Camp 8 - Zabaikalsky National Park 20th July - 2nd August 2007
by Erwin Jordi
I firstly had to clear my mind. Now, here's my report: On 20th July the two of us went from Switzerland to Lake Baikal. We travelled by air from Basel (Switzerland) via Frankfurt (Germany) to Moscow and afterwards on the Trans-Siberian Railway to Ulan-Ude. I've already travelled on the Trans-Siberian Railway 30 years ago and was very excited if something had changed. But only the employees had become a little bit kinder.
In Ulan-Ude, at the railway station, we had to wait a little bit until we were picked up and driven to the hostel. Later the head of the GBT in Russia, Misha, came to Ulan-Ude to change money. After he got the money we didn't see him anymore until the camp began. So we made some trips on our own initiative.
Together with the others we travelled via Ust-Barguzin to Glinka where we put up our tents. That was okay. We were camping at a real nice place at Lake Baikal. However, we lived there in simple circumstances. Fortunately, the weather was fine, otherwise it would have been difficult for us.
The work was very exhausting because of the heat, the midges and ants. In the evenings, we weren't rewarded with beer. We had to wait for this for 9 long days. Even though we ordered 50 cans of beer (for the whole group) on the first day, we were lucky to drink it only on the penultimate day of the camp.
The everyday stews were sometimes more, sometimes less eatable. Not all kitchen teams had the same qualities. Pasta doesn't get better if you stir it too much or cook it too long. In my opinion it would be better if always the same capable person was on kitchen duty. Only with the help of hygienic water we could stand the bad hygienic conditions and the weird table manners.
Sometimes the team leader's decisions were a little dubious. Once, for example, we were ordered to sweep the trail. And what do the leaves do now? They probably fall onto the trail again. Another example: It was decided that we would set off on a mountain walking tour at 10 a.m. In Switzerland, I'm usually already on the top of the mountain at that time.
Everyone travelled individually back to Ulan-Ude. The last ones arrived at 9:30 p.m. Then we had dinner until 11 p.m. and since I was on kitchen duty that day, I was lucky to wash the dishes until after midnight.
The atmosphere within the group was generally good. We were often sitting together talking, singing and laughing. Alltogether we had a nice but also hard time. Maybe because, among other things, I'm not used to camping.
Our illusions of GBT were finally ruined when we visited the GBT team in their office in Irkutsk. There we became aware of the fact, that the trail will never be completed. Therefore I decided not to participate or donate money anymore.
