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.
Between the cafe and the market, a local off-road traveler named Sergey approached us, he's just returned from "110 zimnik" not long ago. He gave us lots of useful info and showed some places of interest on the map. He said the road at "110 zimnik" is good at the moment. Later on, I found that he wrote on a local forum that my car was "unprepared", but I think it's OK as he only saw its back on the parking lot. Full face and riding it is not that bad :) And additionally, people in Eastern part of Russia consider a car prepared only if it has at least 35" wheels :)
According to Sergey's advice, we stayed for half a day rest near Nizhneangarsk: rather warm Baikal (if one can call Baikal warm), stony but cozy beach, but not enough firewood... Well, this is where all Severobaikals goes to for picnics, so that's OK. Irina has been building stairs to the water for the half of the day, and edged them with nice white stones. The stairs looked really great, but unfortunately no one has taken a picture of them, not even Irina. Mikha was cooking the liver with onions, Nadezhda was looking at the process and obviously liked it. Then we all have been eating it and it was wonderful (the onions are the best thing in this dish, this is something the dish's author said and we agreed), and then we've been just relaxing, swimming, and I even could make myself put the veal into the marinade made of various sauces and fruits in Asian style.
Probably the best birthday ever (Dzelinda, New Uoyan, Sramnaya river), Jula 18, 2012
I was given presents and said words in the morning. The presents were extremely appropriate: I forgot to take my headlamp and spoons and forks, and I have recieved a headlamp and a spoon :)
My marinated meat has been packed, and we made our way further right after breakfast (was it another omelette? :)). Our first goal was the wild Dzelinda hot spring. One of the nearest goals was also to fill our diesel tank and cans in Nizhneangarsk, but we somehow took a bypass and had to buy diesel in some interim village. The village was a rather large railway station, and the woman at the gas station was very nice. She said her son studied in Tomsk, so she was especially nice to us. Generally speaking, there are always nice women in the East at the gas stations - at least this is my experience. Same about Altai. But this is a parenthetic remark.
Of course we didn't notice the turn to Dzelinda although we supposed it should be there. So we had to pursue a local Niva for some time to stop them and ask about the way to the hot springs, and they said we passed it :) After that, we didn't loose our way anymore and arrived strictly to the hot spring. There was a family that arrived before us and left as soon as they finished the bath. They showed us everything and explained about the hot spring, what is it good for and how long should we stay there…
Zelinda hot springs, information
Zelinda river is an Angara feeder, and the name of the river means "taimen" (a kind of very good fish) in evenki. The water temperature is +44 - +52 degrees Celsius all the year round. The water is sulfate sodium bicarbonate with the light smell of stink damp. Due to high content of silicic acid, high alcalinity, high content of fluor, presence of radon and pversaturation of nitrogen the water is good for humans and is recommended to treat musculoskeletal, blood circulatory system, nervous system, gynecological and skin disorders and diseases.
There are two springs: one is wild and the other one has some infrastructure including baths and pools and a recreation facility which also includes sauna, bar, billards, parking lot and a skating ring and ski rental in winter.
And there was another family camping near the hot spring, and they had a girl of approximately Irina's age. It was amazing how two children that haven't seen other children for several days ran to each other and made friends immediately (Irina has never made friends that fast before).
The weather was dull, there were loads of mosquitoes… especially in the changing rooms by the hot spring, it was their main point. We undressed as fast as never and rushed to the hot spring. Our men already were in it and said that the stairs were very slippery. We certainly heard it, but no one has expected they were that slippery… so, I was the first who straddled a stair (and it hurt a lot, the last bruises disappeared only when I got back home), and Nadezhda was the next one. I had to just grab Irina and put her to the warm water – it made her cry, but when she adjusted to the temperature she became as happy as she was upset first.
