Bushtrail!
Baikal Bike Trip Start We were up and away to the train with Sergey by 7:30 in the morning - the first of several early starts! During the two hour train ride to Lake Baikal Sergey told us about the Datchas (cottages) that most local people have on the outskirts of town. They are little wooden houses on big lots, places where folks grow a few vegetables and come for weekend breaks during the summer. He said that during the 1970’s the government encouraged people to do this, so they could supplement the food supply. At the end of Soviet times people were able to buy their properties for a reasonable price, so now they are privately owned.
Starting the Bike Trip
Starting the Bike Trip
Quick, quick, get the bikes off the train, it only stops for two minutes. Nelson first, we pass the bikes to you! Don’t fall down the stairs…..Whew, we made it! Pictures will tell the story of the wooden house villages better than I can. It was lunch time, so after a short ride Sergey made us a “barbeque” in the rain: bread, sausages, tea and cookies. We rode along the old Circum-Baikal railway to a tunnel - actually something like a snowshed, build to keep rock falls from blocking the train tracks. Then back along the tracks (watch out for the narrow bridges), through the village, onto the highway to the next village (watch out for the trucks!). It was like riding from Kootenay Bay to Crawford Bay and I made it! There’s a first time for everything. I’m lucky it was a cool, rainy day because I don’t know if I would have made it in any kind of heat.
Riding the Circum-Baikal Railway
The hardest part of the riding day was the final 2 k up the long, low hill to our homestay. The homestay was in one of the “wooden houses” except it is redone with tin siding. We got a tour of the Museum of Minerals included with the homestay. I bought a key chain with a jade carving of Ongon, Buryat (local aboriginal people) shamanist spirit who is supposed to keep me safe. Keep my bike muscles going would be a better promise! The local industry revolved for many years around lumber and the marble quarry, there are many other mineral to be found locally as well. There were drawings around the museum of gold panning and prospecting that look just like the ones we see in the Slocan Valley or the Yukon!
Supper was potatoes with dill and sausage and tea. Sergey went out to check the train schedule for the next day and brought back beer and Russian cognac. That was the good news. The bad news was that the train we needed to catch the next day left at 6:30 in the morning, so we had to get up at 5:20 to have coffee (remind me to tell you about the coffee) and ride to the station.
The ride to the station was brilliant! All downhill (ahh the rewards of going uphill to start with!) in the pre-dawn light. Quick, load the bikes, the train only stops for two minutes….and we were off along the shores of Lake Baikal to our next adventure. Two hours later after watching a sunrise over Lake Baikal…quick, unload the bikes, the train only stops for two minutes….
We rode on to the “warm lakes” and I was really impressed with John’s ability to keep up with Sergey around the pot holes and through the bush. Eventually we arrived at little lake where there is a camp ground and a beach - John and I swam, Sergey swam and even Nelson came in for a splash. I don’t know if we added any years to our lives, but it felt great. The sun was out and after a while even a few local kids joined us on the dock.
Lunch was back down the road on the river bank. It’s very beautiful, but there’s garbage (plastic bottles, plastic bags, tin cans, etc) every where. Sergey was quite upset by all the mess and asked us if it’s the same in Canada. Well, no. We are pretty well trained to take out what we bring in. While we were having our picnic a group of men who were rafting down the river pulled out at our beach. They had been on a fishing and floating adventure. The way out was another one of those biking rewards…it didn’t seem like uphill to the lake, but it sure felt like downhill on the way home! Yippee.
Sergey was all ready to go on back to the Lake Baikal beach for more swimming, but we told him to take off on his own. The Cobra backsides and leg muscles were done for. Before Sergey left he and Nelson went and got beer at the local store, we sat and enjoyed the afternoon sun and the farmyard while he went exploring.
At 7 pm we got another unique experience - the Russian Banya (sauna). Soap, rinse, steam, rinse, repeat. Ahhhh, bliss. At 8 p.m. we got supper - mashed potatoes, stewed beef, tomatoes, cucumbers, bread, cherry soup. And then, s-l-e-e-p.
Morning commuter train, quick load the bikes, it only stops for two minutes. We went back to the town we stayed at for the first night. We had a four hour stop there and could have gone swimming but it was cool & rainy again so we road around for a while and then went to the railway museum and learned about the building of the Curcumbaikal line and a bit of local history. Our guide at the museum was very interested in making sure we had a good time and (through Sergey) invited us to try on Russian and German helmets from The Great Patriotic War, hold a 2000 year old mamoth tooth and a 4000 year old scull. It was amazing! Lunch was borscht and bread for us and Mongolian style meat pies for John.
Back to the train station. What? We’re on the wrong platform? Hurry, carry the bikes up the steps and down the steps and over to the other side. Wait for half an hour, the train is late. Quick, load the bikes, the train only stops for two minutes. Wait….when did you say we leave the station? In 15 minutes? Relax for the ride back to Urkutsk. Quick, get the bikes off……and we made it!
(I am using the computer at Katia's apartment in Perm, and I am having trouble with photos, so I"m going to leave it for now and go on to the next post. I promise more photos to follow.)
