Lake Fantastic

Lake Baikal holds a lot of records – the world’s deepest lake (holding 80% of Russia’s freshwater and 1/5 of all the unfrozen fresh water on the planet), world’s oldest lake, the only lake with it’s own species of seal. I am going to go ahead and award it ‘most beautiful lake’.

It is genuinely breathtaking and it is not at all possible to do it justice with photos or words, so I think you’ll all just have to brave the Russian visa system. It has infinite shades of blue stretching off to the horizon and it changes every hour. In the sun the deep parts of the lake turn an inky purple, and it’s so clear and flat you can see the reflection of the clouds. We went out yesterday in weather that can really only be described as drizzle – and it was otherworldly.

We are staying on the lake’s biggest island, Olkhon, where the dominant religion is still Shamanism, and it is not hard to understand why.

The people here are Buryat, closely related to Mongolian, and lots of aspects of the culture are the same. Most people in the region (though not on Olkhon) are Buddhist and the same piles of rocks and ribbons on trees are everywhere.

There is a tiny Orthodox church though, with church bells on a wooden stand just outside, and when we went out to see the sunset a few minutes ago a man was ringing a series of discordant and slightly eerie peels. The lake had a thin layer of bright white mist across it, and the shores were gradually fading into midnight blue.

What could improve a location like this? Well, a species of utterly delicious fish found only here and served at all meals, and an incredible, wooden, fairytale hostel/village with towers, fountains, crazy buildings and carvings everywhere. And for Ben, large numbers of extremely friendly dogs and cats, including two kittens and even (yes, really) a puppy!