Lake Baikal, Siberia, Russia

We arrived in Irkutsk after an interesting two night train ride from Ulaanbaatar. The border crossing took about 8 hours as our carriage (uncoupled to anything else) was left on one side of the border for immigration and customs, then shunted across the border, for yet more immigration and customs from the Russians. To add to the ridiculousness of the crossing we watched Mongolian smugglers hiding all their wares in hiding places all over the train, so the Russians didn’t find them. Some of it was fairly obvious and it soon appeared that the train staff may have been paid to turn a blind eye. It also transpired later in the trip that, potentially, the carriage stewardess may have been in on the whole scam! It was interesting to watch anyway.

After spotting our first Lada, we were shuttled off on a quick transfer to our home for three nights – a beautiful wooden chalet near Baikal Lake. We were fortunate enough this time to get our own room and ensuite, so this cheered us up no end.

The lake itself is huge (about 5th biggest in the world) and the deepest fresh water lake in the world (about 1600m). It also freezes over completely in January / February, but now it simply steams all day – as the air is so cold compared to the lake. The temperature at the moment seems to be averaging about -25C during the day and about five or so less at night. Can’t complain though, as this is what we signed up for!

So far we’ve been on a couple of hikes in the snow around parts of the lake to view-points. We have been dog-sledding (amazing fun both driving and as a passenger!) and skidooing. We’ve had so much fun in the snow it’s great! It’s also been really relaxing, as we’ve managed to have late breakfasts, sun doesn’t rise until about 9:30, and enjoy drinks by a warm fire.

We’re starting to see more European themes coming through, even though we’re 4 days train ride away from Moscow. Things like the food and traffic have all begun to become more normal! Not long now and we’ll be back where we started!