I survived my 52 hour train trip to Irkutsk and immediatly got the buis down to a small town called Listvyanka. the trip wto Irkutsk was quite monotonos with just rolling hills and and forests but reaching Baikal was a real highlight. In terms of water volume Baikal is the biggest and deepest lake in the world it is also one of the cleanest . it holds about 40% of the worlds fresh water not including the poles all at a constant chilli 8 degrees. anyway enough of the facts, it was pissing it down when i arrived and continues unabated for the rest of the day. my second day in cleared up so i decided to take a dip. it was very refeshing and very short. after 2 relaxing days in Baikal in which i took 2 swims lots of walks and ate huge amounts of smoked Omul (a local fish) i headed back to Irkutsk and back to the train.