27th & 28th May Lake Baikal

After arriving in Irkutsk at 1.24am Moscow time (2.24am local time) we transferred by mini van to Listvyanka. We arrived 20 minutes before the ferry was due to depart to take us to Port Baikal. It was very cold. with ice still floating in the lake. We all pulled out our warm jackets, beanies and gloves to try to keep warm. We had a 10 minute walk from the pier to Natalya's B&B where we stayed for 2 nights. We had a lovely breakfast of blinni with jam and yoghurt. Some of us managed to have a shower before the hot water ran out and then we rested before going on a walk to the local railway museum. The museum was quite interesting with models, old photos and tools etc used on the circumbaikal railway. We walked back to the B&B and after lunch we headed off along the train tracks to have a look at one of the many tunnels built for the railway. It was a great walk (8km return) after being on the train for 4 nights. Looking out into the icy waters we were trying to imagine what it would be like to live here in winter! After our walk we used the Banya (Sauna) at the B&B which was very warming. We spent the evening after our lovely dinner of fish, rice and salad, playing kelly pool.

We woke at 5.20am to catch the 6.10am ferry over to Listvyanka as for the day. Ken and Kim had to leave today to catch the train as their visas ran out early so they had to leave Russia a day early and  this is the only ferry until this afternoon. We saw Ken and Kim off in their taxi to Irkutsk and headed to the hotel with Boris to use the wifi.

After using the internet we headed off for a walking tour of Listvyanka. We stopped off at a place  called Retro park which is described in the lonely planet as "a garden full of wacky sculpture pieces fashioned from old Soviet-era cars and motorbikes.

We then headed off to the shore walking through the residential part  of the town seeing the old and the new.   We stopped to play around and have a rest.

  David spent half an hour skimming stones on the water while Catriona had a cat nap. We bumped into the rest of the group who had slept in and caught a private boat over. They had already been up the cable car and were heading in the opposite direction. We walked further along the shore and went iceburg walking before heading off to find the cable car to the top of the mountain. It was not very high but we had great views over Lake Baikal and down the Angara river.  We caught the chair lift back down and walked to the ferry lading point  where we met up with the others again in time for the 4.15pm ferry. The rest of the evening was spent drinking vodka/beer and playing uno.