11 June
It’s about 22:30 and I’m looking out the window of my room in our B & B in Listvyanka a small town on the edge of Lake Baikal. Listvyanka is about 70 kilometers east of Irkutsk. It sits on the western shore of the lake and is about an equal distance north of the lake’s southern end. Lake Baikal is, by some measures, the largest and deepest lake in the world. It’s about 640 kilometers long and has a maximum depth of over 1,600 meters. It contains approximately one-fifth of the world’s fresh water within its 23,000 or so cubic kilometer volume. For comparison, Lake Superior in the U.S. and Canada is about 560 kilometers long, has a maximum depth of about 400 meters and its volume is a bit over 12,000 cubic kilometers. More than 300 rivers and streams flow into Lake Baikal but only the Angara flows out traversing a total of nearly 1,800 km before joining with the Yenisei to empty into the East Siberian Sea.
In addition to compiling facts about the lake, I’ve also been thinking about our host Nikolai who turned out to be both very much like and in some ways unlike the man Groud told us to expect. He was quite helpful and accommodating in some ways – such as assisting with arrangements for our boat trip – and quite regimented in others, meaning that dinner was scheduled for 19:00 and this didn’t mean 16:58 or 19:05 but 19:00. But more on both of those in a bit.
After coming through the border at Naushki, the night was uneventful though the train did make an extended, unscheduled stop that, after running about ninety minutes ahead of schedule all day due to the expedited immigration procedure, brought us into Irkutsk on time. Our local guide and bus met us at the station,
and took us first to a local hotel where our passports and departure cards were copied to comply with the requirement that all visitors to Russia register within three days of arriving. My guess is that this is a remnant of Soviet era bureaucracy and paranoia that could be taken off the books but has not. During the ride our guide told us that Irkutsk is more or less in the center of Siberia and a quick internet check showed that it is, indeed, just about halfway between Ekaterinburg and Vladivostok although in my memory she’d said it was halfway between Moscow and Vladivostok. But I’ll give her the benefit of the doubt and say that I misheard her. The city is divided by the Angara River.
Once our registration was complete, we hopped back on the bus and set out for Lake Baikal. During the hour or so ride to Listvyanka, the area turned rather quickly suburban with occasional tracts of large single-family homes. The landscape then equally quickly became one of rolling hills dense with trees – mostly silver birch. The road more or less followed the course of the Angara until we turned into the town itself where the road ran along the shore of the lake before we turned inland to ride up to our B & B. The house is large and attractive. It’s all wood and my room has a small balcony with this view.
When we checked in, we were all instructed to remove our shoes and use the slippers provided. Our host Nikolai saw any service beyond the contracted room and board as a revenue enhancing opportunity. He would happily do laundry for a fee per kilogram. Wi-fi access would cost 300 rubles for the group. I decided to make an inexpensive grand gesture and paid the entire fee for the group. This then transformed me in Nikolai’s eyes to the “chief.” Thus, when a number of us indicated that we wanted to take a two hour boat ride on the lake, he broke out his scooter, enticed me onto the back, and sped off down the hill to the shore where he and I would arrange for the boat while everyone else walked. As the day turned out, I would have rather had a ride up the hill.
Six of us chose to go on the boat ride leaving John and Ann to spend some time alone on John’s 75th birth anniversary. The air temperature was probably about 15 degrees and with a sunny sky would normally be quite pleasant. But the wind off the lake was strong and chilling. Nikolai and I found a heated, covered boat.
The water was calm and the ride pleasant and relaxing. It provided some charming views of Listvyanka
some impressive vistas with snowcapped mountains
and gave rise to our trip ninja:
The cruise was so relaxing and the interior cabin so warm that we all dozed off a bit despite the constant stream of contemporary Euro-pop punctuated by an occasional burst of Abba.
When we returned to shore, I jumped off the unsteady gangplank, landed awkwardly, and twisted my knee in a way that would keep me in minor discomfort for the rest of the trip. We set out for lunch and a few of us had our first omul – a whitefish found only in Lake Baikal. It’s served smoked and whole and eaten with the hands.
Lu and I shared a citrus flavored beer that was okay. I enjoyed the fish despite having to pick the bones. After lunch, we walked around the market for a bit and during that time Rose and Erin steeled themselves to jump in the lake. John had talked from the beginning of the tour about dipping himself in the lake on his 75th birthday and I supposed R & E saw it as a bit of a challenge. They’d obviously talked about it because they had swimsuits on under their clothes. I’d dipped my hand in the frigid water earlier in the day and concluded that would be sufficient. You can see from her expression that Rose is having great fun.
The splashing about lasted twenty seconds or so but after the initial shock I think they ultimately felt oddly invigorated. We learned at dinner that Lu had also taken a lake dip confirming that for the eleventh of June the four sane people in our group were Anne, Groud, Ana, and me.
Rose and Erin got themselves more or less dry and Groud, Rose, and Lu (who until that time had only watched) decided to trek around a bit. John and Anne, we learned, had managed to get themselves to the museum where the highlight was a pair of Baikal seals. My knee was quite sore on that first day and I felt in no condition to walk any farther than the return to Nikolai’s place. Erin also decided to spend some time simply relaxing so we walked back together.
Lyuba, our guide in Irkutsk, had, on her own, purchased a small birthday cake for John that Anne and Groud had kept well hidden. This was quite thoughtful of her. G had been trying to call and text her to ask her to do just that but had never gotten through. We presented the cake with a single candle after dinner and sang him a rousing chorus of the birthday song. No one could find a proper card so we all signed a postcard to go with the cake. Both John and Anne and Lu and Ana independently bought two bottles of wine for the celebration, each turning up with one bottle of red and a bottle of white. We polished off three of the four bottles – not bad for a group of 8 in which 2 drink not at all – and shared a late-ish night of geniality and conversation somewhat to Nikolai’s consternation but since he’d set no time for us to clear the dining area, he was as free to grumble about it as we were to ignore his grumbling.
In this northern latitude and approaching the summer solstice now about ten days hence, the sunsets are coming later and later. The last of us straggled off to bed about 22:15 but it was still quite light outside. Tomorrow’s timetable has a moderately early start with breakfast at 08:00 and departure at 09:00 but the late sunset and early sunrises do provide some sleep challenges. I’ll be off to bed anon. The schedule for tomorrow includes a bus tour of Irkutsk with Lyuba as our guide and a quick trip to the grocery store to stock up on provisions for our upcoming forty-eight-hour train ride across Siberia to Ekaterinburg.