110 zimnik - lake Baikal: there, around and back againPart 2, Severobaykalsk - Zelinda hot springs - Sramnaya river

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Lake Baikal, July 17, 2012

We spent the whole morning jogging down the bumpy road that everyone got really tired of, but it was not even the noon when we eventually arrived to Severobaikalsk. We went to a cafe indeed (Irina didn't eat her breakfast on the river bank, so she wanted something to eat, and Gavruilovs ate something, and we had some coffee) and indeed bought a lot of food and drinks in local stores. Well, we asked for a supermarket, but people sent us to some sort of market. Anyway, we could buy everything we needed.

Mikha's dream came true, he bought some liver. My dream came true, I have bought wonderful veal to prepare it for my birthday. And many other dreams came true – in particular, we have bought lots of beer.

110 zimnik - lake Baikal: there, around and back againPart 1, Tomsk - Severobaykalsk

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110 zimnik, historical note

In 1974-1975, the winter was extremely warm, and therefore there were no ice road to cross Baikal and it was impossible to supply Baikal-Amur Mainline with the materials. One of four projects for building a surface road was accepted and built. It was designed as a temporary one, with the purpose just to deliver the supplies during this winter. And the road was open on February 1, 1975. The road was not easy even those days, so they have also built some sheds where the drivers could take a rest or wait for spare parts if the lorry was damaged.

BAM was eventually finished, and the road became unnecessary. It was used as the winter snow road for some time as the rivers and bogs get frozen and it is much easier to drive there. Anyway, the bridges were getting ruined with time, and the traffic has stopped. But the road started to become legendary.

Since that, tourists, and especially auto tourists fell in love with the road which was named "110 zimnik" after the only stud that survived until now