Lake Bailkal

Trip Start Aug 24, 2007
1
5
43
Trip End Feb 26, 2008


Loading Map
Map your own trip!
Map Options
Show trip route
Hide lines
shadow

Flag of Russia  ,
Monday, October 8, 2007

Irkutsk was pleasant, nothing spectacular, some nice architecture and a decent meal. It is the gateway to Lake Baikal, so a necessary stop off. We decided on going to Olkhen Island. Olkhen is a 70km long by about 15 km wide, spectacular island, situated in Lake Baikal. It is a Shaman center, having some sacred site dotted around the perimeter, and apparently is intricately involved in the Shaman religion. The lake is HUGE, it holds 1/5 of all the fresh water on the planet!! The lake in its entirety is 650 km long, up to 90km wide, and 1642m deep. Ali and Dickie swan in it... OK, so perhaps now it doesn't hold that much fresh water, but still some none the less.
We filled our days with very mediocre table tennis (the guest house owner is a former Russian champion), hiking, mountain biking, recovering from a crazy Vodka session (involving some Swiss, English, Brazilians, Poles and South Africans - no
Russians!) and round the island jeep trips. Plenty to do and see, and all very beautiful. I would love to come back over winter, when the lake (the whole thing) is frozen over and you can drive a car across the ice. We saw a photographer's presentation of the ice formations and sheets of thick frozen ice. It looks amazing!
Slideshow Print this entry St. Petersburg hotels

Comments

mattandast
mattandast on Oct 18, 2007 at 09:26AM

fresh water
sparks, did you not get the tootsies wet? pansy boy! that is one big puddle of water.

Add Comment