Berlin-Schoenefeld (SFX):
"You can't pass to the cabin with this bottle, since it
contains liquid"....Blurp, a pint of water goes down my
throat. "A terrorist would drink nitroglycerin just the
same, so we cannot allow it."
Good to know.
Moscow, Sheremetyevo 2(SVO). Check out luggage, when time
between flights exceeds 3 hours. Walk out, "luck" for the
transit bus taking you to Sheremedjewo 1 ( the russians are
quite indecisive in non kyrillic letters).
Busdriver pales in view of our luggage ( 7 divers, one non
diver, and proceeds to ignore us and starts half empty).
We take over control of a "Marshroutki" which the first one
enters, keeping the door open, and begin chaining our 300 kg
of luggage into it, while applying Boyles Law to the already
present passengers. Then proceed to sit on our bags, and off
we go to circle round the airfield to the national airport.
Marshrutkis are privately owned Minibusses which adopt the
numbers and routes from the official ones. Praised be their
drivers.
The Tupolew 154 to Irkutsk is of a quite different standard
than the Airbus to Moscow...Kneespace is limited ( or is it
seat space, however the front seat back rest is harder, so
the enemy is clearly defined. Often backrests have a magic
stop-malfunction( evil grin), which propels the front
passenger all of a sudden forward, mostly completely
unexpected to the back passenger, which should comment this
outburst of politeness with a low voiced "spassiba".
Unfortunately the plane did not have a rear window, so we
were unable to see if something got lost. From the rattling
sounds I had bet it would. Otherwise flying was ok. Never
saw a passenger aircraft flying that stable in turbulent
air, nor producing such a feather touch landing on a really
unforgiving rough concrete runway.
A slight impression of what was ahead us, a look through the
windows at dawn revealed mystery mountains, thousands of
kilometers without any human traces, just wilderness.

Irkutsk( IKT), 0600 . The Arrival Hall is a wooden shed, our
luggage was identified with meticulous scrutiny ( never saw
such before, there was definitely no chance of switching
hardcases etc.), our Russian collegues had sent two Vans to
collect us and transfer to hotel Angara where we checked in
at 700 a.m. A quick shower, some sleep, and a tasty
breakfast in the hotel's "London Pub".
Checked our diving eqipment to the boat which would serve as
a liveaboard the following week. Had a bottle of Baltika Tri
at the steps to river Angara, where the russian youths
displayed stunning acrobatics with rollerblades,
skateboards, mountainbikes. No wonder they where the first
in space.
Next day we payed a visit to the market hall, amazed by the
variety of food(Baikal fish,raw,frozen, smoked, salted,
Kaviar,poultry, meat, vegetable, fruit,(dates,apples,
oranges,apricots, walnuts, Taiga berries), tarts, cookies,
sweets, spirits, spices, tea, juice(almost all 100% pure),
but even more by their quality, a mark consistent throughout
our stay.
Just let me add a premature retrospective that everything I
ate or tasted was of higher quality and better freshness and
taste than anything of similar kind I've had before.

80% of Irkutsk girls are slim, tall, wellshaped, stilish
clothed, longlegged, shortskirted high heeled absolute
beauties with that twinkle in their eyes. Wow.
The other 20% didn't show up.
Strange though, the accompaning guys came with rather low
key clothes, shabby trousers, or just a training suit.
Friends, relatives, or just high-heel-walking consultants?
May be I'll never know...
Downsides: about 25% of adolescents( till age 35) take
drugs, STDs are on the run, prevention is lacking severely.

Back in hotel Angara, 2200...: Rrringg ringg: "dobre
wjetsher.. a lovely lady would like to visit you..."
..Don't forget to tip the floor lady.

Next day transfer to Listvjanka, Buryat museum village,
beautiful view over Baikal from a ski lift, boarding ship.
Baikal contains about 20% of the worlds fresh water
reserves. It's max. depth is 1640m, that is more than one mile.
For the indigenous Buryat people of shamanistic belief,
Baikal is a Supreme Being, and treated as such.
Rules: Keep it clean. Don't through stones at it. Don't call
it lake. Sacrifice some fingertips of vodka on every drink.

Baikal will submit newcomers to a test. On our way up north,
a night storm slashed us, waves rolling over the deck,
banging the keel, forced the captain to search a shedding
harbour at Bolschoye GoloUstnaya. Probably because the
russian guides had proceeded to fill the tanks in the
beginning storm without a snorkel at the compressor inlet.
(I made one out of paper, glue, and kitchen foil).
Fortunately the Baikal going ships are sturdy. Like subs.
Steel, side keels, narrow built to cut through waves,
armoured ice nose, easy to land on beaches. Well isolated,
even a sauna for two.
Crew: Captain, Cook, our guides Kirill and Sascha.
Guests: 7 german divers.
One Bauer Utilus 10, one Coltri of similar size, foldable
rear platform with 2 ladders,12 and 15l bottles.

Since we had a permit to visit the world heritage Ushkany
islands, we were forced to make a forecast based decision
whether to continue north or stay near Olkhon island.
We decided to stay, and were tired enough not to note the
length of the next night shift. Woke up at aside a beautiful
island and a spectacular dawn. There we were ;-).

