas which hold interesting ethnographical collections. The variety of Siberian wooden izbas, churches, living houses and Buryat wooden yurts were brought together from different parts of Siberia.








This region is served by the Trans Siberian Railway, and Irkutsk is the main hub and meeting place for Trans Mongolian line trains. So likely you'll approach the Lake by way of Listvyanka, and there is a local supermarket but the last time I heard it didn't take credit/debit cards so better have cash (Rubles) on hand. This is a little town without bankomat/ATM machines so you really do need to come prepared. There is a machine in the little supermarker that looks like a bankomat but it is some kind of loyalty card machine and dispenses no cash.


The Omul fish is salted, lightly smoked.


Omul are found only in Baikal, tasty!


In addition to some camping cabins which will be mentioned soon, you will run into small rural villages at frequent intervals.  One thing of which I must warn you--be prepared to see the kind of poverty which will break your heart.  As you stand at the side of a dirt path and realize while quietly watching an old Babushka milking a goat, that the goat in economic terms is her most valued investment. It is her persion plan, her 401-K, her stock portfolio, her rainy day emergency fund, and the source of nourishment for the grandchildren she raises because her son is an alcoholic, you may be tempted to break down and cry.


Back in town one couple, Natalia and Oleg rent their yard to campers.  You can pitch a tent and they'll supply water and an outhouse.  For a fee you can take a bath. The address is Bolshaya Rechka, ul. Truda 60. This is a tiny town of 1700  people so you'll find them soon enough!  Their neighbor Yuri and his wife Tanya are willing to rent a whole house to tourists. His address is Bolshaya Rechka, ul. Truda 58, telephone 145-521.

[mendeleyev]

How cold does it get in southern Siberia?

Well when the railroad was in the planning stages engineers first proposed running parts of the tracks across the lake.  Certain sections would only be operational during winter and when the freeze came each winter the idea was to lay down track and run trains over the ice.

I'm glad, really glad, they didn't go with that idea! However carving out a trainway along the steep mountains was a tremendous cost in human life at that time. Just the southern end of the lake required over 200 bridges and 33 tunnels for the train.

Finished in the early 1900's, the year around all weather train route has been a central part of the Siberian economy and the strongest link between European Russia and Asian Russia.





Rail Fact sheet
At 9,446 kilometers (5,869 miles) it is the world's longest continuous railroad.
Some stretches are the heaviest-used railway in the world.
Work on the line began in 1891. Most of it was built without any form of machinery.
- In some permafrost areas the ground had to be dynamited before rails could be laid.
- Work gangs suffered from floods, bubonic plague, extreme cold, cholera, landslides, anthrax, bandits and tigers.
- The line was completed at the bridge at Khabarovsk in 1916.
- By the time it was completed, entire sections had been rebuilt. Cost-cutting expedients such as cheap light-weight rails had led to frequent derailments.
- Even with cost-cutting, a trillion roubles had been spent to build it.
- Conversion to electricity began in 1927. Steam engines were finally retired only in 1987.
- Today's ChS4t locomotives weigh 126 tonnes and can travel 180 kph (112 mph).


Riders stretch at small station stop.


Someone damaged Buryat tribe worship site.


Gulls take a break.


Ferry takes cars across at narrow point.


Lovely cove.

[mendeleyev]

Camping and Fishing Lake Baikal





Fed by 336 rivers and streams including the Angara, Barguzin, Selenga, Turka and Snezhnaya, the lake holds fifty species of fish including bullhead, sturgeon and omul. The surrounded mountain rivers and small lakes are inhabited by taimen (Siberian sturgeon), kharius (grayling), lenok (Siberian trout) and many others.





Hydrofoil boat for distance and speed.


http://www.adventuretravel.ru/travels/eng/fishing/baikal.htm Folk like the ones at this link make a living hosting Westerners with camping, hiking, and fishing.


Man makes living selling food to train passengers.


Village life.


Frozen lake.


Frozen boats!


Village on Olkhon Island.


Ferry to Olkhon Island.


Camping is popular on Olkhon (Ольхон) Island, which is the fourth-largest lake-bound island in the world. It is by far the largest island on Lake Baikal with an area of 730 km² (280 sq. miles). The island is settled by the Buryats and its name "Olkhon" comes from their language. The real meaning of this name is not known, but sometimes "Olkhon" is translated with "little forest" or with "dry."

Today, the majority of Buryats live in and around Ulan Ude, the capital of the republic, although many live more traditionally in the countryside. They speak in a dialect of Mongolian language called Buryat.
 

[Jared2151]

Mendy, Mendy, Mendy, ..... what can I say.  Does Russia know what a wonderful ambassador they have in you ?  If not, they should.

Lake Baikal would be on my Top Ten List when I visit Russia.  It is hard to wrap my mind around the size of this place.  These would be the type of people that I would most like to meet on my travels.  I never was one for the commercialized areas.  I like going out to the far reaches and interacting with the local people.

Thanks for the absolutely beautiful pictures.  I do have one question though about the Omul fish being offered at the roadside stand.  The way they are presented puts one in mind of a taco shell.  Are they to be filled with some sort of other food, or just eaten 'as is' ?

Keep up the excellent work !

