Lake Baikal, Siberia on Qantas and Siberian Airlines (S7)

[RooFlyer]

I've always wanted to visit Lake Baikal, in eastern Siberia. As a geo, there are some 'must see' places on earth (well, quite a few actually!) and Lake Baikal is right up there, along with the mid Atlantic Ridge exposed at Iceland (ticked that off some time ago).

Lake Baikal is the world's deepest lake, its oldest, is the seventh largest by area and contains a bit over 1/5 of the world's liquid fresh water - more than all of the American great Lakes combined. The deepest part is about 1,600m, which is impressive, but when you consider that there are about 8km of sediments in the bottom, then that's a hellava big crack in the earth's crust. You could submerge Mt Everest in it, with about a km of water over the top!

Why? Its a 'rift' - where the earth's crust is tearing itself apart, just like the Great African Rift Valley, like the Red Sea and the way Africa and South America drifted apart millions of years ago. What's not to like?

Its also home to some unique wildlife, like the Baikal seal - a freshwater seal!

Anyway, enough of the lessons, lets get to the trip.

A few months ago I was playing around with Qantas redemptions and, as I do from time to time, looked for flights to Irkutsk, the city which is the gateway to Lake Baikal. Siberian Airlines, better known as S7, flies from HKG but only once a week direct. The other days it stops over at Beijing in the middle of the night wich is distinctly unappealing to me. Anyway, up popped a business class seat on both HKG-IKT and IKT-HKG on S7, so I instinctively grabbed it. S7 isn't an airline I would normally consider, but ya just gotta make do sometimes. 76,000 QFF points return.

I also got a QF J seat HKG-SYD to come back on. Could have gotten one on the way up too, but I got stingy and as there was a sale on, I decided that a day trip in economy would be tolerable . What on earth was I thinking! I later put in for an upgrade and I see its just come through (no notification from QF, I just noticed my points balance went down).

A pretty simple route:



My destination from another point of view. You can see its a big feature, and waaaay away from almost everywhere


The trip start tomorrow (Monday, but only HBA-SYD on QF, as I have things to do in Sydney on the way, then SYD-HKG on QF on Tuesday and HKG-IKT on S7 on Wednesday.

 

[Jacques Vert]

On board but back in my usual row 17 .

 

[VPS]

Sounds fascinating and @JohnM won't be awake yet so I'll get 1A and he can stick to 1K

 

[RooFlyer]

I'm doing two tours while I'm there, both run by Ivan () at Baikal Secrets .

The first, two nights on Olkhon Island, an approx. 4 hour drive away and the 'classic' thing to do at lake Baikal. The second, a one night trip west to Arshan hot springs. These were both meant to be private tours, as I like to have flexibility, but Ivan just let me know that he's 'found' another Australian couple to share the latter trip with me. I guess that's fine, and will reduce the cost, although I hope we can still go off the strict tour route to visit a minerals museum nearby.

Here are the tour routes - one west, one east of Irkutsk. Can you spot the big fault at Arshan and why there might be hot springs there?



Its not the best time of the year to visit; weather is forecast to be sunny to cloudy and at least one day rainy, day temps between 8 and 16 degrees C and night a few degrees below zero, but hopefully the trees will be colourful.

Getting a Russian visa was, as usual, a bit stressful (this is my third trip to Russia). First on-line part requires an incredible amount of personal detail, including your '10 year travel history', with dates - but fortunately it runs out of space after 30 entries. Info on parents, past employers etc etc. Very strict photo requirements. Also you need an 'invitation' from tour company or accommodation covering your entire stay. There are ways to 'manage' this if you intend to move around and/or don't have bookings for your entre stay, but in my case it was pretty straightforward. I was surprised to find that none of the 3 tour companies I investigated issued 'invitations' (they have to be registered with Russian Foreign Affairs and I guess that takes money). So I moved onto my accommodation - Courtyard Marriott in Irkutsk. Reservations people there were very efficient and helpful, with good English in e-mails and they issued invitation covering my whole stay (notwithstanding I'm missing some nights, on tour). Sent off visa application and passport to Russian Consulate in Sydney, who took the whole 2 weeks to process it.

Final hurdle for me has been some health issues over the past month. One day-visit hospital procedure a couple of weeks ago followed last week by a couple of scan type tests to see if everything OK. Yes, cleared to travel but still had a niggle, so saw GP last Friday who explained that as only tangentially related to the other issue and I'm good to go! Whew. Getting older is a hassle.

