GBT Day #4

Sunday, August 5th 10:35 6km from Lake Baikal's south-eastern shore

Let's see, I think this is day 4 with GBT, the Great Baikal Trail. We arrived in Irkutsk on Wednesday a little after 5pm. Tanya, the GBT coordinator, Sally and Georgia, two other project volunteers were waiting for us at the station. They got us on a tram, bought our tickets and took us to the Downtown Irkutsk Hostel which is just across the river one stop from the station. It was lucky that Georgia was also staying there because there are no big obvious signs. The entrance is on the backside of a non-descript building. Next to the door is spray painted, grafitti style, 'Hostel'. We were thrilled to shower and change after 5 days of travel, 2 nights on the ferry and 3 nights on the train. For our first proper sit down meal since our farewell meal at the Fushiki ferry terminal, we met up with our JET cohorts from Gunma that were on the same ferry and train and went for pizza and then internet--some things you just can't live without.

The next AM we were up early and over to the GBT office just a few blocks away. It is also located around the back of a building, up a dark and dilapitated staircase. After a special knock on an unmarked door, we were welcomed into GBT headquarters and offered tea and our first priyaniky (sweet Russian donughty goodness)! The office is a cramped space full of tents, boxes, camping gear, maps and arriving volunteers. After brief introductions, a name game and tea, we loaded up our replacement van (the first broke enroute) and headed out of town. About 1/2 there we stopped for a snack break at some roadside stalls overlooking the Southern tip of the lake. This pit stop offered up smoked fish, dried fish, potato donughts, cabbage donughts and sour cherries. We taste tested it all except the dried fish because our leader, Roma, advised it might be dangerous--full of deadly bacteria! But the donughts and smoked fish were fabulous. Plus we bought them from little old ladies, the kind I expected to see in Russia!

An hour later, van #2 broke down and we were stranded on the side of the road waiting for a replacement. Lucky for us, the side of the road was also lakeside. And it was hot and sunny, so we climbed down the hill, across the tracks, and dipped our feet in the crystal clear blue waters of Lake Baikal. The German among us, however, went for a full dip in full nude! Some stereotypes are hard to break!

The third van worked long enough to get us to our destination, a national park center, where we would be working for the next two weeks. The center was our base camp. There was a room full of food, tools and tents that we would need to haul to our real base camp, about 5km up river! We loaded our packs with additional gear and food, enough to get us set-up and fed for the next day until we could return with empty packs to bring the rest of it up to camp. Almost two hours later, sweaty, tired and hot we unloaded at our camp.

A brief overview of the players:

Roma- team leader, a Russian bear with very little English but an infectious laugh. He installs air conditioning units when he isn't leading GBT projects.

Andrei-Russian man from Omsk (2 day train journey), wears Army fatigues and came with his friend he met on the internet two years ago. Works with computers when he isn't chopping down trees for GBT.

Zheniya-Russian woman also from Omsk, came with Andrei. Studied English and speaks well when there aren't too many around. Strong personality and plays a great game of mofia. Works in the travel industry when she isn't creaing a fabulous meal over an open fire.

Christian- German man with three kids, speaks German, Russian and English. Programs computer systems on ships when he isn't swimming naked in cold Siberian streams!

Julia-Our Russian/English translator. She studies at the Irkutsk Linguistics University and wants to be a manager someday. She initiates all the group bonding games and successfully keeps us all communicating. Someday she will visit me with her two kids and husband.

Masha- Russian University student and Julia's best friend. She doesn't speak much English, but has a huge smile that does all her communicating...she is a big flirt with everyone!

Aliona- Russian University student from Ulan Ude. She only speaks English while playing mofia narrator. She is in charge of our menu and our food rations...more sweet milk, PLEASE!!

Sally- is an American intern working at GBT. She just graduated from Oberlin and speaks Russian. But she is only staying one week...oh no!!

Georgia-also an American student from Oberlin studying Russian. And also leaving a week early...oh no!

JP-a crazy American who has lived in Japan and breaks hearts everywhere he goes!

Matt-a wild Canadian who also lived in Japan and also breaks hearts!

Me-an American girl who also lived in Japan and is super excited to be in Siberia for two weeks without being able to contact the outside world!

Currently, as I write, I am on cooking duty with Zheniya. Lucky for me she knows the Russian camping cooking system and what needs to be done and when. Plus she speaks some English which I really appreciate because my Russian is still limited to the most basic greetings. Today for lunch we made a rice potato fish soup, potato carrot sausage mayo salad, bread with spreadable cheese, and tea. Basically, we have two big pots that hang over the fire that we can boil water in. This water can either be used to make soup, pasta or porridge, and for tea. And sometimes we make a salad to add to the hot food, depending on our rations.

Right now, it is just me and the fire. The little cabin/winter hut has all our food plus the three male foreigners staying in it and lots of mice. Our camp has a large laundry line for all our clothes--washed or just soaked in the rain. It seems to rain every afternoon, a bit like being in the tropics. I think we have one more full day of work before our weekend when we will go back into the city, or small town, for a bath and musuem tour. But I've actually only worked 1/2 day shift of trail building so far because of cooking duty which lasts three meals. It was fun to pull out plants, throw rocks around, and snap branches. But I also got stung by a wasp--that sucked. Not to sound like a wimp, but it really hurt, I could feel the poison up my arm as it swelled and it hurt to bend at the elbow for about an hour.

It is cloudy today, but it is the perfect temperature and humidity that makes you forget you are outside, except for the bugs...they are that constant reminder of life in the forest. And there is a river just below our camp that provides the perfect running water backdrop. A bit chilly, but I've dipped in it a few times. Other than the water, the fire, the bugs and sometimes the chipmunks, it is very quiet and very still. There is no wind, nothing is moving. It is a beautiful beautiful place! I'm so so happy to be where I am in the world right at this moment.