Lost in webSpace: Exploring Port Baikal

Last night I stayed up fairly late, did up a detailed post on our visit to Port Baikal, but halfway through, either the phone glitched , or I did, and everything simply disappeared into the ether.

I totally gave up and decided to restart afresh.

Yesterday's plan was to walk the circum Baikal Railway line,

The Circum Baikal is a scenic stretch of track stretching from Port Baikal to Slyudyanka. It features many tunnels and galleries. Though it was a part of the original Trans Siberian line, it was abandoned due to the construction of Irkutsk Hydroelectric Dam and hydro power project.

The main line nows cuts away from Lake Baikal after Slyudvyanka and heads to Irkutsk without touching Lake Baikal again.

What’s left of the circum Baikal line is now more of a tourist attraction.

Since our whole trip is about a train anyway we decided to give this a miss.

I really wanted to do a Lake Baikal cruise, but there are too many ice floes and the boat captains said it would take a month at least before they would commence operations for the year.

We decided on exploring and trekking around Port Baikal instead and hiking to the top of the hill.

This is a view of the Angara river that separates Port Baikal from Listvyanka. There’s a nice legend about that rock in the middle of the river, but I’ll get to that another time.

Another view of Port Baikal from Listvyanka.

Picture with a dude dressed like a baby Baikal spotted seal, because, why not!

There are no road connection between Listvyanka and Port Baikal.

The government run ferries run on infrequent schedules and limited capacity.

Private speedboat operators make trips criss crossing the Angara channel as long as they have paying customers. After a wait, we got into the boat, and off we went to Port Baikal.

Some old steam engines on display at the Port Baikal station, which is now a museum.

Walking along the tracks, walking on the tracks, we made our way to the starting point of our trekking route.

The ice floes keep movign around are are now closer than they were in the morning. We started the trek to the hilltop church.

Passed this motorbike which seemed to have major jugaad work done in the sidecar .

Made it to the top only to find the church closed. We enjoyed the view and made our way down.

The Circum Baikal line is dotted with these tiny stations.

We reached this rocky little beach and sat down for a breather. We were thirsty. So we walked up to the lake and drank some water. It is quite sweet. The lake water is so clear it's unbelievable.

At a little beachside pier saw a group of little girls and their dog fishing. Got to meet the resilient Borssya of the three legs, Nastsya and Dasha.

I got admire their catch of Baikal Bull head fish.

The girls and their dog seemed to be having a whale of a time.

The absolute pleasures of childhood in a gorgeous place.

The mueseum at the station had some displays of railway memorabilia.

There was an insanely long line for the boat back to Listvyanka. The OH started skimming stones along the water surface, when some kids from a school tour group wanted him tomteach them how to do it.

He gave the kids an impromptu lesson that kept them well occupied till the boat came.