Walking on Water

Today I walked on water!

After trying and failing to have an early start, we finally headed outside to find that it was snowing, and everything was covered in white. A few wrong turns later, we stumbled across the long distance bus stop - well actually a traffic jam of mini buses, and started the hunt for a bus with the right Russian word on the front Листвянка - not as easy as it sounds. Mini buses have no prices displayed, and no timetable - they go when the driver thinks he has enough passengers. Anyway, an hour later we stopped at a town on Lake Baikal, and it turned out to be Listvyanka, so everybody was happy. Had a morning tea stop and asked for coffee. Was given the choice of 2 sachets - nescafe with milk powder and nescafe without.

Then went for a walk out on the frozen lake which was cool. The favourite game was 'count the modes of transport on the ice'. (Guess who's married to a teacher) There were cars, vans, sleds, horses, skidoos and child strollers. The ice was covered in about 5cm of snow and, as the lake is chemically very pure and clear (like Fraser Island), if you brushed the snow away you could see way down through the ice to the lake below. Its a bit like walking on the glass floor of the Eureka Tower.

Had lunch at the local market where the specialty is whole smoked omul, a medium sized fish served hot in a plastic bag. You pick the flesh off the bone with your fingers. Really nice, but your fingers smell for hours.

Lake Baikal is big - really big! It's the largest freshwater lake in the world, with 20% of the entire planet's freshwater. Its almost as long as the road between Melbourne and Sydney, and can supply the whole world's drinking needs for 40 years, so we only saw a tiny part, but it was certainly worth a visit.

Back to Irkutsk and off to catch the afternoon train. Two unforseen problems this time. No soft drinks on board - only beer, which is a pity, and no power in the cabin, which is a catastrophe.