Hello All,

Sorry for a two-week delay, our first week of China has involved lots of travelling.

No Trans-Siberian train journey should be partaken without a detour to Lake Baikal. We visited in the off season but found the forming ice stunning and the temperatures (though sub-zero) bearable (especially with our many layers we are now glad to have packed - hooray for long johns!)

On arrival we had to walk 1km to our hostel (thankfully uphill so almost warming) and arrived with numb fingers and toes but nothing else to complain about. We soon departed again to see the sunset over the lake, wondering at the wisps of vapour coming off its still surface.

Lake Baikal's face changed significantly overnight and we saw white horses on our way down to the shore. Visiting the beautiful church, museum and view point meant a fair amount of walking, though we did employ our window-shopping technique to prevent getting too cold. The least comfortable part of our walk came from the two sections where Lake Baikal's waves broke over the road so we had to navigate our way through the icy flood the water formed. Having done so we sought the chairlift playing "I am the captain of this ship" to keep our spirits warm.

We were discouraged by wind and snow on the third day so used our time to plan some of our onward journey. The weather cleared in the afternoon though and we saw the sun setting again before we left. This was one of 3 sunsets we saw over the lake and count ourselves truly blessed by the weather (which has been consistently warmer than normal).

Thanks God