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Published: January 27th 2016
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After 4 nights, along 5185km of track and through 3 time zones (now GMT+8), we leave the train to stay in Listvyanka a small town on the bank of the huge Lake Bakail 70km from Irkutsk.
Its -28 C when we embark on a walking tour of the town with our guide. Another ‘Lena’ this one is 20 years younger and has a masters in English she gained without leaving Russia. Lena was keen to tell us about the special Lake we were staying beside; Lake Bakail ‘the Pearl of Siberia’, shaped like a banana, 636km long but only 60km wide is world’s deepest lake 1637m containing one-fifth of the world’s fresh unfrozen water. Well it was unfrozen on the day we arrived, but subsequently froze over, so much so people walk and drive cars across it although we were informed it was not safe to do so until it had been frozen 7 days. It also holds many unique species of fish and water life including the Nerpa Seals who enjoy the fresh water, mainly on the north eastern side of the lake so we did not see them in the wild but we did see a couple in
the little aquarium and more in a Nerpinaruim in the town.
Listvyanka is a pretty town built mainly along the roadside of the lake. It hosts a small port where fishing vessels sell their catch, mainly the local delicacy Omul, a fish which they fry, bake and smoke. I felt very sorry for the women selling the smoked fish, freezing cold, few customers and very smelly.
I hope you appreciate the photos because Kim has suffered for his art, now constantly moaning about his numb little finger right hand. Joking aside it hurts to take your gloves off for even a minute, my face is very sore with the cold wind, and the inside of your nose and eye lashes freeze! It was -33 C one day. How local people cope I can’t imagine, it’s like this for months, the ice wont clear from the Lake until April. Then they will have extremes of heat +34 C for a few months, then it starts snowing again in November.
Listvyanka is a quiet town, yet we did find a very busy activity centre where we took a great dog sledding ride through the forest. Each sled was pulled
by 8 dogs, they looked pretty skinny and did not have the husky fur I was expecting, but they did love to run! Kim stood on the back and steered, whilst I was determined to be ‘Queen of Narnia’ seated on a fur rug with a guide on the back. I loved Kims’ instruction, there was no English spoken so it was mimicked lean left/right and jump on the brake both feet to stop! And we were off…. But they forgot to advise you to duck to avoid the trees!
After 3 days wandering the peaceful town looking at the frozen lake we then transferred back to Irkutsk. This time a walking tour of our own took us to 2 house museums of the Decemberists’ (Volkonsky and Trubetskoy). In December 1826 a number of noblemen/military men were convicted of planning a coup against the Tsar Nicholas 1
st, and exiled to Siberia, they spent 13 years in a prison then a further 17 years in supervised exile in Irkutsk. Interestingly their wives came with them, even having separate rooms in the prison, and raising a family. Their homes in Irkutsk were wooded construction, one being quite grand where they held
Lake Bakail
as it was starting to freeze. lively dinner parties whilst still in exile.
Our self-made tour of Irkutsk ended in a Russian retro restaurant, were we ate Rassolnik (soup), whilst being serenaded by 2 accordion players. Food in Russia has been mixed, not sure about the dumplings (undercooked ravioli with potato filling) and fried/battered everything, but the soups and pancakes were good even though everything was eaten with sour cream. Maybe I shouldn’t complain as next stop is Mongolia….. what will we be fed there??
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Libby Seldon
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Omg how bloody cold is it?!! I do remember cold days in Canada, but I don't think they were that bad. Glad you found 'bear', he's been looking for you for ages lol!! ...I'm glad I'm in my warm kitchen right now, it's been cold, windy and raining, at least you've had sunshine!! Love you both!! ❤️Xxx