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Exploring the Culture and Nature of Lake BaikalJuly 09 - July 22, 2007 Highlights: Lake Baikal is magnificent whether in winter or summer. But best of all is to cruise along this beautiful lake and take in all its highlights. You will be able to observe the nerpa, visit Olkhon Island, the Selengia Delta and Barguzin. Your ship has only eight cabins, small but comfortable but is the perfect vessel for such an exploratory journey. Logistical details: Arrive in Moscow and spend the day exploring the city. Depart by plane for Irkutsk for one day of sightseeing before you board your small but comfortable ship. You will stay on the ship about eight days when you depart by motor coach to Ulan Ude. Spend a few days in this fascinating city before returning to Moscow. Operated and managed in cooperation with Baikal-Discovery Introduction Lake Baikal -- "Mother Baikal" to Russia's ancient Buddhist peoples, "Pearl of Siberia" to others who live near her - is well known, both as a sacred symbol and natural gem. Four thousand times older than North America's Great Lakes, Baikal holds 22% of the world's available fresh water. If Baikal was empty and all of the planet's major rivers drained into her -- the Nile, Amazon, Mississippi, Danube, and numerous others combined -- it would take over a year for the lake to be filled. Lake Baikal is home to the world's only fresh water seal - locally called "the nerpa". Believed to have descended from the Arctic Ocean over 800,000 years ago, the nerpa has since claimed Lake Baikal as its own. With no natural predators other than humans, the seals are precious living symbols of the lake's uniqueness. Sustainable tourism is slowly growing and is becoming an effective tool in fighting poaching and pollution of Lake Baikal. On nature viewing tours like the one below we do hire local people, enroll them as local guides, pay fees to national parks and nature preserves, pay the rangers for our visit to Ushkanyi Islands to observe fresh water seals etc. In other words, local communities start realizing that in the long run they will benefit more from keeping the wild life around them alive than by destroying it … Day 1, Saturday, July 8 Day 2, Sunday, July 9 Day 3, Monday, July 10 Day 4, Tuesday, July 11 Day 5, Wednesday, July 12 Around 12:30 you start out on your circumnavigation of Lake Baikal. You shall be served lunch on board while on the way to the Peschanaya ( meaning "Sandy") Bay ( 80 km, 5.5 hour boat ride) , often referred to as the Siberian Riviera due to the great number of sunshine observed here (mid annual temperature here is positive - +0.4 Celsius) . Upon arrival in Peschanaya Bay you enjoy a guided walk to the Babushka Bay, the Small Bell tower Craig to take pictures of panoramic evening views on the taiga-woods of the Cedar Pass and other natural settings ( in particular here you will observe one of the lake's natural wonders - the so-called "Wandering Trees"). Dinner will feature some of the famous Baikal specialties served back on board. Overnight on board. (B, L, D)
Day 6, Thursday, July 13 En route you stop to see the famous Tsagan Zaba White Marble Cliffs and observe the rock drawings/petrogliphs, more than 2500 years old which depict the scenes from the lives of shamanistic believers. These petrogliphs were called by a famous Russian anthropologist Okladnikov "the Pearls of ancient art." You shall disembark here to get close to the rock drawings and to be able to take pictures.
After lunch on board you reach Olkhon Island and enjoy its stunning scenery. Although the island is quite narrow, half of it lengthways is forest and the other half steppe. Your boat will take you to the so-called Small Sea which is the part of Lake Baikal enclosed by the mainland shore and the island's eastern shore. Before you reach the central settlement of Khuzhir on the island you will come to the small island of Ogoy - the place of the only Buddhist stupa placed on the lake. The height of the Stupa is over 10 meters and inside the stupa there are 2.5 tons of Buddhist mantras and 700 kilograms of holy Buddhist books that were specially brought from Nepal. The Ogoy stupa place recently became the holy place of Buddhist pilgrimage.
Later in the evening you shall reach by boat the Khuzhir settlement featuring another holy place of Lake Baikal - the famous Shamanka Craig Rock which you will reach by an easy walk through Khuzhir village. The Shaman Rock well-known for the so-called "Buddha Rock of Altar" is one of Holy of Hollies of shamanists and Buddhist alike. Here you shall be met by the local hereditary shaman Oot Kha. He will perform the rite of purification for you and involve you in the ritual of offerings to the deities of Lake Baikal and the Island's major spirits. After the ceremony you'll have a discussion on the Shamanism of Siberia, its philosophy and outlook. Then - enjoy a Siberian Banya (steam sauna). Dinner shall be served on board to be followed by the Baikal Songs Lesson # 1. Overnight on board. (B, L, D) Olkhon Island. Mid-way on the northern shore of Baikal is an area considered to be the most sacred. It is here, about eight miles from the north shore that we find Olkhon, named by the Buryats for the forests which cover the island. Olkhon is the biggest island on Baikal extending more than 70 km. (60 miles) in length and up to 20 km. (15 miles) in width. Its terrain is varied with sweeping prairies, steep rocks, dry valleys overgrown with berry bushes and small, shallow bays with sandy beaches and warm water. The island's steep sides cut into the aquamarine sea-lake and its capes are like characters out of ancient Siberian folk-tales guarding the island's peace. The most beautiful of these capes, Burchan, bears the name of the Buryats' primary god. The bank closest to Burchan has a cave which cuts through the rock. The entrance is on the eastern side and the exit on the western side. Native people considered the cave a sacred place, a dwelling of shamans. The cave is, however, now inscribed with Buddhist prayers, remnants of seventeenth century arrival of Tibetan Lamaist Buddhism. The new religion partly absorbed the native shamanistic traditions and partially replaced them. The first words of one prayer read, "Ou, Burchan, Tingiri!", invoking the Buryat-Lamaist's god and heaven.
