ROUND IRKUTSK

From Irkutsk we took a bus out to Arshan in the Tunka Valley. It is an old spa dating back to Imperial days, with thermal waters for drinking and bathing. Rather run down, but as we arrived on Russia Day (June 12th), commemorating the new constitution of 1990 (I think), it was absolutely packed! Despite being the busiest day of the year, the baths were closed! But there were hundreds filling bottles with the water to take home. Magda managed to have a bath the next day – 10 minutes for 80 roubles! – and found it was not really a bath but an all-round shower, such as I have seen in Victorian bathrooms in country houses in Britain!

We stayed in what we called our dacha but was a fairly basic single room with out-house. However the room was clean and it was a roof for the night…


We had a couple of walks up the first ridge of the Sayan mountains on the north side of the valley, from where we looked across to the Mongolian border. The wild flowers in the forest were lovely and varied, lots of columbines, wild azaleas and various species of renunculus, and higher up I found gentians.


Followed our trip to Lake Baikal, the deepest lake in the world (1,670m), containing 20% of the planet’s fresh water, where we stayed in Listvianka, the easiest place to get to. Our Ukranian-born hostess at the little guest-house was rather grumpy, but produced a delicious supper of the local trout-like omul,
and fired up the “Russian bath” (sauna) for us. There was a pretty church in the village

and a little theatre where a man singing to a guitar was finishing a concert. We listened through the doors for a while but were not allowed in… There was even a bus provided to transport the audience.


Despite fearful warnings of disease-bearing ticks we braved a walk along the lakeside for three hours each way on a beautiful morning. The lake was looking spectacular in the sunlight…. There were a number of boats running up and down, and we saw geese, mergansers, ducks and gulls.

For the trip back to Irkutsk we took the hydrofoil down the Angara river from the lake to the hydro-electric dam on the edge of the city. Definitely the way to travel!

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Desde Irkutsk tomamos un bus hasta Arshan en el Valle del Tunka. Es un spa de la epoca Imperial, con aguas minerales para y tomar y para banarse. Estaba un poco decaido, pero llegamos el 12 de Junio, la fiesta nacional que conmemora la nueva constitucion de 1990 (?), y estaba llenisimo! A pesar de ser el dia mas movido del ano, los banos estaban cerrados! Pero centenares de visitantes llenaban botellas con agua para llevar. Magda se bano el otro dia en una ducha donde el agua viene de todos lados – 10 minutos por 80 rublos!

Nuestra pieza estaba bastante basico con ‘bano’ en el jardin, pero estaba limpia…

Caminamos en la Sierra de Sayan por el lado norte del valle, con vista al sur hacia la frontera con Mongolia. Las flores silvestres eran bellisimas.

Despues de eso fuimos al Lago Baikal, el lago mas profundo del mundo (1.670m) con un 20% del agua dulce del planeta. Alojamos en Listvianka, de acceso facil en bus. La duena de casa estaba un poco mal genio, pero preparo una comida rica del pescado local, omul, y prendio el sauna… En el pueblo vimos una pequena iglesia, y un teatro donde un artista folclorico estaba cantando con guitarra. Estaba a punto de terminar el concierto asi que no nos dejaron pasar, pero escuchamos un ratito por la puerta. Hasta habia una micro para el publico…

A pesar de los avisos sobre el riesgo de garrapatas, portadoras de encephalitis, caminamos por el borde del lago durante una manana entera – precioso…

Volvimos a Irkutsk por el rio Angara en ‘hydrofoil’. La mejor manera de viajar!