So, spooling up now and first leg to SYD tomorrow.

 

[JohnM]

1K I am...

 

[JohnM]

Final hurdle for me has been some health issues over the past month. One day-visit hospital procedure a couple of weeks ago followed last week by a couple of scan type tests to see if everything OK. Yes, cleared to travel but still had a niggle, so saw GP last Friday who explained that as only tangentially related to the other issue and I'm good to go! Whew. Getting older is a hassle.

Try adding another 10 or more years, young fella, and you'll start to know what hassle means .

Any travel insurance ramifications?

I've only had one short sector on S7: LED-DME but they were very good.

 

[RooFlyer]

Couldn't claim on insurance prior to the trip starting. I went as far as calculating my loss during last week in case I had to cancel. As the flights were mostly points and only 1 pre paid night, would have been 'acceptable' but a relief to get the all-clear.

 

[k_sheep]

I'm in row 16, reclining into Jacques verts' lap.

My Dad is a geologist, but wow your rock-talk was actually interesting - never got that from him

I actually made plans to go to Baikal a few years back but, well, I stuffed it up. Only saw it from the air. In soviet Russia, report trips you So looking forward to living vicariously through yours!

 

[Major]

Another interesting trip to look forward to

 

[Steady]

I have a Baikal 12g in my safe....

 

[Denali]

Any scuba diving in the lake? Whats to see down there?

Looking forward to the photos and adventure - safe travels!

Oh, and youre not leaving Tassie because youre the mystery $30mil lotto winner, are you?

 

[Jacques Vert]

I'm in row 16, reclining into Jacques Verts' lap.

 

[RooFlyer]

Any scuba diving in the lake? Whats to see down there?

Apparently yes. Baikal dive and ice dive to name just two sites.

The lake water is renowned for its clarity. And being an ancient, isolated lake, there are all sorts of weird beasties there.

 

[JohnM]

My Dad is a geologist, but wow your rock-talk was actually interesting - never got that from him

Don't give too much encouragement, otherwise he'll never stop .

 

[JohnM]

Couldn't claim on insurance prior to the trip starting. I went as far as calculating my loss during last week in case I had to cancel. As the flights were mostly points and only 1 pre paid night, would have been 'acceptable' but a relief to get the all-clear.

One big advantage of redemptions is that it's easy to cancel and get refunded.

However, I was thinking more in terms of insurance for medical/medevac cover under pre-existing conditions.

 

[tgh]

Have a great trip , looking forwards to the tr

 

[OATEK]

Certainly a sign of age having to sort out health issues so they do not conflict with important stuff like travel. I face two ops in coming few months, so had a long discussions with surgeons about whether I could fit one in before Dec-Jan trip, and so they recommended which one to have first. And then go back after trip to sort out the second op before the next trip. They were very cooperative.
The Russian Visa process is a lot of fun, and its a shame you can't just refer to a previous application and say here is where I have been since. Very much looking forward to your trip - a former colleague had an automatic weather update for Irkutsk on his PC, and would share the details with us daily!

 

[woodyren]

Following along. Interested in doing a train trip to the area from North China one day.

 

[RooFlyer]

I looked at doing the Trans Siberian from Beijing to Irkutsk, but ended up being too expensive unless sharing with stranger which I didn't want to do. But a great trip!

 

[RooFlyer]

Qantas check-in at HBA OK and for once the QP wasnt too crowded. So I'll spare you my usual HBA departure rant.

HBA-SYD in Y. Uneventful; my selected seat was changed at check in without explanation, but I got a shadow so no complaint.

Meal I recall was advertised as lunch but announced as a snack and sure enough we got 25g of snack and I had a 200ml drink. I'm writing this before dinner in the evening and just reminded myself why I'm so hungry!

Checked into Intercon at Circular Quay. Good room, nice views and quiet.





I wouldn't ordinarily stay at a place like this for an overnight stay before a flight, but it was cheaper than the Ibis I normally stay at close to my office . Truely.

Spent another hour on the phone with Telstra trying to sort out a monumentally stuffed up NBN business install order. I think it's still stuffed up, but was assured by 'complaints' that it is progressing again. Have now escalated it within the TIO. If I told you what had been happening you just wouldn't believe me.

I have a meeting with some business partners in the morning and hoping it's going to be nice and profitable! ( Looking to sell a significant investment.)