B - reporting
We got up at 7 so we could have an early start to Lake Baikal, and managed to leave the hostel by 10! Then went to Mega Titan, a supermarket, where we purchased more mystery food. And beer - you know where you are with beer.
The road to the lake wound through forests and valleys - a bit like some BC roads. Though the road conditions were 100% Russian...unexpected potholes, miles of roadworks, unexpected cows and lots of white dust.
Lake Baikal is beautiful in the sunshine. Almost like a sea - the far side of the lake was almost invisible. After driving through a couple of small towns, with pretty wooden houses, carved blue shutters and cows meandering down the highway we found somewhere to camp, on an embankment just feet from the lake. We set up camp and opened a beer - life in Siberia is hard!
The next day we woke to rain, though the lake is still beautiful. We were heading towards Irkutsk, so retraced some of yesterday's route before taking a short cut...which we discovered involved a ferry across the river Something. We arrived just as the ferry operators clocked off for lunch, so had bread and cheese in the car while watching the brown turgid river flow past in the rain.
The ferry is tiny, and a rather cross Russian man directed the cars. G had to stay in the car, as there was no room between the cars to open doors. Safety first!
It was our first Russian cruise, about 30 mins up the river, pulled by a tug against the strong current.
Safely unloaded, we headed east, round the south side of the lake.
At around 6 we started looking for somewhere to camp, which proved a bit tricky. The Trans-Siberia railway runs between the lake and the road, so we had to cross the railway if we wanted to camp by the lake. We drove down several dirt roads besides rivers, which usually run under the railway line, before finding somewhere: a lovely pebbly beach, very close to the clear lake.
I opened another mystery tin, which turned out to be sardines. With some chopped pepper, cucumber and apple, a squeeze of lemon and some black bread, it was a delicious dinner. Accompanied with beer.
It was pretty cloudy over west, which resulted in a magnificent sunset. We were only slightly disturbed by the hundreds of trains passing in the night!
We got up at 7 so we could have an early start to Lake Baikal, and managed to leave the hostel by 10! Then went to Mega Titan, a supermarket, where we purchased more mystery food. And beer - you know where you are with beer.
The road to the lake wound through forests and valleys - a bit like some BC roads. Though the road conditions were 100% Russian...unexpected potholes, miles of roadworks, unexpected cows and lots of white dust.
Lake Baikal is beautiful in the sunshine. Almost like a sea - the far side of the lake was almost invisible. After driving through a couple of small towns, with pretty wooden houses, carved blue shutters and cows meandering down the highway we found somewhere to camp, on an embankment just feet from the lake. We set up camp and opened a beer - life in Siberia is hard!
The next day we woke to rain, though the lake is still beautiful. We were heading towards Irkutsk, so retraced some of yesterday's route before taking a short cut...which we discovered involved a ferry across the river Something. We arrived just as the ferry operators clocked off for lunch, so had bread and cheese in the car while watching the brown turgid river flow past in the rain.
The ferry is tiny, and a rather cross Russian man directed the cars. G had to stay in the car, as there was no room between the cars to open doors. Safety first!
It was our first Russian cruise, about 30 mins up the river, pulled by a tug against the strong current.
Safely unloaded, we headed east, round the south side of the lake.
At around 6 we started looking for somewhere to camp, which proved a bit tricky. The Trans-Siberia railway runs between the lake and the road, so we had to cross the railway if we wanted to camp by the lake. We drove down several dirt roads besides rivers, which usually run under the railway line, before finding somewhere: a lovely pebbly beach, very close to the clear lake.
I opened another mystery tin, which turned out to be sardines. With some chopped pepper, cucumber and apple, a squeeze of lemon and some black bread, it was a delicious dinner. Accompanied with beer.
It was pretty cloudy over west, which resulted in a magnificent sunset. We were only slightly disturbed by the hundreds of trains passing in the night!
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| Schlerpa - the coolest little blind dog |
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| Our "Home" in Ulan-Ude |
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| Lunch at Lake Baikal |
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| Not what you imagine when you think of Siberia! |
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| Baikal Sunset |
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| Cool camp site. |
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| Crazy little russia ferry where me and 12 other cars where jammed on! |
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| Just! |
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| More Baikal camping. |
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| Our constant companion through the night! |
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| Another stunning Baikal Sunset |
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