Camp 6 in Kurbulik from the 26th of July to the 8th of August 2004
by Julia Rumpf
Air Siberia has the best offer for the flight for us (Julia Eicke and me = 2x Julia). About 430 for a flight from Munich via Moscow and Novosibirsk to Irkutsk and a return flight from Moscow to Munich. Some aspects of this airline might need getting used to. Namely that we experience a touch-and-go during the approach for a landing in Novosibirsk, and when we have landed finally, we have to put up with a 6-hour waiting time. We neither get informed about the reason nor about any estimated departure times. Our inquiries get responded in a stroppy way... Well, that is our first encounter with Russian information policy.
During the approach for a landing in Munich parts of the ceiling lining of the cabin come down, which don't scare the mainly Russian passengers though. Well I think it is still tolerable, but if you suffer from fear of flying, I advise you from this airline.
In Irkutsk the GBT helpers pick us up immediately, which work out very well - fortunately, because we are totally exhausted. We are accommodated in a flat which has been rented by the GBT.
The Marshrutkar taxi brings us from Ulan-Ude to Ust-Bargusin a seven-hour drive on Siberian roads. And then we seem to be at the end of the world.
Ust-Bargusin is a Siberian village just as you imagine it or know it from the Bednarz films. Everywhere you see the pretty Siberian framehouses, dogs and other animals roam on the streets, and you find the Russian Babushkas at every corner. We stay a night longer than we have planned in this strange hamlet at the end of the world (bad weather), where you can purchase all familiar west products in the shops that spring up like mushrooms - but at extremely high prices.
We get to know each other better, lots of different people participate in the camp. Even if most of them are between 16 and 26 years old, they come from very diverse backgrounds. Unfortunately, the communication with some teenagers from Ust-Bargusin is limited as well, because both our Russian and their English is rather bad. Nevertheless it works out relatively well.
In buses of the national park administration we make our way to the wharf (...) over sandy roads, and from there we take a boat to the bay (...), where we camp like many other Russians as well at the lakefront of Lake Baikal. We use the Wednesday, our first working day, to inspect the route section that we are supposed to clear and to rebuild partly.
On Thursday we start the clearance, and at the same time the first hill, where we plan to build the way in serpentines, is being marked with tape.
On Friday the weather seems to be nice, and moreover we get the possibility of a transportation to the foot of the plateau of Svaytoe Nos at short notice. Relatively late we decide to use the day for a group excursion after all. The ascent is rather exhausting due to the very steep route. We cast first doubts on the competence of our camp leader, who is not able to lead the group upwards responsibly and to keep it together... The peak features fantastic views of the bridge to Ust-Bargusin in all its blaze of colour and across Lake Baikal. During dusk we return to the camp from this wonderful excursion and are totally exhausted...
On Saturday we begin to work late in exchange. On Sunday we build up the camp half a kilometre further north, where the campground is better. But the Russian camp leader has come to the decision to move there single-handedly and in a not very democratic way, without conferring with her American colleagues.
While we are pitching the tent we are instructed to move it 10 cm, in order that everything stands in file - fortunately we don't have to comply every single absurdity of the camp leader.
The second week is much busier than the first one. We work between 6 to 8 hours each day, the work is physically exhausting depending on how much you get involved with it of course.
Altogether, we rebuild the route from a pier south of Kautun to the village of Kurbulik (where Bednarz Fisher is domiciled as well). In doing so, we build a new trail at two places, in order to lead the way up the mountain in serpentines. According to our professional American trail builders we have rather good conditions, because the layer of botanical material, which we have to remove during the trail building, is fairly thin.
On our last day we make a boat trip to the hot springs. I will especially keep in mind the Russian Banya an improvised sauna, consisting of stones heated in the fire and a big plastic foil and the following bath in Lake Baikal. Of course we have camp fire romance with lots of Russian guitar music as well. And especially at the beginning of the camp we have already had an active cultural exchange, I think.
Furthermore, it turns out that we can travel on with Vika, and thus we visit Ulan-Ude and Irkutsk together with her. We are able to gain totally different insights than we would have gained as German tourists with moderate Russian knowledge. I think for me this was the most eventful time...
From Irkutsk we take the Transsib to Moscow via Nishny Novgorod, which is recommendable, by the way. The journey in the Transsib was a bit boring though...
Another incident worth mentioning is that in the hotel in Moscow they don't want to register me at first, because I haven't had a registration for four days. After some persuasion and a visit at the not very helpful police they accept my passport after all.
