8 Things I Wish I'd Known Before Coming to Baikal

There already is a post on the Internet titled 8 Things I Wish I'd Known Before Traveling to Lake Baikal, and it's a very good post! I myself found it very helpful. But as it often happens when we travelled to Baikal I found 8 more things that I wish I'd known before going there. Here they are. I realize some of them are not specific to Lake Baikal, but oh well.

1. Lots of hills. I had no idea that the bank of Baikal next to Listvyanka village was so hill-y, full of hills! And that's exactly where we were planning to go hiking. Somehow no one said anything or we missed it.
   
   What does it matter? Just that I thought hiking would happen on an even and wide path next to the shoreline, but in reality, it was a strenuous (and in places quite dangerous) narrow path that went steeply up and down. It was quite challenging, which brings me to my next point.
   
   
2. Russian ”moderate” is something I would call extreme and life-threatening. The hike (or the first part of it) was described as ”moderate”. We had hiked some ”easy” paths in Taiwan and I thought I was ready to handle ”moderate”.
   
   Not in Russia! At first it was just strenuous, because you had to climb a lot uphill. Then it became nerve-wrecking as we were going downhill. I would not have dared to walk that path in the rain in fear of slipping and rolling downhill. But the worst came later as next to the 30 centimetre wide path was a 300 metre fall down into the lake. Falling down would have meant certain death. There was no railing, no rope, nothing to hold on to. The path wasn't even but rocky, with tree roots sticking out and sand rolling from under foot. A million places to trip, slip and fall (even if we both had really good hiking boots).
   
   As I saw what was ahead, I became pale and nauseous and absolutely terrified. A couple of cyclists cycled (what?!) up to the Fall of Death, looked at it, got down from their bikes and carried them to the other side. (What?!) To me, watching that scene was similar to watching people rope walking between two sky scrapers without a safety net.
   
   Aapo wasn't helping. ”Come on,” he pressed on, ”at least ten people have walked here today,” referring to the people we had met on the path before.
   ”Ten people have made it alive, but you don't know the survival percentage,” I said and refused to take another step. Begrudgingly he agreed to turn around and head back.
   
   
3. In September there are autumn leaves in Baikal which are incredibly beautiful. When we started our trip two weeks prior to our hike, there were no autumn colours yet, but somehow the deeper we went into Siberia the more autumn colours we saw. Baikal was a painting of yellows and oranges. Every scenery looked like a postcard. We oohed and aahed and took a lot of pictures.
   
   
4. The starry night sky is incredible and something I've never seen before. You can see the Milky Way! You can see shooting stars! It's like all those professional looking night sky photos where you wonder, where can you see stars like that? Well, those photos were probably taken in Baikal!
   
   
5. You don't need to be scared of bears or snakes or wasps or spiders. (Aside from falling to your death) the scariest things in Baikal are living with no Internet and the cold. (It is cold. Bring wool socks, wool hat, scarf and mittens.) Also, there are no chairs, no crisps, no music, and if you forget to bring your flu medicine you just have to live with it. (Bring it all with you! Except maybe chairs. Although some people bring those as well.)
   
   
6. Getting sick on a hiking trip is not the best idea. I went down with the flu: sore throat, coughing up phlegm, stuffy nose and fever – dizziness, fogginess in the head, low energy and paranoia. Being who I am (stupid?) I said, ”We will not go back. We will hike anyway.” Because suffering apparently is fun.
   
   And if you do decide to get sick on a hiking trip, bring medicine! Or have lots of knowledge about medicinal plants if you want to make your own.
   
   
7. Baikal is nature. I mean, we heard there are plenty of different ways to enjoy Baikal, including five star hotels, nice restaurants with local delicacies, and night cruises. But if you decide to hike and camp like we did, you're up against pure nature.
   
   Pribaikalsky National Park is not very touched by humans. On one hand, that's a great thing, allowing you to camp on the beach under the stars in complete peace and solitude. But on the other hand it comes with a price. There are no toilets, no wood to make a fire, no phone reception, no ropes or railings on dangerous paths, and the paths themselves are narrow and not that even. (The Great Baikal Trail is a relatively new trail made by volunteers and is still being constructed as you are reading this. Visit http://greatbaikaltrail.org/ for more info.)
   
   And when the night comes, it's SCARY. Complete darkness, ominous wind (Pokémon Go reference wtf!!!), weird rustling sounds in the bushes, someone eating out of your trash at night et cetera. In the middle of nowhere.
   
   
8. Finally, isolation. Like I said, there are many ways to experience Baikal and ours was just one of them. When we were camping in Taiwan, the only time I felt isolated was when we camped in the middle of nowhere by force of circumstance. But never in a camping area or on a trail. Here it felt like you're the only one around for days. Even though it's a national park. (Of course, Siberia is much more empty than Taiwan with 2,7 people per square kilometre, Taiwan's number being 650 per square kilometre.)
   
   We ran into a park officer though, who was checking camping and hiking permits. We had one, but he didn't even wait for me to take it out to look at it. He just said, ”ok, ok, have a nice holiday!” and hurried off somewhere apparently very urgent. He had a chainsaw with him, so possibly not a park officer but a chainsaw murderer or maybe a wood sculpturist.

And those are the eight things I wish I'd known before coming to Baikal! I hope someone reads these and finds these helpful and then travels to Baikal and maybe realizes that they're completely unhelpful, and then writes a list of their own, more helpful, tips. Hee hee. :D