[Chris]

Jared

I am not sure if they fill it with anything but I do know that smoked omul is widely sold around the lake and is one of the highlights for many travelers on the Trans-Siberian railway, though locals tend to prefer the fish salted. A popular Siberian salad called stroganina consists of uncooked frozen omul cut finely and served with pepper, salt and onion and it is also made with muksun a Siberian Arctic fish.

Chris

[mendeleyev]

Jared, as Chris mentions most Russians like it salted often without even smoking it.  However all around Baikal you can like little teepee's (like Indian tents) where fish is being smoked inside.

Yes, you can eat it as presented or you can stuff other things inside.  Russians tend to like to stuff "salad" inside things like fish or even whole potatoes and peppers.  In this case the salad is not lettuce but more like various vegetable salads.

Out on the lake most of the locals eat it simply salted...fresh...raw. The smoked fish they put away for winter.

[froid]

Mmm...the Newfie in me is drooling for the saltfish.  I will have to go there and try one day.  

[mendeleyev]

From RUA member Julie, some excellent additions to this thread!

[Jared2151]

Simply stunning.

I know where my first stop is going to be in Russia.

Please tell me that the turquoise river isn't due to pollution (fat chance).

[mendeleyev]

[el_guero]

Mendy,

Those are just beautiful photos!

thanks

wayne

[skiingandrunning]

Does anyone have information on guides that can be hired in the area or reputable travel companies that book excisions? 

I have a friend who will be flying there this summer as she'll be in China and decided to make the flight up to see the lake (she'll be traveling with her mother and aunt in who are in their 60's so I warned her that it's not very developed around the lake).

[mendeleyev]

(Lake Baikal by Feodor Brazhnikov)


Skiingandrunning , Depends on how you wish to proceed. For ordinary tourism and a good reputable tour, try these folks:

http://www.baikalex.irk.ru/

http://baikaladventures.com/

http://baikalnature.com/

For a more scientific or professional approach to exploration of Baikal contact Dr. Maksimov Vyacheslav Nikiforovich who manages both the "Baikal Meetings Club" and the Baikal Health Institute. I think the best way to reach him is via email at peterkb@mail.ru. Be patient if he doesn't respond right away--life is lived at an entirely different pace in that part of the world. He may need some income to continue the work of the Institute so being a guide, or recommending a good one, might be of interest. He is a scientist and a humanitarian and one can only inquire as to his schedule and availability.


Lodging:
Staying in Irkutsk is cheating. Stay at Baikal. BAIKAL HOTEL is located in a picturesque setting on the outskirts of Listvyanka village, high above Lake Baikal. 70 km from Irkutsk. 3 floors. All floors accessible by elevator. 53 rooms with balconies: 8 singles, 31 twins, 10 doubles, 4 suites. All rooms feature private bathroom, satellite color TV, direct-dial international satellite telephone, refrigerator. Omulevaya bochka restaurant for 64 seats with live music (Russian and European cuisine). 2 bars: Russkaya Chainaya and Shaman-Kamen. Business Center. Currency exchange. Sauna. Banya (Russian steam-bath). Fitness Center. Billiards room. Beauty shop. Souvenir kiosk. Laundry. Baggage storage. Towncar service. On-site parking. English-speaking staff.

The U NICOLY (NICHOLAS') Guest House is in Listvyanka village, near the wooden St. Nicolas' Church. Built in the 1990s. Totally renovated in 1998. 70 km from Irkutsk. Picturesque view at Lake Baikal from the terrazzo. 2 floors. 5 quaint wood-panelled rooms: 2 twins and 3 doubles. All rooms feature private bathroom with shower. There is a color TV in the hall and a refrigerator for guest use. 2 dining rooms for 10 seats each. Very good Russian and Siberian cuisine. Russian banya (steam sauna).

The Khvoinaya Tourist Camp is on the Circumbaikal Railway Loop, on the lakeshore. 26 km from Port Baikal. Built in 1996. 6 rooms: 1 full, 2 triples and 4 twins. Wash-stand and bathroom facilities outside. Dining room. Color TV & VCR in the hall. Refrigerator for quest use. Electricity is provided by a power generator from 7pm till 11pm. Russian banya (steam sauna).

The SHUMIKHA Tourist Camp is also on the Circumbaikal Railway Loop, on the lakeshore. 30 km from Port Baikal. Built in 1998. 2 log houses: 1-story house with 4 twin rooms and 2-story house with 4 twin rooms. Wash-stand and bathroom facilities outside. Cafeteria. Color TV & VCR in the hall. Refrigerator for guest use. Electricity is provided by a power generator from 7pm till 11pm. Russian Banya (steam sauna).





More photos and information:
http://baikal.irkutsk.org/paseka/bgol/browse1.html

http://baikal.irkutsk.org/paseka/buguld/browse1.html

http://www.bww.irk.ru/

http://www.irkutsk.org/baikal/listvyanka.htm

http://www.magicbaikal.com/baikal.php

http://www.rctc.ru/baikal.html (Bicycle tour around Baikal)


Most visitors arrive via the Trans-Siberian train which stops in Irkutsk and its easy to hop off the train in Irkutsk and spend a few days exploring and enjoying this great world treasure.

Info on Irkutsk Airport: http://www.irkutsk.org/fed/airport.html
 

[skiingandrunning]

Mendy,

As always, you are a wealth of information and thank you for posting it. 

Mark

[mendeleyev]

With pleasure, Mark.