Circum-Baikal

In the night there was a tremendous thunderstorm, and the sound of the rain on a nearby poly-carbonate roof kept me awake for a while - though it is always nice to lie awake during a thunderstorm. 

In the drear and rainy morning we took taxi at 0745 to the railway station, a journey not enlivened, and lengthened considerably, by the arcane one-way systems of Irkutsk. We joined a three car diesel train which was going to take us on a tour of the "Circum-Baikal" railway. In no sense does this railway go all the way round the lake, as the name implies, but merely follows a now by-passed route of the Trans-Siberian railway along the side of the lake. The original railway ran alongside the lake, and was a considerable engineering feat. However, rock falls and other difficulties caused the Soviets to build a better railway through the forests to the west of the lake - and the original route was abandoned, to become a lost tourist railway.

The first hour or so of the route followed the new railway, through the forests and valleys, and down a steep and curvy descent to the lake side, where the train stopped and reversed onto the old and lost tourist railway towards Port Baikal. This part was very scenic, though we were somewhat sleepy and the weather was grey and rainy.

The little blue and white train inched its way along the branch at little more than walking pace, through tunnels and cuttings, past steep-sided tree-lined valleys and clusters of little dwelling houses. The weather improved slowly from quite heavy rain the morning, to merely dull at midday, to a sunny and cloudless afternoon at 4pm. 

The train stopped often at points of interest along the route, and everybody clambered down onto the tracks for a look round. For some of the older customers (a very many of whom were Japanese), clambering out of the train down onto the track was not easy without a platform, and use of a step-ladder had to made on occasion. Generally the points of interest were tunnels or viaducts or cuttings or places where there was scenery. A lady of a certain age, some kind of tour guide, spoke loudly and at great length in Russian throughout the journey, both on and off the train, using some kind of portable PA system when were on the tracks looking round. 

Around 1pm we stopped for lunch at a picturesque village by a headland. The line crossed a big river via a pretty viaduct and a modern concrete bridge, and here stood the obligatory Soviet-era 2-10-0 steam locomotive which you can see at railway stations all across Russia.  At this stop the train crew refilled all the hot water containers, and ladies from the village sold minor food and drink items and a few souvenirs, including oddly flavoured vodka. 

As the afternoon wore on we grew more and more jaded and tired, even as the scenery and the weather improved. Visibility was good and we could even see the mountains on the other side of the lake, which we did not see on our boat trip the previous day.
The train arrived at Port Baikal and we all got off, walking round to a quay to await a boat. In due course, a vessel called "Babuchkin" arrived. We nearly missed it. This happened because we were in a little shop buying cheese (R 44) and crisps. When we emerged it was to see a wall of Japanese tourists milling around waiting to get on the boat....hold on, they are NOT getting on the boat! They were in fact stood in front of a much smaller and dwindling crowd of people who were embarking. Phew, that was close.
On the boat there was just time for the three of us to sit on some stairs and enjoy a brief meal of cheese, salami and tomatoes, cutting a 400g loaf into six thick slabs - the word "sandwich" is applicable only in the loosest sense.
At Listvyanka we disembarked and it was a hot and cloudless afternoon - a far cry from that rainy morning. The wind was rising to occasional white horses as we sat on a wall eating crisps, waiting for the coach which would take us back to Irkutsk.