Lake Baikal.

The four of us were met off the train by a Russian student called Katia. She took us to a coffee shop and told us that two other people would be joining us for this part of the journey. Their train was arriving in an hour, so we got a coffee, brushed our teeth, and tried to not be too overwhelmed at being around loads of Caucasians for the first time in two years.

The other two people came. They were two vets from Australia. They had come from Moscow and were heading to Sapporo in Japan to do some skiing. We all instantly got along, and we knew that this leg of the journey was going to be something special.

Lake Baikal is the world’s largest lake. It is 636 km long, 79 km wide, and has a depth in some parts of 1637 m. Scientists believe that it is more than 20 million years old. One fifth of all of the world’s fresh water is stored here. The water is so pure and clean, that it is drinkable at any point.

The drive to the village where we were staying took about 2 hours. During that time, we all just stared out the window at the beautiful Siberian countryside. The mountains were jagged, the trees were covered in heavy sheets of snow, and the rivers and small lakes were frozen solid. There was no life outside, and it added to the eerie feelings we all felt about this completely isolated place.

We arrived in the village of Bolshoe Goloustnoe at about noon. The house was wooden with green painted windows and curtains for doors. We were shown to our room and then served our first Russian meal. Our host was a huge woman, who you instinctively knew would not let us starve during our time here. Lunch is the most important meal in Siberia, so we had a feast! We started with a soup, which was so hearty I was convinced that there could not be another course. How wrong I was! This was followed by meatballs and mashed potatoes, accompanied with bread, butter and a variety of sauces. Afterwards, we were so full, we were given an hour to rest before we went out to explore that lake and the village.

Lake Baikal may be the world’s largest lake, but it is still frozen solid between December and April. We got some mountain bikes out of the shed, and headed down to the lake to ride over the frozen ice! Within about two minutes, both Gemma and I had fallen off. With renewed gusto, I climbed back on and carefully navigated myself along and around the extremely slippery ice. The ice was so clear that you could see all the way down to the bottom of the lake. At first, it felt very unnatural being out there, but after a while, it felt fine. We all soon discovered that the best way to stay on the bikes was to ride on the parts of the lake that had snow on them. This created more friction and made it easier to move forward. If you rode on the parts that were just ice, your back wheel just slid out from under you, and you were down on your bum.

After about two hours, we went back to the house. The wind on the lake was cold and strong, and our thermals were not doing their jobs anymore. Anyway, it was time for a banya, a traditional Russian sauna. The banya was in another building at the end of the garden. It consisted of a sauna, which was heated by wood. You had to stand in the sauna for as long as you could (about 3 minutes for me, Barclay was much more tolerant of the heat). You then came out of the sauna, and used the wash room. This consisted of a huge barrel of cold, Lake Baikal water, which you scooped out with a pan. Above your head, there was a heated vat of water that you turned on using a tap and mixed with the cold water. It was the best shower ever! Afterwards, we both felt so relaxed and nice. After another wonderful meal, we all settled down and had a few vodkas to celebrate our arrival in Russia.

The next day, we had arranged to take the bikes 4 km over the ice of Lake Baikal to a fisherman’s house for lunch. We set out about midday. We had to be back by 5:00, because the two Australian boys had to leave, as their train to Vladivostok left early the following morning. Katia told us that it would take an hour to get there on the bikes. It ended up taking two and a half hours. Some parts of the ice were nice and flat, we made it over these parts quickly and safely. Other parts of the ice were just plain mental. Some parts were like frozen waves, whilst other parts formed jagged daggers where the ice had pushed up other parts of ice underneath it. These parts took a lot of time to maneuver around. During some parts of the journey, we had to carry the bikes over parts of the lake, being careful not to impale ourselves on the way. Needless to say, it was a relief to get to the house and sit down for a delicious lunch of borsht (beetroot soup), omul (fresh fish from Lake Baikal), and fresh vegetables.

Because it had taken us so long to get to the village, we had to get back on the road as quickly as possible. We had decided that it would be both quicker and easier to walk the bikes back along the beach. It was difficult in some places, as the beach was covered with pebbles, and the water along the edge of the lake was frozen. It was, however, the best decision we made. We got back to Bolshoe Goloustnoe in about an hour and a half. The Australian boys had to leave straight away. We had another banya, and went straight to bed.

The next morning, we were going back to the city of Irkutsk for one night in a hotel. The following morning, we were catching the train to Moscow. This was going to be the longest of our four train journeys. This was going to take 77 hours!

We arrived in Irkutsk, did washing, ate some food, found a Beatles theme pub, and had a couple of beers to knock us out. We knew that the next part of the journey was going to be a tough one.