As a matter of fact, it is real happiness to be in the hot spring: you're in the hot healthy water and the mosquitoes cannot reach you. Well, they encroach on your head, but it is much easier to take care of the head only instead of the whole body…
When we left the hot spring, I realized that we have to leave the changing room as soon as possible without really changing the clothes. We wrapped in towels to reduce the area that mosquitoes can bite and ran up to the cars. We didn't care of any neighbors, quickly wiped and changed our clothes screening with whatever we could – from mosquitoes, not from the neighbors. Well, I would recommend to arrive to the springs having your swimming suit already on and leave it in the swimming suit, be wrapped into a towel while in the car and then change the clothes somewhere at an open place where there are no mosquitoes. I have seen lots of different amounts of mosquitoes in my life, but have never been in a situation when I looked at my legs, and they were all grey… ran my hands over the legs sweeping the first layer of mosquitoes off, but the legs immediately got grey again because of a new layer - I have never seen it before. It was clear that there is no point to strike them, the only thing we could do was to get dressed very fast, and what was much better was to spray the repellent, so we did. The repellent helped, we even could prepare the stove and decided to have our Asian veal for lunch, but at this moment Gavrilovs raced from the hot springs (they washed their hair there) and screamed that we have to make off for dear life. We packed the things and left the place, but both children were upset.
We reached New Uoyan, went to the local market, bought there a repellent against the ticks (which we didn't need later on, but the repellents against mosquitoes was extremely useful at Dzelinda and at Chivyrkui :)), had lunch at a cafe across and went towards Kumora. Me and Mikha managed to not find a gas station in New Uoyan, so we left it with what we had: around 7/8 of a 68-liter tank and two cans 20 liters each. Gavrilov then entered Kumora (the link is in Russian) in hope to find something, but he didn't find anything. There is a large and, as people say, warm Irkana lake near Kumora and another hot spring that we didn't go to. And that's where "110 zimnik" starts as an imperceptible rut.
After we entered the zimnik, our cans at the roof rack became really loose, and we decided to fill the tank from the first one. But then we found out that there was a hole in the can and it was close to the bottom… so, we could only empty what was left there (luckily there still was pretty much diesel). Then we worked with the second can that also started leaking but close to the mouth. We positioned it better and then, spreading the diesel smell around, tore we off. That's an exaggeration indeed.
If you enter "110 zimnik" from the north you immediately get to Sramnaya river. I have read a rather funny story (in Russian indeed) about why it is named so. It is a nice small river that moves huge rocks when high water, and each summer the early explorers get tired moving those rocks and building a new road for this single year. And when we were going along Sramnaya it started raining and the water started rising so fast that the other crew (we didn't see it) was slightly frightened.
As it was said, a group has passed the road before us that had a car with 31" wheels (and mine are just 0.7" larger), the road was much better than I expected. Anyway, Mikha indeed had a lot of work making sure I'm going so that I cannot damage the car. And I indeed did my best to damage the car with my right side very close to the rocks and tore off the right footboard, but this was not a serious loss since I was going to order a new reinforced one.
So, going along Srmanaya river was really interesting. The river has crossed the road several times, these were so nice shallow fords… that (if not Mikha) could become really unpleasant places where I could tire off various car's body parts :)
However, a couple of hours later it started to seem monotonous (though I was standing it steadily), and Mikha, wet to the skin under the rain and in the river, most probably wanted to go home. At least I would want it if I were him.
Anyway, it was getting late, and Sramnaya river was passed. We crossed it for the last time and there was a small clearing on the bank and even some firewood. So, we decided to camp here. Next day we discovered that there were some other nice places to camp; however, the only bad thing about this one was that it was absolutely "on the road".
Trying to celebrate my birthday and frighten the bears, Gavrilov has even shot his gun, for the first and the last time for the whole trip. I was traditionally given the stars from the skies, and I roasted that wonderful marinated veal which appeared to be yummy, but extremely tough, so it was hard to chew it :) Well, we also had some salads, so we were not going to starve :)
We were drinking not for long, but very fast. My head was aching in the morning (it's been the first of two times for all the trip); however, I've known the recipe for the cure for ages, and my hair was not clean enough anyway. I took a bowl and went to the very middle of Sramnaya river and washed my head. At first, Irina was looking at me with horror, but by the end of the trip she's been not whining when she had to wash her face from Baikal lake and has even washed her hair in it once.
If you have never washed your hair in mountain rivers and lakes, I only can tell you that it is very straining in the beginning. Literally. The skin is cramping and you basically want to put it into some warm place and get some cognac internally. However, when you get used to it and acquire a taste (although they say not all people reach this stage), this is a real bliss. By the way, it is as easy to wash other body parts in the mountain rivers as the head. I love shower and bath and I cannot imagine what would I do if I needed to boil the water every time I want it.
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