Day 61 - 68, from Irkutsk to Novoselenginsk (south of Baikal lake)

Day 62, 40 km

I spent the morning writing my blog. Unfortunately There was no WIFI in the club so I decided to go downtown to see if I could find a good cafe with WIFI. I also wanted to investigate if I could find any cheaper wheel for my bicycle. I did not succeed to find a better offer but I found some gas-cartridges for my camping cooker. So I went again to the bicycle repair shop called TechAs and bought the back wheel. They were very helpsome and gave me a free new tire and I did not need to pay for the work.

Here you can see my old wheel.

Then I went sightseeing in Irkutsk I got a free map at the tourist office. I could not find the botanic garden on the map so I asked a women where it was. She said it was outside the center so It was not on the map. But she wanted to show me all other things of interest. So we walked together through the town and she was my guide. I took many pictures in Irkutsk, amongst other of Alexander the 3^rd , who was the initiator of the Trans Siberian Railway.

When I came “home” to the Black Bears, there were many members, some of them also with their partners and we had a nice party with a plenty of Russian Food and beer. I came to bed first at 2 in the morning.

Day 63, 110 km

Paul, a guy from Poland who had the club local as his home, made me a really good breakfast in American style: crumbled eggs with bacon. Then I packed my panniers and left the local at 10 am. On the way out of town I looked at the botanic garden and bought some groceries and a new saddle. So when I left the town it was already 12:30. I knew it was more than 100 km to the lake of Baikal but I really wanted to see it already this day. I also knew that there were many mountains with a height of about 1000 m above sea level in between. It was a hot day so when I came to a bridge over a river, I decided to take a bath under it.

Actually this bridge is the old bridge which you could see from the new one. I took a bath under the new bridge so nobody saw that I was naked.

Paul had warned me and said I impossibly could reach the lake the same day because there were so many mountains. But I did! Late in the evening I reached the town Kultun and found a beach at the lake were took a bath and then went to bed in my tent.

I found a good place for my tent very close to the cranes you can see. There were many nettles which looked completely different as they I was used to.

Unfortunately there came a car after a while with people who wanted to spent the night at the same place. They lit a fire and played music all night long. In the middle of the night even a van with 8 youngsters came and the screamed loudly while they took a bath in the lake.

The lake of Baikal is very special for all Russians. Everybody thinks it is very beautiful there, and it really is. Every body also knows that it is the deepest freshwater lake in the world. Actually it is 1637 meters deep!

Day 64, 90 km

I was a little tired that day so I rode very slowly and just enjoyed the views.

I made many pictures.

The road was going along the mountains, above the railway. 

In the western part of the lake there were many cafes an many tourists. Everywhere there were inhabitants standing along the road, selling berries and smoked fish. I bought some delicious strawberries an a wonderful fish.

The russian truch drivers seemed not to be used to the narrow bends of the road.

I

In the afternoon I got the answer why so many cars had blown their horns the last two days. I thought it was because of the mountains they wanted to cheer me up. But it was not only because of this. From car which passed me a youngster yelled: I know you, you are going around the world! And then after a while behind a car that had stopped a young couple was standing with their baby and their camera and said they had seen me on TV and wanted to take some pictures of me together with them.I passed amny rivers with beautiful giant tumbeled stones.

I continued some more kilometers and again a car had stopped on the roadside. A couple stood beside it which I knew: It was Maks, the president of the Black Bears and his wife Julia. They also had their daughter Dana in the car and were on the way to a weekend camping at a lake, only some kilometers away. They invited me to spend the evening with them at the camping. So I rode after their car the seven kilometers up in a valley to the lake. The road went next to a quite big river and an old forest with very big trees. 

Tourist were making pictures with them and the trees. 

Finally we came to the camping and Maks and Julia payed for my entrance. 

Dana liked to play with me although I did not understand so much russian.

It seemed to be a very popular camping because there were people everywhere. We found a good place and made fire. But then the rain begun. In the rain we went to buy some beers and look at the famous lake. Actually it was quite warm and many people were swimming although the rain. We went back to the fire and ate some barbeque and drank some beer but the rain did not stop. Finally we decided to go back to the lake and see if we could find some place under a roof. We fround a little roof and soon many people crowded there. Everybody wanted to cheer with me and some of them had brought their own (home-made?) vodkas. Maks discretely exchanged my  gasses with common juice and said it would not be good for me to drink it. We had a good time until midnight. Then I slept in my tent but it was raining all night and several times alarms from cars made that I could not sleep so good that night.

