day 106, Listvyanka on Lake Baikal

Last night after writing me blog and sitting round the table drinking a bit, chatting and playing cards me, Brian and Kim went for a walk by the lake. It wasn’t as cold as it were during the day, though sadly there wasn’t any stars on show. The tide was going out and the sound was pretty relaxing, and aside from me half falling down a slope thing where the pavement doesn’t go all the way to the railing but it was good to get out and about. Slept like the dead till about 5, when I was woken by Brian’s monstrous snoring and Andy’s breathing which was on another level, like a donkey drowning. I ear plugged up and got back to a tossing sleep, to be woken by Brian shaking me to get up as it was 9:02 and we were meeting at 9 for the dip. I considered not going but quickly got  dressed and jogged down the lake with other partakers and a couple of onlookers who didn’t fancy it. It was pretty cold out and at the lake was colder. Sergei was first in and out (of course in his tiny knickers) and jake who ran in, dived, jumped up and dived back shouting. Brian was next in who did 2 strokes albeit very briefly then Brigitte and or Seb. Then it were me, got stripped off, put me feet in and was fucking cold, kept walking forward before doing a kind of fall in, jumping up in shock, forcing myself to put my head under and get the fuck out into a towel, strip off and get into warm clothes struggling to get me socks on and feel my feet. I think almost everyone was in the lake for longer then me (part from Seb) but fuck it, was freezing. Lucas just showed me a video of him going in (like action man) and pictures of me nimbi-pambying about  looking bloody cold just to reinforce my manly self image. Had an amazing shower then motored through some porridge. Everyone with Sergei caught a bus then hopped off to do a little walk up to a view point which gave a perspective of the scale of the lake, it’s bloody huge! Wikipedia Lake Baikal and spend hours ingesting facts, like in winter it freezes and they use it as a road, it’s the world’s deepest lake with an average depth of 700 and something metres and shit like that. We walked down, back along the road into a café for lunch, a quick fish pie later and back out in the cold to walk  back to the hotel. We chilled and mooched about for a couple of hours deciding on what to do. Veto’d the seal show, the ship trip and a few of us went for a walk after having a kick about with a volleyball. We walked along the water front on cliffs and paths with amazing views over the lake, with the snow capped mountains on the other side bloody miles off. We walked home to a semi good dinner, not enough of it but pretty tasty, and some amazing biscuits that resembled a twix/ferrero Roche lovechild which were magnificent. At the moment just sat round the table with a beer having a natter. My internet aint working which isn’t the best as it is for everyone else but ah well. Tomorrow off on the train in the evening to Mongolia!