Additional about Lake Baikal
About this lake...
Ups, sorry, I forgot to say something about this lake...
Well, this lake is just gigantic, with a length of over 600km and a width of 80km at some places, this lake is just huge. It´s the eldest sweet water lake of this world and also the deepest with over 1600m at the deepest point. The water is very clean, lots of different fish species live there and also other species which only exist in this area.
Unfortunately we had only time to make a one day trip to Listwjanka at Lake Baikal from Irkutsk. We made the tour with our hostel owner, it was a private tour which includes a ride with a chairlift to a viewpoint and lunch which includes the favourite dish of the local people, a smoked fish called Omul. Furthermore we visited the Baikal museum where exhibits about the exploration of the lake and different flora and fauna of this area are shown.
Actually we wanted to see the sweet water seals in the wild, but they live in the north of the lake and also the island Olchon, but we didn´t have enough time to do it. Stories from people who stayed at the same hostel who went there were very positive.
Visiting the lake Baikal in winter must be also very impressive, the whole lake is frozen.
It´s worth to visit the lake Baikal if you love to be outside in the nature and like to be out of the town, but you need to bring enough time to visit the different places.
Swimming in the lake is almost impossible, the water temperature is freezing.