Tuesday 08/08
Long night. It feels good.
Pancakes (a bit oily).
We packed smaller bags for the 4-day trip to the Barguzin Valley; we can indeed leave some luggage in the apartment since we’ll come back for 2 other nights here.
We leave at 10am.
Big minibus, comfortable (although windows a bit low to enjoy fully the scenery).
Nice weather; nice road through forests (mainly) and plains, until the shores of the Lake Baikal, still very much impressive.
Stop in Turka; we all swam. Surprisingly the water is warmer on this side of the lake. We bought a few things for the picnic for lunch in the “supermarket”.
We stopped around 3pm at Maksimikah where there is a nice beach (with some cows…). We ate our picnic on the beach (nice omul on cheese cream) and then swam.
One hour after, around 5:30pm, we arrived in Ust-Barguzin. Nice and roomy homestay house.
Isabelle and I went for a walk around the village: tracks only, no asphalted roads; wooden houses (with lots of wood stocked in front of them in anticipation of the winter…).
We came back for the 7pm diner. The lady is not very pleasant but the diner is nice. She doesn’t speak English, which removes a dimension to the homestay.
The shower is the negative point of this homestay (and the internet: there is Wi-Fi in the house but the lady doesn’t know the password). As usual, the shower cabin is rather modern (we even saw in one of them a touch with a phone on it; can we call under our shower?) but the pressure and the temperature of the water are rather erratic…
Evening: posts for blog.