Sunday 1st July - Listvyanka, Banyas and Liver and Potatoes

After 2 nights on the grubby train, we arrived in the morning at Irkusk. We were met at the train station by our local guides - Anna and Dimitri. They took us to a small village about an hourA?s drive away, called Listviyanka, on the shores of Lake Baikal ' the deepest lake in the world. First, were shown to our homestays. Jolene and I were staying with a lovely lady called Olga (the rotund grandmother type). She had made jam and scones for us when we arrived which we tucked into with gusto after that nasty instant food ont he train. While Jolene was in the shower, Olga asked me what we would like for dinner - she was making Liver (with potatoes)... liver being something in fact that I canA?t stand and I knew that Jolene couldnA?t either as we had cooincidently discussed it just the day before... so I said that would be lovely and we were really looking forward to it. This was communicated with Olga speaking Russian at 90 miles an hour and me trying to figure out what she was saying... but itA?s amazing how creative you can get when you donA?t have a common language. Took me right back to my AFS days in Japan (smile and nod, smile and nod).

After a considerable scrub down we had an really informative tour of the Lake Baikal museum, just down the hill from our apartment homestays. Talk about information overload! Ask me anything at all about this lake - I?m sure I can tell you! But actually it was really interesting. At 1637 meters deep and 50 million years old, it?s the deepest and oldest in the world, holding about 20% of the world?s fresh water supplies. In other words, if we ran out of water tomorrow, Lake Baikal could supply the entire planet?s drinking water for the next 40 years. But that would be a shame, because in addition, it also as 1000?s of endemic species - fish, crustatations, sponges and plants. Even billions of tiny micoscopic shrimp that filters the lake so well that the water is completely safe to drink.

After the tour, we had lunch (grilled Omul fish from the lake tasting like trout - delicious) and a walk through the tiny village. Christina had booked us all a "Banya" which is a Russian Sauna, at the hotel on the hill. Small wooden huts tended by a young man whose job it is to stoke the fire constantly. You book the whole hut out so i's not public like Japan. There is a room with a TV and hot tea and towels for you. Then a shower room and then the sauna. You beat yourself with soft fragrant birch branches. I scrubbed and scrubbed and we all got clean and shiny.

After the liver and potatoe dinner back at Olga's (actually it wasn't that bad afterall)... we sat up at the hotel till it got dark dark (10pm) drinking vodka and watching the sunset over the lake.