Welcome to Severobaikalsk
Severobaikalsk is a lovely town on the northern end of Lake Baikal, only built in the 1970s to service the construction of the BAM (the Baikal-Amur Mainline or Baikalo- Amurskaya Magistral), a massive engineering task still very much in the hearts of many people in Severobaikalsk - which even has a museum devoted to the feat.
Coming into Severobaikalsk. On the bottom right is just visible the town's large port.
The last hour or so of the train trip from the east skirts the lake; the town itself is a few hundred metres from the lake, separated by a band of forest. We stayed two nights, our itinerary very squeezed due to the inflexible nature of our Russian visa, which is valid for a month, but for specific dates, not, as in most countries, a month within a three-month (or similar) period. Having arrived almost a week late has meant that our travel has to be squeezed into three weeks which, with about seven days of train travel just on the direct train between Vladivostok and Moscow, means our time in each stopover is very limited.
Our time in Severobaikalsk consisted of strolling around the lakeshore and the town, on the first day trying to find out local walks or boat trips (with limited success!), then enjoying some victuals around town; on the second I spent much of the day enjoying doing no much at all, writing a bit, while Niamh attempted to do some bush-walking - and only partly succeeded due to some wildly innaccurate (or unclear) information we'd got the previous day! In the early evening we went and met some people she'd met strolling around the village on the shore of the lake down the hill from our lodgings.
The view from the walking track next to our hotel
Baikal shoreline
There not being any language in common, Niamh wasn't quite sure what had been suggested, but, after a phone call, we agreed a time to meet and me met her new friend Galina, her friend Natalya and Natalya's 16 year old son, Egor, who spoke very good English and had a few months ago been for on a short English language course and homestay in Dublin! We had some food with them, some Buryatian dumplings (the Buryats are the people Indigenous to the area), then we went to a Pivbar, or beer bar, the nearest thing I've seen to a pub in Russia (and something we'd been keen to find ever since we arrived!), and ate Omul, a Baikal fish that everyone loves and eats with great gusto, usually smoked or salted. There we spent another few hours with Galina and Natalya, having lively discussions talking about Ireland, Russia and Lake Baikal. Niamh even taught Galina, a great fan of dancing, some Irish dance steps and we showcased our modest salsa skills!
Drinking locally brewed beer and eating a famous local fish, Omul, with Galina (far left) and Natalya.
Our Severobaikalsk stop was a bit like Yakutsk, in the sense that we didn't really get out and about, go bushwalking or get on the water or really connect with locals (until the last day) – but, like Yakutsk, we now know what to see next time and have a better idea of how to get it done. Like Yakutsk, there was little information for tourists, which, though part of the charm of travelling to out of the way places, means short stays either fall into place wonderfully or involve a fair bit of slightly baffled wandering around!
In contrast to Yakutsk, the town was small and pleasant, people were very smiley and somehow it was just a lovely place to be.
On our third day, after a brief visit to the BAM museum with young Egor, buying supplies and backing, we had another nice meal at a small Central Asian eatery (which are everywhere in Russia, shashlik (meat on skewers cooked over coals) being a favourite stall food) and boarded our train for Moscow in the early afternoon.
The little eatery where we ate a few times - lovely central Asian food!
Some graffiti celebrating the lead singer of the legendary late Soviet band Kino, Victor Tsoi. I'm a huge fan!
Some more Severobaikalsk photos
To see notes on each photo click on the link to the album, otherwise just scroll through the photos above.