Russia 4 Lake Baikal, fish and sunsets

Aug 6-7

We took the train from Ulan Ude to Irkutsk in the daytime to enjoy the views and had not expected a 2 hours delay. Russian railway is rigorous in timetable observance. Notices in the carriages give the arrival and departure times from stations, if more than 5 minutes passengers are allowed down for a stroll and I often wander the length of the train. Many people are having a smoke. So we were amazed to have a 2 hour delay on our train to Irkutsk. We wonder if The Russian rail service give pay delay compensation, I doubt it.

We went to the Baikal resort Listvyanka by taxi. Here we had a home stay, our host had an impressive collection of samovars and was drying his mushrooms there. He grew raspberries, potatoes and flowers in his garden. We enjoyed baked Baikal fish for supper on the lakeside. The fish market sellers had different varieties of Baikal smoked fish, which we bought for a picnic lunch, some fishes were leathery like kippers, others had white flesh.

The lake Baikal Museum had interesting maps of temperature and ice thickness and fish activity over the year. A fine glass model captured the depth of the lake.  The lake with the water, sky and forest is good for photography.  We took a local ferry across the lake to port Baikal, there were about 40 foot passengers and several cars, a huge old station remains from the days when there was a trans Baikal railway. 

The sunsets on Baikal were impressive, I could happily have stayed longer here doing lake Baikal walks or bike rides.