Day 64, 90 km

Next day I awoke with a terrible headache. I was very greatfuil to Maks that he mede me not drinking more of the vodka. Anyway, I said good buy to the family and continued my travel along the south coast of the Baikal Lake. After an hour i met a german cyclist, Stefan Herb. We exchanged some experiences and had a good talk. He had been on the road for five months and had been riding 12000 km. 

In the evenig I came to Babushkin and thought I could think about if I should take a shortcut over the mountains or if I should take the big road around it. So I decided to sleep there and make the decission next morning.

Day 65, 140 km

I rained all night and even until next noon. Thas helped me to make my decission. All people I had asked about the road ofer the mountains had told me that it was VERY muddy, almost impossible to ride on. So at eleven I continued my travel towars east.

I had a good wind from southwest so I rode quite much that day. In the afternoon I passed a monistery which looked to be newly renovated.

When I came closer it was obvious that there was much more work to be done.

In the evening I came to a town where the river Selenga made a sharp turn towars south. (this river goes through Ulan Ude and up to Mongolia the same way as I am planning to go). On the map it seemed to be a bridge and I thought I could find a place for my tent there. But there was no bridge but a very primitive ferry. 

I continued some more kilometers and found an amazing spot for myself very close to the beautiful river.

Day 67, 100 km

Now the road turned towards south, to Ulan Ude. The alley was first wide, but soon it became so narrow that the railway AND the road did not have enough space next to the river Selenga. So the road climbed up and passed behind some hills. 

On the highest point you could find many coins along the road. It seems to be a Russian and especially Byratian tradition to throw some coins out of the car window on all holy places, and almost all hills in this area were holy. Here there were almost more coins than gravel, but most coins were almost worthless 1, 5 and 10 kopeks.

Soon I came to Ulan Ude. 

Since I did not need anything there I decided to continue further upstream the Selenga, which I should follow even in a part of Mongolia. 

But since I turned to SW I had a bad headwind and could not ride so fast.

From Ulan Ude the landscape suddenly changed a lot. 

If you zoom in this holy hill you can read something in Buryatian, written with white stones

Now there were no more woods but beautiful soft hills and mountains with grazing animals. Also many people looked different. I estimated that every second I met had an asian look. And I was right: about 500 000 of 1000 000 people in Buryatia have asian origin. They also have their own language. I thought they were very beautiful, especially their children which looked like dolls.

Day 68, 45 km

The headwind was even worse than the day before so I decided to take a break at a river and wash my clothes in a river. In the wind they dried very fast.

My clothes are drying in the birch

As the wind did not stop I continued to a town called Gusnoozersk. There I stopped at a shop to buy some groceries. The shopkeeper, an Asian looking lady, was very nice and asked if I would like to come in her kitchen and get some lunch. Although I just had eaten I agreed and got a delicious soup from her and than even a piece of cake. Than I continued to the center of the city to see if I could find a phone-shop which could explain for me why my Internet did not work again. I thought it must be because there was no connection in the town and did not really help they could fix it, but I hoped I could maybe use their WIFI or get an advice where I could find one.

Exactly as I wanted to enter the shop a guy came to me and asked in English if I needed some help. I asked him if he knew some WIFI in the town. He said that there probably was none but that his mother lived only 100 m from there and that I could use her Internet. He also told me that his name was Evgeniy and that he was beekeeper in a village 60 km away. So we went to his mothers apartment and she was very pleased to meet me because she was English teacher and wanted to brush up her English. So she invited me for a third lunch and we talked a lot about my journey and about Sweden. Finally Evgeniy tried to help me to connect my computer to her Internet. We tried to make a network and we tried to connect it directly but it did not work. Suddenly I discovered that my computer did not charge any more because the contact was broken again. Evgeniy said he could fix it and went to buy some equipment. All these computer troubles continued for many hours, but finally, late at night I succeeded to upload my photos and update my site. Meantime I had eaten much more food, told more about my journey and showed a lot of pictures for Evgeniy's mother, sister Olga, girlfriend Gala and sister-daughter Masha. And Gala and Masha had made this beautiful picture of me.

"Lucky journey" Gala and Masha wrote on the cartoon. Behind me you can see the globe which I am biking around.
 As it already was dark Evgeniy asked me if I wanted to sleep at his house 60 km west from the road. I was curious to see it so we packed my bicycle and all panniers in hes jeep and drove there. Then we ate a lot of pizza and had a good time until after midnight.

Evgeniy and Gala had a simple little house with a lot of outhouses for their dogs (two beautiful Afghanes) and their bees in winter time.

Evgeniy showed me his bike with which he was riding through southern Asia