Lake Baikal!

Today also represents the 32nd day on the road. I think we're going really well in the scheme of things.

We didn't rate Ulan-Ude from what we saw of it. If we'd have had central accommodation and a good walk around, we would no doubt have a different impression. The traffic was crazy, fast and rude. We had lunch at a place that resembled a big American Indian tee-pee (but was no doubt a native reference to this area and in no way American) which served chinese-ish cuisine. We ordered two things from the very handy picture menu. One that looked like chicken satay skewers and one that looked a bit like a stirfry. The stirfry came first and was brilliant. I think we've been missing salt from our diets here and this thing hit the spot. Over here, meals come as they are made and in no particular order, so everyone in your party could be finished their meal before you're even served. The chicken skewers came about 15 minutes later and were just dry bits of chicken. oh well, they were still awesome. Perhaps we're easily pleased? We hit the road and washed it all down with handful's of
m&m's, today's flavour was hazelnut - not sure if they have that one at home?!
We also bought like a kilo or more of some kind of red berries from a roadside market. They taste grand with little pips, but are about the size of a small marble. This whole trip is about us not knowing anything!

After lunch and a bit more driving, we dropped in to a rainy Lake Baikal 'suburb' packed with tents, cars, car alarms and music. It was ok, but only just that. We had anticipated this but had word of a camp spot where you pass under the rail line, down a dirt track which opened onto a private stoney beach. We had all afternoon to explore, so we drove half way down one, walked the rest - dead end. Next try we drove half way down, walked the rest and found a stunning desert island scene awaiting us. Only problem was the road. It was deeply rutted black mud. Cassie was not happy about how good the camp spot was because it meant driving it and getting royally stuck. I for one was keen on the idea of giving it a go and getting stuck as there are many decent trees to winch to at all stages of the track. Well we gave it a go, got some good video which is just as important as actually doing it! We needed to have a second stab at one stretch, so I hope it's good viewing.

The laugh of it is, I can't remember where on the many thousand kilometer shoreline the alleged camp spot was on! We just got lucky. It's likely not even be the same side! The trans-siberian rail line can just be heard in the distance.

The sun has come out now and has a pleasant bite to it. We might have a wash after dinner which tonight is salt and pepper steak, hard boiled eggs covertly taken from the hotel breakfast buffet yesterday morning in Chita, fresh tomato and turkish bread. mmm! I've taken a picture of our desert island camp spot which although not impressive in size or quality, will be realtime which is tremendous. Chris - of all things to be green about, this is it!

So the plan is, we're going to have tomorrow 'off' and spend it at no doubt one of the most stunning and secluded campsites ever. As far as we can remember, we've not had a day of just nothing. No where to be, no one to see, nothing to fix or tidy. Just relaxing. I fear I'll get stir-crazy about lunch time, but we'll see! After that, we plan to spend Wednesday driving to the border to Mongolia for a 9AM Thursday morning stab at it!

Cassie here for one sentence - Graeme has just come back from washing up the dishes in the lake and confirmed that the water is far too cold to go for a dip tonight. Maybe tomorrow on our day off if the sun's shining.

Position: 12-07-30 17:31:44 +0900 +0000
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