Baikal Day 3
Early Bird Gets the Worm
It is strange how traveling to a time zone that is only 3hrs difference can mess with your clock worse than 14 hours. This is what is happening now.
Breakfast however isn’t served for another 4+ hours. Brutal and I ate my remaining 1/3 of Oreo brownie last night after returning back to the hotel but before dinner. This was a poor choice. Woke up starving with nothing to eat and nowhere close by to pick up any snacks / food.
Additionally, this was one of the few times that I didn’t pack my coffee kit with me. Another failure and difficult life lesson.
Overcoming What life throws at us
I did it...I made it to breakfast! #winning
Breakfast
A solid showing at breakfast. The view itself was so peaceful. Sitting inside a warm log cabin restaurant with an unobstructed view of the Ankara river. Watching the river flow by with ice flowing by with the current. The opposite side is so undeveloped that you feel like you’re out in the middle of nowhere. Alone with nature but with the comfort and warmth that makes it feel a bit dream like. Almost like it is too good to be true.
A Trip Back to My Childhood
After a quick breakfast we finished getting ready and our guides picked us up. We then pulled up to the ice where my childhood came back to me in a flash. I was transported back to Christmas 1990. I was looking at a a Tyco RC Typhoon hovercraft! Only this one was able to carry people and had a slightly less cool paint job. And instead of me piloting our craft, it was a Russian man with all the proper credentials. This chariot of innovation (straight from my childhood in the 90’s) would be our primary mode of transportation for the day.
Trains
From embarking on our journey on the ice Baikal was exciting...I mean come on we were in a freaking hovercraft!
Our 1st destination was to see some of the railroad tunnels. The railroad used to be a circle loop that connected some key points of Baikal. The installation of hydroelectric dams in the 1950/60s resulted in portions of the loop being out of service and underwater. The rail was then turned into a tourist transport. This means that although these tunnels are more nearly 120yrs old they are in great condition and impressively built.
We made a couple of stops to look at the rail tunnels and bridges. Impressive and interesting but honestly the view of Baikal and the ice there really continued to steal the show.
Gettin Turnt
We then decided to take part in an age old Baikal tradition1. It had been explaned the previous day that we would be drinking from Baikal using a straw. I had envisioned that we would simply be drilling into the ice and sucking water up through a long straw. It seems something got lost in translation2.We found a pristine sheet of ice that was protruding above the surface of the ice. I was then thinking ok...we’re going to break a chunk of this and melt it with a little gas stove3. Once again, I was wrong4. Instead, a small hole was drilled into the sheet and then the hole was filled with a drink and we were handed straws. It was an experience but honestly, I think drilling through the ice and using a straw to drink a bit of Baikal water would have been more exciting.
Lunch By Real Grandmas
Let’s first stress the real part of this lunch description. We hovered up5. This was a small village and I do mean small (less than 10people) that is something that really is a sight to see. I would have loved to spend more time walking around with my 8x10 but hovercraft standby time ain’t cheap.
We had lunch in this small cozy house6. It was legitimately some of the best soup and Russian dumplings that I have ever had. It was spectacular and the homemade mustard they had was the best I’ve ever had. It was strong with plenty of radish but so tasty7. Although the food was great, the real treat was the mother daughter duo that run this little dining experience. They are both real grandmothers. Apparently there are other imposters/posers who offer pretend lie that they can provide similar experiences. But their food is not up to the standard that any real grandmother would have for food they would feed their loved ones. So make sure you find a real grandma for your Baikal homemade grandmother lunch experience.
Blades of Steel
It was a first...I, after decades of actively avoiding and refusing to go ice skating...went ice skating. I would say that my decades of abstaining from ice skating paid off...this experience was just special .
It really was a bit surreal. We were skating in the middle of nowhere. You look around and you see a small piece of shore and the nothing but a great white expanse and if you look down, it is clear ice that bleeds into a dark black abyss below your feet.
It is a memory I believe I will cherish forever.
Iron Will Grew Up
Our next stop for the day was to visit Oleg and his Baikal Husky.
We got run the sled dogs. That was quite an interesting experience these dogs were quite well trained. What surprised me was seeing the when we arrived. They look a bit skinny and undersized. They almost look like a mutt. But these animals were Baikal Husky’s. We took off on our sleds and I noticed that they didn’t have as much speed or acceleration as the traditional husky team I had ridden before. It did become clear though that they had stamina.
After the dog sledding, we had a horse pulled sled ride. That was impressive. The 3 horses really could move and they seemed to do so effortlessly. As we rested them, I was impressed with how beautiful they were. They seem so strong and proud. Really magnificent.
After returning, to our starting point, we had the chance to sit down with Oleg. Oleg told us a bit about his passion of dog sledding and The Baikal husky.
Stamina...I had no idea! I was impressed with how well they kept a steady pace but I had no idea that they had already done about 70km that day. They do 100km a day to prepare for race season.
Oleg also mentioned that he had developed this breed of dog8. He hadn’t intended to develop a breed but his efforts to have a sled dog that satisfied what he wanted from the perfect dog.
Oleg also shared stories of what it was like to race in these endurance sled dog races. Days of little sleep with lots of cold. The descriptions real did make me think of Iron Will.
Views from 700m
To close out the agenda for the day, we took a trip up the local ski hill to a sweet look out point. We were able to see an incredible view of Baikal flowing to the Angara river with snow capped mountains in the background with the sea of ice on the lake. All while the sun was setting. It was beautiful.
The ride up and down the ski hill was on some dodgy cable car. I did question why there were so few people there riding it; thinking does everyone know something we don’t? We may it out unscathed and then retuned back to our hotel for the night.
Tags
#Baikal #russia #seasonal #ice #frozen #skating #dogsled #baikalhusky #angara #hover
no idea of this is true or just something our guides came up with ↩︎
hard to find a translator your can trust ↩︎
i was making this assumption as it looked like the bag our guide pulled out could contain a small backpacking stove ↩︎
no fault of translation this time ↩︎
who would have thought I would ever take a hovercraft to lunch ↩︎
might be more accurate to call a dacha but house is close enough ↩︎
I’m ashamed of American mustard ↩︎
I’m not sure if this is official as I didn’t see anything in a quick google search to substantiate it ↩︎
