Skating on Thick Ice

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Joining the train mid afternoon gave us the novelty of being able to see the world going by outside the carriage. We were sharing our cabin on this leg with a pair of Russian lads around our age that took regular trips to the gap between carriages for a smoke or off to the restaurant car for snacks and beers. We attempted the offering of the small chocolate mountains to no avail. We couldn’t help but feel we’d chosen something no-one liked. We got into watching the passing scenery, soon discovering that the section of Russia we were crossing during daylight was filled with scarcely more than the odd remote village and a large amount of frozen rolling hills. With the sun setting we soon resumed the usual darkened routine of reading and eating before sleeping. We were due to arrive in Irkutsk around 08:30 and our provodnik woke us to inform us that we were nearing our destination. We got up, packed and got ready to leave the train only to find we’d been woken a lot earlier than we’d hoped as there were several stops close together that meant the toilets would be closed for the best part of 40 minutes before we got off the train. The confusion was cleared up by our cabin mates who worked out what was going on before communicating this to us with our broken Russian, their broken English and a bit of pointing at the station list that is in every corridor on these trains.

We got off the train to be greeted by a pre-dawn gloomy Irkutsk. Heading out to the front of the station in search of a tram to get across town, we bumped into a Japanese English-speaking girl hopelessly lost and trying to get to a hostel near the bus station. Sharing our tram journey plans with her we all set about trying to figure out where the tram stop was. We could see a bunch of tram lines heading off in various directions but no obvious signs as to where any of them might stop. While trying to find a solution, we spotted the tram number 1 we were after heading past us. It stopped about 100 meters up the road from us leaving us with mixed reactions. With us both having heavy backpacks and the lost girl having a large rolling case that looked similar in weight, I still have no idea how we covered the distance to find the doors of the tram still open. We piled in and found some space further down the tram but the girl had been accosted by the tram ticket attendant for money. She seemed to have fair success in describing where she wanted to go and exchanged money and directions before finding a seat after the next stop. We continued for the four stops our instructions had given us and jumped off the tram. After a little wandering about and a few fruitless conversations with a few passersby and a newsagent we faced the fact we hadn’t got off at the right stop and had very little idea where we were. A few doors up from us was a ‘Subway’ the western brand of sandwich shop that advertised as having free wifi on the door. Seizing the opportunity for some breakfast, warmth and a coffee we headed in and abused the free connection to figure out how to get to the bus station from where we were. After consuming our food and coffee we found we were only about 1km from the bus station and it was straight up the road at the next main road junction. Figuring out it was within walking distance and along the way we’d get to see more of the area we’d be spending time in later in the week, we put our backpacks on and headed off. During our walk we watched a couple of trams amble past and randomly stop at points along the road. It took us a couple of times to work out that the stops were marked by either a large shelter on the pavement or a round post with the tram logo on the top and covered in flyers for local companies and night clubs events. By the time we reached the bus station the sun had just about climbed into the sky. As we crossed the road to the main building we were approached by a guy asking if we were going to Listvyanka. When we replied we were he gestured towards a long queue of transit sized minibuses parked along the road back to town. We told him we needed to buy tickets from the building and he showed us a stack in his hand. Not entirely trusting him we followed across the road before we spotted the 6 foot high sign with Listvyanka in Russian pointing at the group of minibuses. Confirming he’d only be charging us 100 roubles each for the trip we jumped into the heated bus and settled in to wait for him to depart.

These busses wait until they are either full or the driver is bored of waiting, so if you’re on a tight schedule it’s worth factoring in a bit of extra time here. After about 15 minutes or two more cigarettes the driver jumped in and set off in a taxi driver styled approach towards Listvyanka. It’s quite a way between the two and is a fairly straight road with lots of undulation with small bridges in the bottom of each dip, none of which caused any change on speed from our driver, causing several heavy landings on the 45 minute drive.

