Day 49 - Irkutsk

We've left Lake Baikal behind us now and we're back in Irkutsk to spend the day. Lake Baikal was an amazing place; absolutely massive (i.e. contains more water that the five great lakes on North America put together!!). Our first full day there was a little disorientating because we were both suffering from train-lag. We're only about 8 hours ahead of UK time, but having lost about an hour a day on the train plus the 3 hours on the flight to Moscow, it all seemed to catch up with us. We're just about aclimatised now though. After an early lunch on the first morning we took a walk around Listvyanka which is a little town just 70Km away from Irkutsk and we took the chair lift up to the top of one of the mountains surrounding the lake. Great views.

The second day we took a ferry to Port Baikal across the the mouth of the Angara River which joins Lake Baikal. The town itself wasn't much to write home about, but the walk along the old railway track was lovely. Valera, our host from the homestay made us a nice picnic lunch by roasting some sausages over a fire and boiling up a big pot of mint tea for us. The three of us just sat there in silence watching the clouds float over the lake and mountains. I've decided I want to come back in the winter now to see the place covered in snow and ice. It would be a real novelty to take the ice road across the lake to Port Baikal by car which is the same route that the ferry would usually take!

We've got an early start tomorrow to catch the train from Irkutsk to Mongolia; I mean 04:30 in the morning! We're staying at another homestay tonight and it seems to be run by Edna 'E' Mode from the Incredibles although she's aged a bit. Her flat is much nicer than the one we were in at Listkyanka though; for a start the bedspread is not made of nylon tiger-print material and the wallpaper is not trying to prise itself off the damp walls. We've also found a bar to go to tonight called "The English Pub". How quaint...