Irkutsk
8 July 2008- Tuesday
After pulling into a small bare-root station at the Southern tip of Lake Baikal, we switched from electric to diesel engine and started to follow the route of the old Trans-Siberian Railroad which included riding along the Western side of Lake Baikal through at least 38 tunnels to a small town called Listvyanka. While on this trip, for $10 per person, the train would stop every 30 minutes and people who wished to ride on the outside of the locomotive could climb aboard and experience about 15 minutes’ ride. One of the tunnels was quite long and I think that the people who were on for that 15 minutes probably should have gotten their money back. All survived and we pulled to a small site where the kitchen staff broke out some tables and began barbequing some shish kabobs which was deliciously marinated and we had our lunch and drinks out beside Lake Baikal overlooking a little farming village. It was really a spectacular experience. We then continued on to the small town called Listvyanka where we went out to visit an open air wooden museum consisting of churches, school houses, etc. from the last century and then back into the town where we went to the aquarium to see two species of animal that live in Lake Baikal. Lake Baikal, by the way, is 25 million years old, has about 10 % of all the fresh water in the world. It could easily take all the water from the Great Lakes and still need more. If it were to have no further inflow and maintain its single out flowing river, if it were to drain, it would take 40 years to drain through that river. A spectacular place including its 1500 species, many of which don’t live anywhere else except Lake Baikal – one of them being a fresh water seal that eats a fish which is so rich in oil that it is transparent and, if set on a stove, it would simply melt instead of cooking. In order for us to get from the train trammel to Lisvyanka we had to take a ferry boat which was rather dilapidated and there were some storm clouds overhead as we were crossing, but they finally broke loose on our return voyage. Most of the people were out in the open deck and, naturally, I would find my way in to the covered area, but people were pretty much soaked by the time they got across to the train again. Once people were dried out, they were ready for dinner. We left from this area to return to a town to pick up our electric engine
After pulling into a small bare-root station at the Southern tip of Lake Baikal, we switched from electric to diesel engine and started to follow the route of the old Trans-Siberian Railroad which included riding along the Western side of Lake Baikal through at least 38 tunnels to a small town called Listvyanka. While on this trip, for $10 per person, the train would stop every 30 minutes and people who wished to ride on the outside of the locomotive could climb aboard and experience about 15 minutes’ ride. One of the tunnels was quite long and I think that the people who were on for that 15 minutes probably should have gotten their money back. All survived and we pulled to a small site where the kitchen staff broke out some tables and began barbequing some shish kabobs which was deliciously marinated and we had our lunch and drinks out beside Lake Baikal overlooking a little farming village. It was really a spectacular experience. We then continued on to the small town called Listvyanka where we went out to visit an open air wooden museum consisting of churches, school houses, etc. from the last century and then back into the town where we went to the aquarium to see two species of animal that live in Lake Baikal. Lake Baikal, by the way, is 25 million years old, has about 10 % of all the fresh water in the world. It could easily take all the water from the Great Lakes and still need more. If it were to have no further inflow and maintain its single out flowing river, if it were to drain, it would take 40 years to drain through that river. A spectacular place including its 1500 species, many of which don’t live anywhere else except Lake Baikal – one of them being a fresh water seal that eats a fish which is so rich in oil that it is transparent and, if set on a stove, it would simply melt instead of cooking. In order for us to get from the train trammel to Lisvyanka we had to take a ferry boat which was rather dilapidated and there were some storm clouds overhead as we were crossing, but they finally broke loose on our return voyage. Most of the people were out in the open deck and, naturally, I would find my way in to the covered area, but people were pretty much soaked by the time they got across to the train again. Once people were dried out, they were ready for dinner. We left from this area to return to a town to pick up our electric engine
Labels: Trans Siberian RR
posted by DT at 8:25 PM
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