Lake Baikal, Siberia on Qantas and Siberian Airlines (S7)

[craven morehead]

The Buryat people dominate the original people who are present and are unmistakably ethnic Mongolian.

They have 'sharman' spiritual beliefs and evidence of this is everywhere, in the form of streamer covered poles. The actual significance i'm not up on

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Only thinking out loud but is there a possibility that it might be like the Tibetan prayer flags ?

 

[craven morehead]

Waiting in the queue for the ferry. Yes , the waves were up a bit. Later, I looked for the life jackets and couldn't see any.

The cliffs on both sides firm a natural wind tunnel and the wind can howl though.

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On we go, for better or worse!

Fortunately it wasn't as bad as it looked!

Temperature ?

 

[Jacques Vert]

And I think I've now made sure most AFFers won't either!

But perhaps i'm being a bit judgemental, eh, @mrs.dr.ron ? I dare say @Princess Fiona is looking at a booking right now!

AFF13 ?

 

[RooFlyer]

Temperature ?

About 6 degrees with a "real feel" of about 2.

Happy to say that today has dawned fine, as promised, and a forecast max of 12.

View from my room

 

[RooFlyer]

It was a short walk to breakfast and we passed a few of the locals on The way



Brekkie was warm oats with honey and milk; egg and cheese on toast and a baked cinnamon apple. I could have had 2 of those!



This is the guest house I stayed in. Would be A$40/ night outside the tour.



First stop was the market to pick up some essential supplies:



No, just some water. 500 roubles is A$10

This is the town square and one of the type of 4wd vans that take most of the tours.



I have probably given the town a bit of a bad rap, yesterday when we arrived in miserable weather. Today, in the sun, it's much more chummy. There is a proper hotel, with en suite facilities too. Lots of cafes and restaurants, but most closed this time of year.

 

[RooFlyer]

This however is the wagon we used in the rally tour of Olkhon Island today.



@Cossie may wish to comment on the grade of the rally tour course of which this is a taste:

 

[RooFlyer]

You could not want as more perfect day. Fine, cool to warm ( I was down to a T shirt by mid morning) and just a hint of breeze off the water.

We drive north up the West coast of the island. First stop was a lookout, with the 'crocodile' the feature to admire.



Looking NW towards the mainland shore; this they call the 'little sea' - the channel between the island and the adjacent mainland.





Oh oh. One of the competitors in trouble early. Foot pump in action.



This is some of the competition. In all, about 10 vans of mostly Chinese tourists. I told Alexander, our driver, that it was essential for us to stay well in front of them. If for no other reason that one thought it a great idea to have loud music blearing out.




Alexander did a great job! We led all day

The rally track soon turned sandy, but the Jeep handled it easily.



Next stop was the site of an old Gulag where the prisoners were forced to work in a fish canning factory. Nothing left except the remains of a jetty.





Frame of a shelter to go fishing on the ice. A tiny stove to the right. In winter the lake freezes over.



Oh oh. There goes the neighbourhood; time to push on.

 

[RooFlyer]

The rally entered the forest and things got interesting.





Some fine 4WD-ing by Alexander, always keeping up the pace . I held on for grim life.

Back into open country and a choice of routes.



Seriously, this is a National Park and I can't think of where I've seen worse public roads. I was told that 'after the end of the Soviet era' there had been NO roadworks allowed, and it looks / felt like it. Multiple tracks develop as drivers seek a smoother ride.

Some lovely coastal scenery, still looking west across the 'small sea'.



Back into the forest! We increased our lead over the others on these sections.

 

[RooFlyer]

Next stop was the '3 Brothers' a well known feature but best observed from the sea. Three promontories that jut out, said to have been formed when 3 brothers refused to divulge the location of their sister to their Sharman father - so he turned then to stone.



We did a scramble down the rocks to get close to the water.





When we got back to the top we found some of the others had caught up (that would have been an interesting ride!! )



...so Alexander was already gunning it.



And rightly so. We had some hills to climb!

 

[RooFlyer]

Our destination was the northern tip of Olkhon Island, where we would get a full vista of Lake Baikal. We had an unscheduled photo stop at the top of a small hill. First glimpse of the eastern, wider part of Baikal





Then I turned around and saw to my horror that this unscheduled stop had allowed the chasers to slip around the bottom of the hill, to get in front of us!



