Camp 22 - Stars of Balan Tamur 29th August - 11th September 2007
by Petra Hoffman-Walbeck
I had been dreaming about travelling to Siberia and Lake Baikal for a long time. But I certainly didn't want to take part in a guided tour where we would stop at every highlight of Russia. And I didn't want to travel alone either. The projects of Baikalplan e.V. were a good opportunity for me: I would travel to Russia all on my own but when being there I would live in the taiga together with other people from Russia and all over the world. Furthermore, I would do something useful.
I applied for the project 'Stars of Balan Tamur', which took place in the Dzherginsky National Nature Reserve in the northeast of Lake Baikal. I chose this project because I could only travel in September and because the project's name just made me expect wonderful things to come.
At first, I travelled on the Trans-Siberian Railway from Moscow to Irkutsk. There I stayed at the Irkutsk Downtown Hostel. The employees were really kind. In the GBT office, which was also the student digs of Tanya, the coordinator of the project, I met the other participants of the project, who were a lively bunch of people. They gave me some useful advice concerning living in the woods like, for example, that I should buy a mosquito net in Irkutsk. It turned out to be really useful.
The next day we went by train to Ulan-Ude. While travelling we had a great view of Lake Baikal. In Ulan-Ude I had already booked a room at the Hotel Buryatiya. It's not that cheap there but with my room being on the 12th floor I had a great view of Lake Baikal. On the way back I stayed at the Hotel Barguzin. It was equipped the same, was also situated in the center of the town but the room cost only half as much as in the Hotel Buryatiya. However, I didn't have a great view.
The next morning our group met at the Lenin statue situated at the central square of Ulan-Ude. I only knew that two people from Switzerland would participate so I was really excited. It turned out that there were 5 of us from all over the world in the group. A student of Russian Literature from America, a globetrotter from Australia and a student couple from Switzerland. All of them were aged between 20 and 25 so that I, a 57-year-old woman, was, compared to them, a grandma. Furthermore, there were ten Russians: three female teachers from Ulan-Ude (one of them was the team leader) and two students from Irkutsk - one of them was an English Studies student who served as translator. On the next day two young teachers from the village of Maisky and three rangers of the Dzherginsky National Nature Reserve joined the group. Except for the team leader, who was a little moody, the people were really nice. Two of the rangers were almost the same age as me but, actually, inspite of the age difference I always felt comfortable and integrated.
The drive to our camp took three days. It was more adventurous than I had imagined. On the first day of the journey we travelled in a minivan for about 10 hours over 400km (249 miles) - sometimes on pot holed tarmac roads, mostly on gravel roads - to the village of Maisky. It was a bumpy ride for me but it was fun. From time to time we stopped on the shores of Lake Baikal where we had a wonderful view over the lake. When putting our feet in its water we realized that the water isn't as cold as we had thought. When we arrived in Maisky it was already dark outside. The full moon shone and lighted the mountains. We stayed at a simple gostinitsa (hotel). The eleven of us slept in two double bedrooms which was no problem since we all had sleeping bags and camping mats with us. We got water from a tanker that stood outside, the kitchen was very comfortable and on the way to the toilet we had the wide Siberian sky above us.
The next morning we got up early. However, the sport utility trucks, in which we would go to the reserve, only arrived in the early afternoon. Until they arrived we had time to take a walk through the village accompanied by goats and cows that walked home on their own to be milked. Later we drove through the open countryside surrounded by mountains crossing rickety wooden bridges and small rivers. We laughed a lot about the unexpected hops caused by the shaking seats. It was already getting dark when we arrived at one of the 'winter huts' in the reserve. It was a blockhouse with a stove where 4-8 persons could sleep in a wooden area. We put up some tents and cooked tasty kasha over the campfire. While eating, our hands got cold because of the cold air after the sun had gone down.
