Salty fish and lengthening our lives

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Up early and went to the Bus Station to catch a bus to Listvyanka (a village on the edge of Lake Baikal). The Lake is one of the largest freshwater lakes in the world, 400 miles long, 40 miles wide, 1.6km deep and containing 20% of the worlds total freshwater supply. It is kept clear and clean by sponges living in it and is entirely safe to drink for the main part. Getting a bus was a real challenge - we couldn’t read the signs and no-one seemed to be able to help us! After wandering around with some equally lost Spanish backpackers we managed to find someone who directed us to a minibus. Apparently minibuses are part of the public transport system here and people use them like normal buses. We squashed on to the only backwards facing seats and took our travel sickness tabs in preparation for the bumpy 90km drive....glad we did as half way there a Russian guy in the front seat brought his breakfast up out the window! We were definitely relieved to arrive....

It was a beautiful sunny day and we weren’t disappointed by the Lake or the lovely mountain scenery around it. Listvyanka is definitely more tourist orientated than Irkutsk with English translations everywhere and US and Japanese tourist groups arriving in buses. Coincidently we met up with Nikita, Katja and Lilia again and climbed up one of the mountains behind the village to escape the tourists. At the top there was an observatory and multiple solar telescopes and great views over the Lake. Because the Lake is so deep it is always very cold and people generally can’t swim for more than a few minutes. There is a myth about the lake that says if you dip your hands in you will gain 1 years life, hands and feet gain you 10 y and a full swim extends your life by 25y. I had no swimming cozzie so wussed out of a swim but Thor and Katja went in for a few secs and came out looking blue!

A market on the waterfront was selling fresh salted or smoked omul and we were reluctant to try after last nights meal but Katja and Nikita persuaded us the salted omul was nice - never being keen on raw fish I was nervous but it had a lovely taste, quite mild and creamy almost. Then it was time for the bus back to Irkutsk and an early night before we set off to Ulaan Bataar tommorrow...

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Photos

Next to the telescope
Not really as grumpy as I look!