Had Alexander made the greatest mistake of his life and allowed the others to gain victory? The next stop was the northern Cape!!

Pah! Alexander knew exactly what he was doing. You don't drive on Olkhon Island for 50 years ( since he was 8, he said) without knowing all the tricks. The vans all parked in a car park and their pax then walked. We drove through, imperiously, and snatched back the lead with the finish in sight!

 

[RooFlyer]

The northern tip of Olkhon Island is Cape Khoboy and from it you can see the lake as far as the horizon north, and you can just make out the eastern shore of the lake from atop the cliffs here. Probably 60 km away.

The lake is 646 km long and 79 km at its widest. It has a max depth of 1.7 km, but has 7 km of sediments in the bottom, so you could submerge Mt Everest to the rock bottom. It contains 23,000 cubic km of fresh water - 1/5 of the world's liquid fresh water. It's over 25 mill years old, the oldest in the world and is formed by a rift in the Eurasian Plate. It has hundreds of rivers flowing in, but only one going out - the Angara River that goes through Irkutsk.

Most of my pics at the Cape were panoramas ( which won't load to AFF) or were taken with my good camera, and I'm posting this from my phone, so I might do a JohnM and post some better ones later.

Most of the non panorama ones on my phone had this galoot in front of the view. We could see snow capped ranges in the distance and could just see the eastern shore of the lake.

Looking north up the lake.



Looking down the east coast of the island.





Odd thing was the lack of birds. Seagulls, yes, and some raven looking things, but virtually nothing else. Nothing on the cliffs that I could see. I did see a Baikal teal ( looks like a duck) with my 100x zoom in my camera but that was it.

Oh, and the prized Baikal seal? It's a bit of a hoax as far as I can tell. Only really present in the North of the lake and hardly ever seen down this way. Then, it may be a head bobbing in the distance.

While we were taking in the sights, Alexander was making lunch ...

 

[RooFlyer]

Ignore the blue dot. We were at the northern tip of the island.

 

[RooFlyer]

Lunch was simple but memorable. On a hill overlooking the lake:



Soup, bread and tomato salad



But not any soup - this was omul ( and vegetable) soup, cooked by Alexander on a fire.



Omul is a member of the salmon family and is endemic to Lake Baikal. It was formerly fished in large numbers, leading to a population crash in the 1960s. Since then the fishery had been tightly managed and the stocks have recovered, but the fish is now considered a delicacy. I was told that the native people are restricted to 200kg each pa - but it's fished much more heavily than that. Smoked or salted is the traditional way to have it, but I was happy to find one sliced up in the soup pot.

A lovely and distinctive flavour. - I'll have to hunt down some more in Irkutsk.

 

[RooFlyer]

We headed off to our last stop, the 'love cape'.

Supposedly this formation looks like the top of a heart



We are now on the east side is the island and good views of the major part of the lake. Not sure if you can see the snow caps on the mountain range in the distance - the closer, western shore.



Looking NE. The little blip on the right is a big promontory off the lake's eastern shore which has a 1,200m mountain!



Looking down the east coast of the island towards what I was told would be a 'bonus stop'. . All the vans with the other tourists, with their boom boxes and selfie sticks, headed back to Khuzhir from here.



So off we went

 

[RooFlyer]

This place is a weather station and over the years accommodation for tourists has been added.



Couple of guys trying their luck

 

[RooFlyer]

Location



Lots of horses grazing in the fields.



Then it was back in rally mode as we headed back. As ever, the forest stage was challenging.









Back onto the sand, approaching the old Gulag

 

[drron]

.

Just below the blue dot is that MH 370! They'd believe you on twitter.

 

[RooFlyer]

On the last stretch and Alexander took the whip to the horses.



Khuzhir in sight.



We got back at 3pm, so a 6 hour tour, about an hour longer than advertised.

It was still a nice warm afternoon so I went for a walk around the town to look at the local buildings.

Mostly simple 'choc and log' or 'stacked log' Construction.







But there were also lots of new buildings, done in the traditional style:



Then there was this huge, 2 story rendered stone place. No sign of was it is or was.

 

[Denali]

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This is you? Looking good, the no booze rule is doing you well

 

[RooFlyer]

This is you? Looking good, the no booze rule is doing you well

I'd have to 'like' that, wouldn't I?