Day 7, Friday, July, 14 You shall stop for your overnight on your boat in one of the picturesque bays of Lake Baikal where you will have a fish-barbecue prepared in a special Baikal way. Before going to bed those who wish can go fishing to catch omul (the endemic Baikal fish specie) or black gray after a brief lecture on the know-how's of local fishing techniques. The Ushkaniye Archipelago consists of four islands: Tonky, Bolshoye Ushkaniye, Koltigey and Lokhnaty. It is believed by geologists that these four islands hold the key to unlocking the geological secrets behind the formation of Lake Baikal. Since the islands appeared they have risen at a rate o f 2 meters every 1,000 of years, giving scientists reasons to believe that in the future they may become one island. Overnight on board. (B, L, D) Day 9, Saturday, July 15 Chivyrkuisky Bay is situated on the northern part of the Svyatoy Nos (Holy Nose) Peninsula. This is one of the most picturesque bays of Baikal Lake. Surrounded by dark blue mountain ridges and thick taiga, it gives the impression of real wilderness. The bay is relatively shallow depth (about 18 meters) makes it attractive for all kinds of fish. The Svyatoy Noss ("Holy Nose") peninsula would be an island were it not connected to Baikal's East Coast by a marshy sandbar. North of the sandbar, the water between the Holy Nose and the East Coast is called Chivyrkuisky Bay. South of the sandbar is Barguzin Bay. In the crook of this bay, the Barguzin River enters Baikal after a hundred miles of draining the eastern watershed of the Barguzin Mountains. Overnight on board. (B, L, D)
After breakfast you enjoy the warm mineral springs here and take short walks in the vicinity of this beautiful place. Upon returning to the boat you will have lunch and continue further along the Holy Nose Peninsula heading for the Barguzin Gulf where the famous Barguzin valley begins - the land from where the ancestors of great Mongolian Chinghiz Khan originated. En route you will be passing by the so-called Baikal Polar spot - the deepest point of the lake (over 1 mile) which makes Lake Baikal the world's deepest fresh water lake. Right above the deepest point you shall stop for a special procedure of "mailing our generous wishes to the lake's deities". Then you continue further and while staying on the deck one can sometimes observe brown bears roaming along the shore. By dinner time you arrive in Ust Barguzin to explore the town and its sights of interest. The name Barguzin originates form an Old Mongolian tribe of Barguts, who one lived in Pribaikalya. After the fall of the Mongolian Empire, the valley was populated by Evenks, Buryats and Russian settlers. The Barguzin Valley contains several important communities. The town of Ust- Barguzin was built in 1648 by a detachment of soldiers from Yeniseysk lead by Ivan Galkin. The town became an outpost for the opening of Zabaikaliye and for many years, was the home of the exiled Decembrists brothers Wilhelm and Michael Kuhelbekker. The headquarters of the Zabaikalsky Nature Park are located in the Ust-Barguzin settlement. Overnight on board (B, L, D) Day 11, Monday, July, 17 Day 12, Tuesday, July, 18 Baikal lies in a deep structural hollow surrounded by mountains, some of which rise up to 6,560 feet (2,000m) above it. The sedimentary strata on the floor of the lake may be as much as 20,000 feet (6,100m) thick. Near the shore are remains of extinct volcanoes. The major geological feature of the Baikal Territory is that it incorporates the borderline of the great tectonic structures - the Siberian platform and its framing and the Sayano-Baikalsky folded belt. Tectonic movements along this border never cease and are manifested by earthquakes and by fluctuations of separate parts of the shores. Annually, the ground seismic stations register up to 2,000 earthquake tremors, the most sensitive seismographs installed at various depths of the lake, identify them more frequently. In 1862, north of the Selenga's delta, and area of land of about 200 square kilometers sank underwater to a depth of 2 meters as the result of an earthquake whose magnitude reached 11. The new bay formed by the 1882 earthquake was called Proval (Gap) and the new water ways that broke through, the Cape Oblom (Brea-On). Before the quake, old people describe the area of Proval as the Sagan Moryan (White Steppe) with five Buryat uluses (villages) where 1,200 indigenous peoples with their 867 houses and yurts resided and more than 17,000 head of cattle. On New Year's Eve (old style) the residents heard a subterranean boom and water mixed with sand and silt began splashing out of the wells. The frightened people drove off the cattle to more elevated parts of the foothills, but the shaman Petrushka, who enjoyed great respect and indisputable authority, persuaded the people to get back to the steppe, in order to accept the penalty of Burkhan - the god of Baikal. That night when water flooded the steppe, people tried to get to the high store using everything that they could, but they all perished. On the 29th of August 1959, during an earthquake of magnitude 9, the bottom of Lake Baikal was displace by about 12-20 meters. Later in the evening you approach the Selenga River delta and you overnight near Pososlkoye village. Overnight on board (B, L, D)
