Day 287 - Ed's 30th Birthday

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Ed turned 30 today and finally entered his natural decade. Whilst Ed slept off a bit of a hangover Gemma was hard at work around the hotel room putting up banners, blowing up balloons and placing cards on the doormat. Her birthday card appeal was a resounding success and it’s now obvious why our rucksacks had become so heavy, so Thank You to everyone who helped her make it a fun birthday morning in far-flung Siberia by sending messages, not least her mother Sally. There was even a cake with candles!

What better way to spend a milestone birthday than with a visit to the Open Air Museum of Wooden Architecture in Siberia? All very pleasantly interesting but not the sort of thing gripping blog entries are made of. We went for lunch in a remote Siberian zaimka, or rural retreat, and were glad to see salted omul and omul soup on the menu. Ed did receive a birthday present from Discover Baikal, the tour company, of a very practical cedar wood beer mug. It is a strange place here that has bears, reindeer and the biggest slide in Siberia. Smaller versions are found all over the place, and you climb up some wooden stairs before sliding down an icy slide typically onto a frozen river or lake on a reindeer skin and slide for miles. Unfortunately it was closed, so for our adrenaline rush we returned to Lake Baikal and went on an ice safari - 2 hours in a 6-seater hovercraft zooming around the lake. The driver even had a liking for 360 degree turns and took us to a famous rock that marks the end of the lake and the beginning of the Angara River so we could get good luck by touching it. He didn’t let Ed drive though. We got out at the southern end of the lake to explore a railway tunnel.

The birthday dinner was at a hilariously Soviet-designed hotel which is so ugly and functional it’s almost charming. It did have a good view though and on arrival another present from the tour company - we’d told them where we had booked dinner - this time a bottle of champagne. After a nice meal with fantastic views and no fellow diners we walked back for a few hours sleep…

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