The Njerpa ( Baikal seal) frequents the Ushkanay islands as
a resting place, having ample leasure time on the rocky
beaches. Disturb them, and they will hop onto the water.
They hop by contracting their body to an even rounder shape.
Must remember to train that. So to see them, hush, and
proceed under cover of bush till the camo nets near the
shore line give cover.
Njerpas, with their teeth, can carve caves into the ice for
the winter period. In liquid waters they can live wholly sea
based, like whales.
From the hill at small Ushkany there was a viz of about 100
km (60 miles) to the snow covered northern mountain ranges.
We continued going south again, finishing the 6 day's
liveaboard tour at Bolshie Koty Limnologic station, our next
week's diving base. UW viz was still excellent, 20 to 40 m.
Some meters through shallow water, then the dropoff,
sometimes cascaded, sometimes in narrow canyons, sometimes
in a reversed grade. Endemic stuff everywhere, the strange
green sponge fingers, the green colour being
photosynthesizing algae, green surfaced ground, rows of
cliff hanging slug hanging slugs ( it's meant to be
something sexual), strange crabs, sometimes a silver dart
too fast to be identified as Omul, the small Baikal relative
of salmon.
The underwater architecture is awesome, stunning. Never saw
the like. Still, 80% of Baikal biomasses reveal themselves
only with the help of a microscope. The small inhabitants,
with their filtering action are responsable for the water
quality, which is one of the best in this world. In fact,
water coming from a 800m sample was the purest  being
analyzed. The water's pH value is on the low side, and the
oxygen saturation down to the ground is above 80 %. Below
300m there is methan hydrate, due to the combination of
pressure and cold water. Temperature is varying, it was
something between 2° and 4° Centigrade, warmer in the Small
Sea( Maloye More).
Scientific studies carried out at Bolshie Koty investigate
the surface layer's gas exchange with the atmosphere, CO2
being the main target, for evaluating it's role in global
warming.
Other areas of scientific interest are Neutrino detection,
for which goal there is a series of immerged collectors at
1000m depth. A study done in cooperation with U.S. scientists.
Our days at Bolshie Koty ended all to soon with an
unforgettable camp fire Barbecue night. Christiane played
guitar, and with her Joan-Baez-like voice sang old German
folksongs, while Aleksander, in a lower key, did the same
for the russian side. One moment I noticed our guides had
vanished..... They had ( quite rightly so) predicted the end
of our Vodka supply, and came back an hour later, black as
moles, with a bottle of Schnapps(brrr) and bunchs(hmm) of
garlicose weeds. At 0230 in the morning Aleksander prepared
a yoghurt salad with it. Seemed to prevent hangover...
Next days transfer to Irkutsk brought some idling, eating
too much at the Mongolian restaurant, and the goodbye to
most of the group. So Klaus, Christiane and me were left to
pass an unforgettable week with our hosts at the nature
reserve Olkhon Island. Taiga, Steppe, wandering dunes,
sparse vegetation and overrun trees, rare flowers ( orchids,
lilies,..)larch,  cedar, and pine woods, Creeks, beaches (
yes, we did..), 400 m cliffs, a paradise for biologists,
geologists, mineralogist, collectors of pebbles, semi
precious stones( Citrin, moon stone, Topas, Amethyst,
Lasurit, Nephrit...)
Beasts were rare. Most nagging were big biting flies, when
temps got hot(20+ °C). But they were so slow, that mostly
you could slay them before they bit..Still reason enough for
some to bring along a squash racket next time. Revenge is sweet.
Our hosts Vitali and Ljudmilla were one of a kind. Most
everything they do is self made, self grown, self
manufactured. Milk and cream from their cow, soup vegetable
and salad from their garden, eggs and poultry from their
chicken, fish caught from local fishermen in Chuzir. Most
technical stuff men play with was from pre-Perestroika
times. An observation made throughout. With the decline of
the soviet regime many state owned things got "privatized",
which leads me to some concluding remarks.

One might be pleased seeing freedom of trade, and individual
freedom rank so high there. But this mirrors a very obvious
lack of public, organized, centralized, target based
planning and responsability. One step obviously taken was a
reduction of chinese influence, an economic factor the
russians can otherwise not compete with, and having bad
consequences like unemployment, poverty, lack of income tax,
decay of public property, roads etc.
In view of the special russian gravity ( what falls down,
stays so) there is a lot to do. It seemed to me, though,
that the Buryatic part of the populatian, has a leading edge
in organizing themselves, being traders and merchants by
tradition.
 So, don't expect western standards of development there.
At the countryside, tap water is rare, sewage and waste
water canalization and treatment nonexistant ( Plumpsklo
country),  low voltage Powerlines, if any, are hanging from
wooden poles, only main roads asphalt layered. Petrol
stations, though, seem to be completedly displaced, with
their high tec standards seemingly having been dropped from
out of space...giving quite a clear idea of where the power
and money is located...

The return was uneventful, with the usual hassle at Moscow
airport Shityouascando ( SVO)..
Left us longing for our Baikal friends, whom I have to
praise again for their perfect organisation and commitment.

All in all, one of the best trips I ever made. Calls for a
replay, with better knowldege of russian language.

Doswidanje,

Matthias