Arriving in Listvyanka, we were dropped off at the bus station towards the far end of town, next to the main ferry jetty and a small tourist office. With us not exactly sure where our accommodation was, we decided to drop in to see if they could shed any light on where we should be going. The assistant didn’t speak a word of English and shrugged us towards a map stuck to the desk. We spotted the place we were looking for about halfway back down the main waterfront road, so thanked her and headed off. After a good 15 minutes of walking we hadn’t seen any signs for our accommodation so stopped in a restaurant to ask directions only to be gestured further up the road. Another 10 minutes and we stopped to ask a guy clearing a driveway of snow in front of what seemed to be a small church. He shrugged and claimed to never have heard of the place we were looking for so we continued on our way. Some 5 minutes further and we found a small souvenir shop that was open and had the map we’d seen in the tourist information place up for sale. After purchasing one and a short discussion with the helpful staff we found the complex we’d been looking for up a very steep slope behind the church we’d stopped at earlier. We rang the bell and were greeted at the entrance gate of the collection of log cabins by the owner Andrei and were quickly ushered into the warmth of the dining cabin. Once inside and with our many layers removed we went through the checking in paperwork as well as the formal registration process while chatting in broken English and Russian to our host. With all the formalities complete Andrei took us across the compound to one of the cabins that would be ours for the next few nights. The compact single story cabin had a basic layout with a double bed in the middle of the room with a log stove made from an old 40 gallon drum. The bathroom had a water heater boiler with a shower head attachment over the sink basin and was the only water supply other than the toilet. In these parts of Russia, rather than having showers, they go to a Banya where you sweat it out and rinse, so the accommodation followed this approach. Having been constantly on the move since we left Moscow, being able to spend more than one night in a room was a welcome break. We made full use of this by dropping our bags off and heading back out into the freezing cold but bright sunny day and onto the ice capped lake. Back by the bus station we found the beginnings of an ice festival being constructed. There looked to be a pair of large luge runs as well as a play area for kids to enjoy sliding around in a collection on large bowls. Further to the north end of the town, by the smoked fish market, we found a pair of small hovercraft giving joy rides out onto the lake. As one left we watched it do a number of pirouettes as it headed off in the general direction of the south end of town. Now beginning to feel the cold even through the most insulated layers of our clothing we had a quick look though the market before heading back in the direction of our cabin. We defrosted along the way in one of the many restaurants we’d passed on the way, having some traditional Russian food and a pint of the local larger before making a hasty retreat to the relative warmth of our log cabin. Close by we dropped into a shop to collect some supplies for snacking on in the coming days, before getting settled into our cabin and watching the sun setting over the lake through the window. The following day was spent making full use of the provisions we’d bought and the comfortable warmth of the cabin by having a day off reflecting on the trip so far and the things we’d like to do while in Listvyanka.

After a slow start the next morning we headed over to the dining cabin to get a connection to the outside world and check our arrangements for the Chinese part of the trip. We found Andrei in there with a group of friends enjoying a meal together. He explained that it was a festival of the frozen lake. From what we could gather all the small churches along around the lake construct crosses and alters from ice and hold a service out on the lake. The photo we were shown had someone being blessed with water from the lake via a large hole cut in the ice. While explaining this he insisted we drink with him and gave each of us a cup of dark ale from a plastic barrel, a brew he’d made himself on site. We spent quite a while sorting though our emails and social network updates as well as re booking our transport arrangements for China after being let down by the agent we’d used there. By the time we were finished Andrei and his friends had headed out to enjoy the sunny day and the festival. We’d planned on dog sledding while in town so opted to take a wander up the valley we were in to the activity centre they ran from and see what arrangements needed to be made. After a 30 minute walk up the valley we figured we’d need a few more layers if we wanted to spend much more time outside running through the forest on a sledge. Arranging with the centre to go out the following day we headed back towards town down a frozen river that lead to the lake. As the lake came into sight we ducked into a restaurant to grab some food and warmth. By the entrance there was a sign boasting an English menu, which turned out to be English translations alongside the Russian for each dish. This proved useful later as we were able to see what the Russian for a few of our favourite dishes had been, however, some of the translations had us giggling in the corner. Although not certain what ice cream with ‘nits’ was, we’re fairly certain that it meant nuts as that’s what seemed to appear in front of the kids on the table next to us. With it starting to cloud over and the sun beginning to set we headed back to our cabin to witness the spectacular sunset with the sky turning all shades of orange as the sun dipped below the horizon.

