Up At The Lake

Irkutsk

The sun's been shining since this morning so a perfect day to spend at Lake Baikal. Took the minibus down to the village of Listvyanka, another one of the great journeys of my trip so far. The wide river Angara sparkling on one side of the road, a mixture of green, yellow and brown trees on the other. Tourist season is pretty much over now so the little place was quiet apart from me and a wedding party but it was a stunning area to walk around especially on a clear day like today. Looking across I was able to spot huge snow-capped mountains on the other side, just lots of the bluest water you'll ever see between me and them.

It's the world's biggest lake by volume and easily the deepest. Surprisingly little pollution too so the water's clean enough to drink. I dipped my hands in (thereby adding one year to my life, according to local legend) and took a decent mouthful and sure enough it was very crisp and cold. Plenty to go round as well - if the rest of the planet ran dry tomorrow there's enough water in the lake to keep all 6 billion of us going for the next 40 years. No hosepipe bans round here.