Camp 3 - Zabaikalsky National Park 5th - 18th July 2007
by Reinhard Mandl
Siberia? Cold weather, dangerous people, bears, evil midges, awful? ... It wasn't a hungry bear that shocked me - we only saw some scratch marks on a tree, about 0.5m (1.6ft) above our heads.
The small but still dangerous, disease-transmitting ticks didn't scare us either. Only two or three of them attacked some participants of the group - there were 15 of us. However, they didn't get the chance to suck Russian, Buryat or Western blood because we constantly checked our bodies.
Also the millions of well-trained, tireless Siberian 'gladiator midges' couldn't scare us even though there were so many of them that we could kill ten or twenty at once. They even dared to bite through thick, high-quality dungarees and sometimes the dungarees were covered by millions of them.
And the cold water of Lake Baikal couldn't get us down either. After working all day long in the Siberian forest under beautiful pines and larches, with a swarm of happy midges flying around us and the Siberian summer heat which we had to cope with, the (slightly) cold water was our salvation. We got rid of the midges, the sweat and the needles.
The acid smoke rising from the campfire wasn't annoying at all. It protected us against the insects which were around us all the time. Unfortunately, Lake Baikal sent us also smoke-resistant midges for a few days. Maybe it wanted us to know who the boss was there.
The smoke made us experience the Pavlov reflex that doesn't make only dogs drool when they hear a bell before being fed. It also made us drool when we saw or smelled the smoke. Then we knew that kasha will be ready soon. Yippie!
Also the kasha that we ate three times a day wasn't disgusting at all. Some participants added Russian or Western ingredients to make the kasha tastier. And for improving the chai (tea) we got ingredients from the woodland around us: currant leaves and wild thyme.
We weren't shocked, just a little surprised, about the amount of sweets that the Russians and Buryats were able to eat. They ate chocolate with chocolate spread and that's only one of the many possibilities.
We were surprised about the kindness the Russians and Buryats showed towards us. Actually, I can't understand their generosity ... well, because of the Cold War. However, we were overwhelmed by their great hospitality. Even in the wilderness we were invited to dinner by 'neighbours': we ate smoked omul and drank the certain 'little water'.
We also weren't afraid of communication problems. Due to the translator and some participants who could speak a little bit of Russian we had the funniest conversations every day and cultural exchange was guaranteed (not only between Russians and Westerners but also between Germans and Austrians since we used different words for the same things).
Even the work wasn't scary. Our main task was to build small bridges over marshy ground and to widen already existing trails. Fortunately, we had much time off. Then we ate kasha or sweets or drank beer sometimes (or vodka, secretly in the tent but shshsh - don't say it to anyone). Or we went swimming or played the guitar or sang or made a walking tour to the 'Holy Nose', a peninsula at Lake Baikal. No, working was definitely not scary.
However, the bad quality of the material was annoying sometimes. There were no or just a small amount of nails even though the organisers knew that we would build bridges. And we had only one chainsaw which actually worked. It was also annoying that the trail should be 90cm (3ft) in width. For this we had to remove the important superficial layer of earth (without it erosions can occur). We Westerners just couldn't understand why we should widen the trail even though it was wide enough that everyone could see it. And sometimes we had the feeling that there was scheduled too little work. However, it wasn't awful.
Only once was I really in for a shock: After we arrived in Ulan-Ude I couldn't find my luggage. It just wasn't there! I was in shock for 24 hours, which I spent sleeping for most of the time because of the jetlag. The next day I had my rucksack back, it was undamaged and everything was still in there.
Then I spent two weeks at Chivyrkuisky Bay which is one of the most beautiful places at Lake Baikal, together with 14 other people from the Western Europe, Russia and the Buryat Republic. Since I had a business visa, I afterwards explored the region around Lake Baikal on my own for another six weeks. I had enjoyable (for most of the time) experiences and there were some nice surprises.
Cold? Scary? No, just greeeaaaat!