Donning all our layers we headed out into the bright morning sunshine for the activity centre. Once there we found two teams of dogs ready hitched to the sleds as we were ushered into a large log cabin and given sets of camouflaged coloured insulated overalls. We were given a 30 second rough English lesson of stand here, lean to turn and stand on this when told STOP! We were both put into the front part of a sled and with a guide at the reigns we headed off into the forest. After a few minutes Anna’s sled shot off in one direction while mine headed in another. The tracks through the forest were very bumpy and holding onto the bucking sled as we sped through the woodland valley was quite a challenge, more than I think the guide realised. After about 5 minutes we stopped on a straight stretch and the guide got me out of the sled and repeated the rough instructions before getting me stand with one foot on the brake and the other on a foot plate of the sled. He settled himself onto the cushions on the sled and shouted ‘GO!’ in my direction. No sooner had I lifted my foot from the brake to the other foot plate, the dogs felt the release and surged forward with the guide shouting instructions from his seat. After a few easy turns we were on some similar terrain to earlier, standing enabled me to soak up the impact of the punishing trails, however I felt the guide was now sharing my earlier experience from the occasional groan. After a few sizeable lumps he began to gesture for me to steer around the worst ones. During the run the dogs navigated well apart from a few minor wrong turns that were fiercely corrected by the guide by getting me to stop the sled while he went to the front and made the mistake abundantly clear to the lead pair of dogs, then dragged them into the right direction before returning to the sled. About 10 minutes, or all too quickly, the centre began looming into view through the forest signalling that our 10Km run was nearly over. I’d managed to arrive a little before Anna so grabbed the camera to get a photo of her guiding her team back.

We were both now very warm from our exhilarating experience and were in high spirits as we wandered back down the valley towards town, stopping on the way to make a pair of snow angels alongside the path. As it was still early afternoon we wandered along the main road in search of the Baikal Limnological Museum we had seen on the tourist map, eventually finding it nestled into the hill side opposite a bus stop by the mouth of the river leading from the lake to Irkutsk. Inside it had well documented displays of the history of the lake and the town along with a collection of fish and a pair of Baikal seals (Nerpas). We walked back along the frozen lake towards our hotel, however after feeling and hearing a few load bangs from the ice we decided the tarmac path next to the road was a better option. I’m sure with the ice being so thick it was perfectly safe, with cars driving on it further out than we were walking, but it spooked both of us at the same time so we shuffled as quickly as we could like tourists for the comfort of the banks.

After our last night in Listvyanka we packed our backpacks and made the long walk back to the bus station to get a similar minibus back to Irkutsk, driven in a similar fashion to our trip out we arrived in town about 40 minutes later and set off on foot to find our next hotel. This was located a short distance from the local produce market and seemed to be made up of a collection of different buildings. After our check-in paperwork was completed we were shown to our room by two completely different staircases and through a couple of UPVC doors, where we found it had central heating and a shower in the bathroom. Dropping our bags off we headed back out to the market to get some provisions for our 50+ hour train journey into China the next day as well as something for lunch.

The main market is inside a big building, with an entrance behind the outside car park, putting us into the ground floor and surrounded by a wide selection of fresh and cured meats, cheese, vegetables as well as flowers, sweets, biscuits and cakes. On a ring around the outside of the building on a second floor is a collection of small restaurants and stalls selling household items. Rather than shopping on an empty stomach we headed upstairs and grabbed some traditional Russian food before exploring the ground floor. All the market traders we spoke to were happy to help you decide which of their produce to choose, so we soon found ourselves with a small loaf, some kind of cured sausage, some cheese & some filo parcels containing something that we’d need to decipher later. We paused to try some samosa looking snacks that smelt fantastic and still have no idea what it contained other than it tasted great, before moving onto the sweet and biscuit area. Buying these loose by weight found us with ½ a kilo of some kind of double layered, vanilla filled biscuits and some jelly animals that included kangaroos and crocodiles. We headed back to the hotel to get settled in for the evening and arrange our early checkout the following morning. The hotel receptionist seemed determined that we had to have breakfast before we left as it was included in the room price, so she arranged our wake up call for 06-30 for a 7am breakfast in the small restaurant facing reception. With tired heads we arrived about 2 minutes late to reception to a slightly scowling receptionist we’d seen the previous evening and were presented with a pair of fried eggs, some bread and jam and a pot of tea. We quickly consumed the food before heading on a return trip on the tram to the station, arriving with a little bit of time to spare we settled in to await the arrival of the train. Next stop China!

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Comments

[helen]

I just finished a Clive Cussler/dirk pitt book about Lake Baikal and it mentions the limnological museum....but he is there is summer and there is a tidal wave which destroys the shore!!!