Lake Baikal
A JOURNEY BY TRAIN ON THE BANKS OF BAIKAL , May 2006
Above a clear abyss the peaks of Khamar-Daban are clearly marked against the light-blue sky. The cliffs, the cries of sea-gulls, the sound of the wheels of a diesel-train which you can flag down with a wave of the hand just like you would a car on the road. For many people the first contact with Lake Baikal begins with a walk along the Round-Baikal railway. More than eighty kilometers on foot along the sleepers of a narrow, coastal strip, which is marked by stunning gorges, old tunnels and ledges at the waves’ edge which stretch away some-where into eternity.
Today this route has become accessible to more than just walkers. For several years now the Round-Baikal Express has been running, without doubt a highlight of the tourism industry around Lake Baikal. A comfortable passenger train leaves three times a week providing people with an es-cape from the bustle of week-days and a chance to touch the eternal beauty of nature. And what’s more it’s a pleasure to make this trip all through the year! But even if you only have one day – that’s no problem. Apart from the train there is also a ‘railway bus’. By the way it looks and with its level of comfort it’s rather more like European express trains and clearly stands out next to the ordinary trains at Irkutsk station. The excursion takes 12 hours, 10 of which are spent on the railway, half an hour on a steam-boat and one hour in a ordinary bus. The story begins in Irkutsk, taking us back in time to the early development of Siberia. There is a quick glimpse of Baikal from on high and the descent begins to Slyudyanka, where we make the first stop. Here we get out at a cosy, marble station with smoked omul and white-fish. Back in the ‘rail-way bus’ we turn back to Kultuk, where the ‘train-bus’ goes onto the old lines of the Round-Baikal railway.
Just like yellow chicks, flowers are scattered across the slopes of the Baikalsky Range. Larches and pines, battered by the wind cling to every surface of the cliffs. The white trunks of birches stretch up out of dips in the ground. The endless expanse of blue water and sky is split by snow-capped mountain ridges. Our little train-bus moves slowly along and you have time to look at everything out of the window. An old station with pointed roof flashes by, then the first tunnel. But on the way, best of all are the stops themselves. The next one is Angosolka. An old arched bridge, a river still gurgling between icy banks and a tunnel. This is a well-known and popular place among Irkut-ians; people often come here on the weekends. It’s clear from the start that there are many residents here - “too many cooks spoil the broth”. Right under the sign “national park” there’s a rubbish dump, a tunnel decorated with silly inscriptions, dilapidated buildings between which stands a new and absurd square house with the flag of the Rerikh society. The guide urges us to take our seats in our carriage and we move further on, where only pleasant encounters and discoveries await us. Last year the Round-Baikal railway turned 100. Now, renewed by restoration, thanks to the efforts and means of the East-Siberian Railway Company, and just as it was a century ago it can now, with complete justification, be called the golden buckle of the Trans Siberian Railway. After the building of Irkutsk’s Hydroelectric station and the flooding of the An-gara’s left bank, the railroad got left behind a little in the wake of the later route but now is discov-ering a new lease of life.
Little bridges with cast iron railings, new wooden benches, new and restored old buildings of the stops and the main station, stylized around the beginning of the century. We meet the workers who have been restoring the tunnel. Over the whole 86 kilometers here on the rocky bank of Lake Baikal there are 39 tunnels, each of which is a genuine monument of engineering genius and architecture. The many fortified walls, galleries, viaducts, bridges, just like the tunnels have been carved out of the rock, smoothed by hand. It’s difficult to imagine what kind of efforts the most complicated and expensive part of the Tran Siberian required of its builders. For more than two years the Russian and Italian masters, engineers, and workers toiled here. You can find about the details of this colos-sal construction in museums, rich in exhibits, in Kultuk and Port Baikal and of course, on the ex-cursion itself. I don’t recall the name of all the stops, but it’s hard to forget Polovinnaya. Set at the edge of the longest tunnel (778 meters long), a small village, where there are 9 houses in all, screened-off by a large headland. In summer here, the water warms up, like in a cup, but meanwhile the strange shapes of the last ‘sculptured’ ice blocks bob on the clear waves – a magical sight. It’s warm. Blue butterflies settle on the sand in crowds. The half-hour allocated for the stop seems like a minute. Just like at most of the stops, we want to stay longer. Further on, as if painted in water-colour, the slopes of a small valley with a huge, spreading poplar: the green haze of the new leaves on the birch trees, golden buds of a pussy-willow, and reddish sprouts of a rose-willow. And Bai-kal. Baikal with its alluring purity and depth, turquoise, light-blue, violet shades. Sometimes it seems like a dream, sometimes – reality, sometimes another world, permeated with endlessness and beauty. It’s nice to be here by yourself, and share the pleasure with friends. The whole railway fits the landscape surprisingly well, and also the very idea itself of traveling along the railway can fully adhere to international standards of ecological tourism and become one of the best examples of sus-tainable tourism at Lake Baikal. |
A journey by train on the banks of baikal, May 2006 The Peace and Majestic Silence of Baikal Turned into "The Industry of Tourism and Recreation" Transneft is Digging a Grave for Baikal The Battle for Baikal: Before its too Late! (from old English site) |
