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

[Ansett]

Hi Rooflyer great trip report has given us some food for thought on our next Russian Trip. I would recommend Novosibirsk having been several times in both summer Plus 35 and at Xmas at Minus 40. Lots of interesting things to do including Ballet and Opera. Some great scenery and a very interesting Rail Museum.

 

[Dudditz]

Can you do a bit of a Trip Report on that visit? Love to know some more about the place before I visit.

I've always intended to a trip report here after enjoying so many - especially as I enjoy some of the more obscure locations in between the more conventional places in the world.

I'll be doing a short 4 day hop through Turkmenistan (missing Merv and Gonur sadly) working my way through Uzbekistan and a slice of Kazakhstan seeing Almaty and Astana. Really looking forward to Uzbekistan the most as the beautiful silk road cities look similar to some parts of Iran I visited a few years ago. Stay tuned!

 

[RooFlyer]

Going to do a @JohnM here and recapitulate some of the images, as I now have access to my laptop and the pics from my Sony camera, as opposed to just the iPhone pics before. I found some things I didn't illustrate before, too. These will be thematic rather than progressive.

IRKUTSK

St Saviour church





Nearby memorial to the Great Patriotic War



Nearby Bogoyavlensky monastery



Memorial to the founders of Irkutsk, 1661



Raising of the Cross Church



Babir, symbol of Irkutsk, with a sable in its mouth



Tsar Alexander III



Yuri Gagarin

 

[RooFlyer]

Znamensky Nunnery, or monastery as its sometimes described. Its a little out of the city centre, by the river.



Outside it, a recently erected memorial to Admiral Kolchack, who was executed by the Bolsheviks when the Revolution eventually reached this far east





Prominent outside the church building is the grave of Grigory Shelekov, who claimed Alaska for Russia in the 1700s (it was purchased by the Americans in 1867 for $7.2 million or 2 cents per acre.



Inside, this icon is the most revered



I was spared the story of the iconostasis

 

[RooFlyer]

The Kazanansky church is also a bit out of the way, but worth taking a diversion to.






What looks like a carved wooden 'frame' to the icons is in fact intricately carved stone.





The Opera House. Romeo and Juliet was playing.



Lenin, in characteristic pose. I love the Russian flag memorial



The Angara River.

 

[LadyC]

Thank you for your fascinating trip report. Although I love a good 5 star hotel and fancy restaurant, it is great to read adventures of a more exotic or unusual type.

 

[VPS]

Some of the colours in those recent photos are magnificent

 

[RooFlyer]

The Sony does a good job. iPhone pics look better when taken, because they are on a really good screen on the phone screen compatred to the camera screen, I reckon.

 

[RooFlyer]

TUNKA VALLEY

Far southern end of Lake Baikal



Mountain range to the SE-SW of the lake and which forms the southern range to the Tunka valley



As we drove west, the larch forests astounded with their autumn colours.


The northern range of mountains came into view soon after. All the browns are actually yellow larches.


Numerous little villages along the way. We would be driving for several hours up the valley - its huge.

 

[RooFlyer]

True picture book stuff









The solar observatory. A cross of dozens of microwave receivers, with each tracking the sun across the sky. Has been in operation for decades. Its in an extremely remote location - an hours drive from the smallest village. I think we were told that aircraft are not permitted to fly on the area.





One such village with wooden stave church tower from 1814.


As we approached Arshan at the foot of the Sayan mountains (the northern range), there were a couple of little extinct volcanoes, only some 10s of metres above the plain. They provided some of the most amazing colour contrasts.

 

[OATEK]

True picture book stuff

Great colours and landscapes.

 

[RooFlyer]

One of the volcanoes - several cones in a cluster.



Sayan mountains behind the old spa town of Arshan. We did a short walk there.



Didn't see much wildlife. this was the only non-bird we saw!



And this is a nuthatch; friendly ... its looking for a feed.



Looking south to the range on the other side of the valley.



Back in the valley, the Irkut River that flows to Irkutsk.



There are hot springs here - the facility to the left.



The mountain range front is vast - couldn't capture all of it in this panorama!



Just a nice bucolic scene.

 

[craven morehead]

@RooFlyer these photos have taken it to another level mate. Just brilliant !

 

[Nukie]

Amazing trip report and fabulous pics, thank you for sharing.

 

[RooFlyer]

Thanks .

Normally I take my laptop with me on trips (hangover from when I was always 'on call' for my consultancy) but this being Siberia, I didn't. (But, having now been, I could have and it would have been secure.) Definitely a better result using the Sony images via the computer rather than just the phone.

 

[JohnM]

One of the volcanoes - several cones in a cluster.

View attachment 139541

Sayan mountains behind the old spa town of Arshan. We did a short walk there.

View attachment 139542

Didn't see much wildlife. this was the only non-bird we saw!

View attachment 139543

And this is a nuthatch; friendly ... its looking for a feed.

View attachment 139544

Looking south to the range on the other side of the valley.

View attachment 139545

Back in the valley, the Irkut River that flows to Irkutsk.

View attachment 139547

There are hot springs here - the facility to the left.

View attachment 139548

The mountain range front is vast - couldn't capture all of it in this panorama!

View attachment 139549

Just a nice bucolic scene.

View attachment 139546

Interesting soft-looking hay rolls and not wrapped. New tech yet to reach agriculture in that region, it would seem.

 

[OATEK]

Perhaps you should forget the thesis and produce a calendar instead! Would be a best seller.

 

[RooFlyer]

LAKE BAIKAL, OLKHON ISLAND

Driving across the Russian steppe



then into the forests



Buryatian legends and sharman symbols



First view of Lake Baikal = the little port where the ferry crosses to Olkhon Island



'Little Baikal' - between the north-western shore of the island and the mainland

 

[RooFlyer]

Also Little Baikal. Remains of a jetty at a former forced labour factory.



The roads on the island are atrocious - no maintenance allowed by the Parks Service, we were told - so people just make more tracks ...





We drove further up the west coast of the island, towards the northern tip



Until, at the northern extremity, we look NE up the long axis of the Lake. The NW shore and mountain range to the left; in the mid right is a promontory coming off the east shore (the mountain is about 1,000m above the lake!). Between those 2 the lake extends for hundreds of km more.

 

[RooFlyer]

Now looking down the eastern side of the island from the northern tip



Looking north up the lake




A little village and weather station



Driving back towards the ferry station


Said ferries



A smooth crossing back