Riding the Circum-Baikal Railway
The hardest part of the riding day was the final 2 k up the long, low hill to our homestay. The homestay was in one of the “wooden houses” except it is redone with tin siding. We got a tour of the Museum of Minerals included with the homestay. I bought a key chain with a jade carving of Ongon, Buryat (local aboriginal people) shamanist spirit who is supposed to keep me safe. Keep my bike muscles going would be a better promise! The local industry revolved for many years around lumber and the marble quarry, there are many other mineral to be found locally as well. There were drawings around the museum of gold panning and prospecting that look just like the ones we see in the Slocan Valley or the Yukon!
Supper was potatoes with dill and sausage and tea. Sergey went out to check the train schedule for the next day and brought back beer and Russian cognac. That was the good news. The bad news was that the train we needed to catch the next day left at 6:30 in the morning, so we had to get up at 5:20 to have coffee (remind me to tell you about the coffee) and ride to the station.
The ride to the station was brilliant! All downhill (ahh the rewards of going uphill to start with!) in the pre-dawn light. Quick, load the bikes, the train only stops for two minutes….and we were off along the shores of Lake Baikal to our next adventure. Two hours later after watching a sunrise over Lake Baikal…quick, unload the bikes, the train only stops for two minutes….
We went to our homestay at a farm house and had a big breakfast of farm eggs, bread, tomatoes, cucumber and cheese. Back on the bikes and down to Lake Baikal. It was cool and damp, so we did not swim but we did wade. Sergey told us local legend says if you put your hands in the water you add one year to your life, if you put your feet in you add five years and if you swim, well….who knows? Next stop was a town market for picnic lunch food (Bread, sausage, cheese, smoked fish and cognac - we have a thing going now). The town used to be a thriving lumber town but with the down turn in the economy and the change from Soviet central control to local control it’s really suffered and now it’s quite run down and half empty. There is no “downtown” the way we think of it, just so places where the front part of the house is converted to sell a few groceries and essentials. (Even in the grocery stores in Irkursk we don’t pick up what we want and take it to the cashier - everything is behind the counter and we point or ask for what we want, the clerk brings it to the cashier and then we pay. This is NOT a retail culture! It’s actually hard to find the stores because only in the most renovated parts of the city do they have the plate glass display windows we are accustomed to. Most of the time there’s just a doorway in a brick or wooden building. Oh, there are signs, but we have to do the translation from Russian Cyrillic to understand…the word for “store” is “magazine” …. as in French!)
We rode on to the “warm lakes” and I was really impressed with John’s ability to keep up with Sergey around the pot holes and through the bush. Eventually we arrived at little lake where there is a camp ground and a beach - John and I swam, Sergey swam and even Nelson came in for a splash. I don’t know if we added any years to our lives, but it felt great. The sun was out and after a while even a few local kids joined us on the dock.Lunch was back down the road on the river bank. It’s very beautiful, but there’s garbage (plastic bottles, plastic bags, tin cans, etc) every where. Sergey was quite upset by all the mess and asked us if it’s the same in Canada. Well, no. We are pretty well trained to take out what we bring in. While we were having our picnic a group of men who were rafting down the river pulled out at our beach. They had been on a fishing and floating adventure. The way out was another one of those biking rewards…it didn’t seem like uphill to the lake, but it sure felt like downhill on the way home! Yippee.
Sergey was all ready to go on back to the Lake Baikal beach for more swimming, but we told him to take off on his own. The Cobra backsides and leg muscles were done for. Before Sergey left he and Nelson went and got beer at the local store, we sat and enjoyed the afternoon sun and the farmyard while he went exploring.
At 7 pm we got another unique experience - the Russian Banya (sauna). Soap, rinse, steam, rinse, repeat. Ahhhh, bliss. At 8 p.m. we got supper - mashed potatoes, stewed beef, tomatoes, cucumbers, bread, cherry soup. And then, s-l-e-e-p.
Morning commuter train, quick load the bikes, it only stops for two minutes. We went back to the town we stayed at for the first night. We had a four hour stop there and could have gone swimming but it was cool & rainy again so we road around for a while and then went to the railway museum and learned about the building of the Curcumbaikal line and a bit of local history. Our guide at the museum was very interested in making sure we had a good time and (through Sergey) invited us to try on Russian and German helmets from The Great Patriotic War, hold a 2000 year old mamoth tooth and a 4000 year old scull. It was amazing! Lunch was borscht and bread for us and Mongolian style meat pies for John.
Back to the train station. What? We’re on the wrong platform? Hurry, carry the bikes up the steps and down the steps and over to the other side. Wait for half an hour, the train is late. Quick, load the bikes, the train only stops for two minutes. Wait….when did you say we leave the station? In 15 minutes? Relax for the ride back to Urkutsk. Quick, get the bikes off……and we made it!
(I am using the computer at Katia's apartment in Perm, and I am having trouble with photos, so I"m going to leave it for now and go on to the next post. I promise more photos to follow.)
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