This morning started quite late again as the guest house doesn’t serve breakfast until 9am. As such, we were packed and ready to leave before breakfast (which this morning consisted of porridge, bread, sausage, cheese, boiled eggs and savoury pancakes). After we had finished what we could, we assembled outside of the guesthouse to be met with a different guide to Eugene, who first took us to the Baikal Museum. The trust have recently updated this Museum, and it now encaptures most of the relevant information about the lake. We started with the geography of the lakes, and how there are actually 3 depressions which make up 1 lake. We also got to see the fauna of the lake, from the plankton and sponges, to the crustaceans, the fish and then the seals. It was pointed out that the plankton in Baikal have consumed many different viruses, including cholera, when it was introduced to them under laboratory tests. Unfortunately, the plankton will only live in waters around 16C and can’t live in the lab. There are many fish in the lake, including the main staple fish; umul. This is a form of freshwater salmon which is extremely tasty! We did also see a couple of the Baikal Seals, and a section showing the growth of the railway in the area.
From here we visited a Wooden Village history museum. This place was started when the Angara River was dammed, and the River rose up to 10m in places. After the first hydro electric dam was built, workers would come and burn down any building in the path of the River. As such, a group of people got as many of the original buildings along the Angara and have placed them in this place museum. There are a large number of buildings placed here, I including; ricb farmhouses, including courtyard. administration building, churches, a gatehouse and a number of buildings from the ancient aboriginal tribe, the Boryars. The place was stunning, and we got to go inside a number of buildings and see how life would back in the days of settlement. Some of the buildings had been slightly renovated, and others still had Muscovite Mica for a window pane. The houses were quite simple, although every house had a ‘red’ corner set aside for important reason, more because red was the colour of the sunset and therefore most important, rather than communism.
We drove from here to Irkutsk, and after checking in, and handing over our passports, went in search of a late lunch. We found a burger bar, Meatzone, and ordered lunch for 650 Roubles, including a latte. Considering that there are 50 Roubles for $1AU, not too bad.
After lunch John and Todd went back to the hotel to look for a bank and Ben and I had a look around the central square of Irkutsk. There were mostly administrative buildings and hotels around the square, with no shops, so we were pleased that our guide had stated that at least one shop was on the agenda for tomorrow. We had dinner at a restaurant called, “Claremont”, where I had pike fish cakes, Todd and John had venison and Ben had pork cutlets, washed down with 3 beers and a cherry (yes, cherry) milkshake, all for $12.50 each. As such we arrived back at the hotel quite early, with John going off to bed and Ben, Todd and myself remaining in the bar until quite late.