Staying in the tiny village of Baikalsk with my host, we woke early-ish to catch a bus to the next town to catch a train to Port Baikal.
Enjoyed a breakfast of pelmany (dumplings) whilst gazing at the mountain view.
Lake Baikal is still iced over, but starting to melt (so no walking on ice for me).
Innokentiy took me to the supermarket to stock up on snacks, they stocked cans of horse meat!
Staying in the tiny village of Baikalsk with my host, we woke early-ish to catch a bus to the next town to catch a train to Port Baikal.
Enjoyed a breakfast of pelmany (dumplings) whilst gazing at the mountain view.
Lake Baikal is still iced over, but starting to melt (so no walking on ice for me).
Innokentiy took me to the supermarket to stock up on snacks, they stocked cans of horse meat!
Apparently this is the guy who came up with the idea of the Transiberian railroad.
Pretty amazing views from the train as it trundles alongside the lake’s edge.
When I did manage to peel my eyes away from the view and look out the other window I noticed tiny little settlements.
We arrived at Port Baikal where we would be staying the night.
Had a little explore, the temperature changes here were really weird, you’d be walking along quite comfortable, then all of a sudden you would hit a pocket of cold. Like walking through ghosts!
The water here is said to be drinkable straight from the lake. That may have been true at some point in time, but when you see the locals littering the shore and throwing fag butts into the clear waters…I wasn’t about to drink it!
It was so peaceful here, exactly how I imagined. I could have stayed standing here staring out at the water and mountains, listening to the ripples of the water and the cracking of the ice melting for a good hour.
Innokentiy wanted to show me around a bit.
This is where lake Baikal ends and the river begins, this bit never freezes, which is lucky as they closed the road from Port Baikal to Irkutsk. So you have to take a little boat over to the other side to take the bus!
Now, I would consider myself a fairly responsible traveler, as in, I do a bit of research about the country I’m going to to find out if I need certain vaccinations from any nasties. I did this research and it showed we don’t need anything.
I learned from my host that in Siberia there are ticks that may be infected with encephalitis. Which, if you look it up, is a bloody horrific thing to be infected with as it eats away at your brain cells. Scary. Obviously, I’m not vaccinated against this. And sure enough, a bloody tick landed on me! I freaked out a little bit. I like my brain. I like it functioning. I didn’t get bitten, but you don’t feel these buggers land on you OR bite you, so by the time you’ve found them with their heads buried under your skin, it’s too late.
Tried to enjoy the view of the sun setting over Baikal, whilst constantly checking my coat and trousers for ticks!
Finally made it back out of the grass and to our ‘hotel’ which is also the train station, as I discovered in the night when trains sit outside chugging the engine and tooting their whistles regardless of the fact it’s 3am.
I jumped into the shower as soon as we were checked in and examined myself for ticks. There were none! Thank goodness. My brain is safe, for now.
Welsh Wanderers 