July, 20, Thursday
The village of Old Believers - descendants of those Russian orthodox people who opposed in the 17-th century Nikon's church reforms and escaped to Siberia. The cultural space and oral culture of the "Semeiskyie" -Old Believers of this village was proclaimed by UNO Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization a Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity. The Old Believers dressed in their bright folk costumes, wearing large amber necklaces shall meet us near the village and take for a short hike up to the sacred Omulevaya Mountain. On top of this mountain from which there're great vistas of the surrounding area and riverside a group of the Old Believers from Trabagatay village shall give you a brief introduction to their culture. Then you proceed to the village Cultural Center to see a great folk concert, learn about the customs of Old Believers, and take part in their "match-making and bride & groom games" in which some of you may be welcome to participate. After the show you will follow the female leader of "semeiskiye" to her house for a Gala Dinner. The dinner besides featuring tasty home made traditional meals of the Old Believers will also be followed by a number of songs performed by the hosts. Certainly, with the help of your local guides you will have an excellent opportunity to talk to and learn much from the "semeiskiye" people. After a fantastic time spent in Tarbagatai you return to Ulan Ude for overnight at the hotel. Ivolginsky Datsan was the only Buddhist monastery tolerated by the Communists, and is said to have more than 1,000 Buddha statues, from small ones to the one that is 2 meters high. In its place is a gleaming three-story temple crowned with yellow eaves and guarded by stone tigers, caretaker of the heart of Buddhism in Russia. The Ivolginsky Datsan opened Institute of Buddhist learning on their ground that has expanded to accommodate 110 students. There are also a library, hotel, and the philosophic faculty - Choyra, the building of the Buddhist University - Dashy Choihorlin, a museum of monuments of Buryat art, sacred tumbs -suburgans, some service buildings and houses for lamas there. Nowadays, the Ivolginsky Datsan is considered to be the center of Buddhism in Russia. It attracts a lot of tourists and believers. Day 15, Saturday, July, 22
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Visas A visa is required for Russia. We will process your visa for you, as it requires extensive paperwork. You will receive a visa application and information as soon as we have received your deposit. Visa fees for two week processing are $120, not including any express handling charges. Pre- or post itineraries We will be more than happy to add additional days in Russia both pre and post to the offered itinerary. Important Notes This itinerary takes you to one of the most remote parts of Siberia. All though services have improved in the last couple of years, we will encounter problems with delays, bureaucratic conditions, bad road conditions, uneven surfaces and steps and unavailability of public bathrooms. This all requires patience and a good attitude. We recommend that you take small presents to the people of the village, such as small toys for the children or t-shirts both for children and adults. Do not bring alcoholic beverages. This program requires flexibility and good humor. Every effort will be made to follow the itinerary; however there is always the possibility of changes. We will keep you informed as to the changes in advance. We work only with tour operators who adhere to the following basic ecotourism principles. 1. Make tourism and Conservation compatible Weather Siberia is cold in the winter and fairly warm during the summer. However this time of the year, expect some rain and cold evenings. Bring layered clothing; specifically do not forget your raingear. Need more information, please contact:
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Day 13, Wednesday, July 19
Day 14, Friday, July, 21
The mystery of how the Nerpa came to Baikal still baffles scientists. Apart from being a freshwater reservoir, Lake Baikal is hundreds of miles from any other sea or ocean. Most believe that thousands of years ago, the salt water of the Arctic Ocean stretched into the lower reaches of the Yenisey up to the mouth of the Angara. Many scientists agree that the seal belongs to the Tertiary fauna, and most likely migrated to the region during the early stages of the period when the Baikal Depression formed. It is thought that in search for food, the seals gradually migrated deeper into the mainland. There have been years when scientists have counted nearly one hundred thousand nerpa in and around the lake. Valued for their soft, warm pelts and fat, the seals have been hunted for thousands of years. For centuries ethnic Buryats living around the lake have hunted seals, venturing out on the treacherous ice in the spring just after the pups, known as kumutkans, were born. It is a tradition that has been passed from father to son. The meat was eaten or preserved for the long winters ahead. Skins were used to cover canoes and the fur for clothing. Nothing was wasted, and the catch was small enough that the seal population was not threatened.