July 21st 2018 - Lake Baikal
Lake Baikal is a rift lake in southern Siberia, it is the world's largest freshwater lake by volume, containing 23% of the world's fresh surface water, which is more water than all of the North American Great Lakes combined. Lake Baikal has a maximum depth of 1,642 m (5,387 ft), and is the world's deepest lake. It is among the world's clearest lakes and is the world's oldest, at 25–30 million years. Lake Baikal is also the world's seventh-largest lake by surface area.
Shown here, the boat in which we cruised the lake and ate lunch.
An extract from today's Journal entry:-
This morning an excursion to Lake Baikal. It was a 70 Km drive to Listvyanka where we were subjected to yet another museum visit, with Lena at the top of her form. The lecture tour lasted an eternity and only ended when we went into a room where we experienced a video of a dive in a bathyscaphe to the bottom of Lake Baikal. The commentary was in Russian, the room cramped and I felt claustrophobic.
Next a visit to an aquarium where the walkway was too narrow for the crowd, many of the windows into the tanks were covered in condensation and I thought the tanks too small for the captives inside. Lena and Masha met me at the exit and asked what I thought of the aquarium. From their expectant tones I knew they wanted to hear words of praise, the best I could say was that it was very crowded. Not what they waned to hear, but a long way short of my true thoughts.
By now the weather had turned nasty. A heavy mist hung over Lake Baikal and visibility was down to a few hundred metres. Even so, we had a two hour lunch cruise booked on the lake. We boarded a vessel which I expected to share with the hoards of tourists, but we had the boat to ourselves.
There was nothing to see from the outside decks, it was cold, the visibility low and it rained. Inside, a seafood lunch was laid out for us. The local fish is Omul, a fish about the size of a large trout. We ate smoked Omul which was delicious. There was a garden salad with strips of Omul in it, this was eaten on black bread (very nice). There were plates of delicious sweets and coffee to complete the meal; a most excellent feast.
July 21st 2018 - Lake Baikal
Lake Baikal is a rift lake in southern Siberia, it is the world's largest freshwater lake by volume, containing 23% of the world's fresh surface water, which is more water than all of the North American Great Lakes combined. Lake Baikal has a maximum depth of 1,642 m (5,387 ft), and is the world's deepest lake. It is among the world's clearest lakes and is the world's oldest, at 25–30 million years. Lake Baikal is also the world's seventh-largest lake by surface area.
Shown here, the boat in which we cruised the lake and ate lunch.
An extract from today's Journal entry:-
This morning an excursion to Lake Baikal. It was a 70 Km drive to Listvyanka where we were subjected to yet another museum visit, with Lena at the top of her form. The lecture tour lasted an eternity and only ended when we went into a room where we experienced a video of a dive in a bathyscaphe to the bottom of Lake Baikal. The commentary was in Russian, the room cramped and I felt claustrophobic.
Next a visit to an aquarium where the walkway was too narrow for the crowd, many of the windows into the tanks were covered in condensation and I thought the tanks too small for the captives inside. Lena and Masha met me at the exit and asked what I thought of the aquarium. From their expectant tones I knew they wanted to hear words of praise, the best I could say was that it was very crowded. Not what they waned to hear, but a long way short of my true thoughts.
By now the weather had turned nasty. A heavy mist hung over Lake Baikal and visibility was down to a few hundred metres. Even so, we had a two hour lunch cruise booked on the lake. We boarded a vessel which I expected to share with the hoards of tourists, but we had the boat to ourselves.
There was nothing to see from the outside decks, it was cold, the visibility low and it rained. Inside, a seafood lunch was laid out for us. The local fish is Omul, a fish about the size of a large trout. We ate smoked Omul which was delicious. There was a garden salad with strips of Omul in it, this was eaten on black bread (very nice). There were plates of delicious sweets and coffee to complete the meal; a most excellent feast.