FIt was announced that on the third day we would hike 25km (15.5 miles) and that a 'very special car' would arrive which would carry our equipment. We walked through a larch forest with sparse tree cover. The soil was covered with soft moss, lichens, huckleberries and cranberries that we nibbled from time to time. The 'very special car' turned out to be a tracked vehicle that especially we foreigners were critical of. Its fuel consumption was 1 liter/1 kilometre (2.82mpg imp), it lost oil and left big tyre tracks. However, we were thankful that we didn't have to carry the luggage and when there were deeper rivers (usually the rivers there are stony and not deep with clear water in it, sometimes wide) we all got on the vehicle so that our feet didn't get wet. It was dark outside when we arrived at our camp. Balan Tamur is a narrow lake, not deep, with a strong current and huge round boulders in it. It is situated about 1000m (3280ft) above sea level and surrounded by mountains. The panorama was just impressive! I immediately understood why the Buryats considered the lake to be sacred. We put up our tents on mossy ground around the winter hut standing on the bank. From now on the wooden table and the benches located right next to the fireplace were our 'living room'. In the morning and in the evening we cooked kasha and tea in two buckets, the midday meal was borscht, sometimes also fish. We always liked our meal.
We were very lucky with the weather. Only on the very last day did it rain in the morning. On the other days it was sunny and warm for the most time, at midday it was sometimes hot. At night it was cold inside the tent and sometimes the temperature dropped below zero degrees but that was rather rare.
There hadn't been either a GBT group nor tourists at this place before us and also the group leader didn't know this reserve. That's why we didn't have a plan for our work there. We were supposed to widen the already existing narrow trail that had been used by the rangers. The group leader and two other people were first to remove trunks from the trail by using a motor saw. The rest of the group followed them with hedge shears and removed little rhododendrons and larches but also blueberry bushes standing on the wayside. The rangers were supposed to build small bridges over marshy ground. They did their work but they would have rather gone fishing. For some of us, especially for the foreigners, the removal of the bushes didn't make sense. The rangers already knew the trail and since the bushes were very low there was no danger of overgrowth. We just asked ourselves: How much tourist would come here within the next 3 years? Who would want to walk along this remote area where you can only get to it with a permit? Concerning the destruction caused by the tracked vehicle they said that there would be plants again after 3 years, which means that the trail we cleaned wouldn't be clean anymore after 3 years. The most important thing I enjoyed during the journey was the nature and the people and the international character of the group. The task for the foreign people of the group was to learn from the Russians as well as to teach them western knowledge. We tentatively tried to explain to them that a discussion about the planned work results will definitely improve the result. We also tried to tell them that it's better to bury the litter, at least, if they don't want to take it back. Arguing with the group leader was just not possible; and speaking of the litter problem: the Russians simply don't care about it. Since we were restoring the trail on the last few days, too, we had no time to remove the litter from the area so that there are still tonnes of bottles and cans that were already there poking out of a pit when we arrived. This would be a work project for the next group. However, don't worry: the litter lies behind the hut so that you'll nevertheless have a great view over Balan Tamur. Furthermore, they are thinking about replacing the tracked vehicle with horses and wellingtons next year. Especially since the 'very special car' was damaged so much by some boulder trail sections that it conked out when crossing the last river before arriving at the hut we wanted to sleep in. The tracked vehicle had to be pulled out by a sport utility truck.
Ayun, a Buryat teacher, also hopes that the next group will leave the tracked vehicle at home. Ayan chose our camp group especially because she wanted to get to know the area at Tamur Balan. As a Buryat she had never been there before since it was forbidden without permission. She felt sorry for the nature which we destroyed by using the tracked vehicle or the hedge shears. She was always throwing rice - as a symbolic compensation.
All in all the journey was a great experience. Living outdoor made it possible to experience the wonderful landscape at its most untouched. And living together with really nice and young people - international people and Russians (I wished I could speak a little more Russian. Fortunately, there were two bilingual persons in the group) was really fun. Many thanks to the organisers!