Whether you’ve heard of it or not, lake Baikal is considered the biggest fresh water lake on the planet. It’s also a place with an insane amount of energy that you will definitely feel as soon as you’re there. The port is within a 35-40 min car drive from Irkutsk + 15 minutes on a ferry. Best time to visit is July-September but for those looking for some more extreme experience – you can come in January-February (when the air temperature gets as low as -35 C). Freedom, wild-life and crazy locals are included. Port Baikal to me is the place where the very essence of the lake’s spirit lives.
Name: Maria Nikolaeva
Place you live: Irkutsk, Russian Federation
Place your photo was taken: Port Baikal
Occupation: Dreamer
Preoccupation: Photographer
A perfect day in Port Baikal? Looking for mushrooms in the forest with fog and rain, climbing up a railroad tunnel, climbing a mountain to see an abandoned lighthouse, finding weird places along the Trans-Siberian Railroad.
If someone was visiting what must they do? I dare you to have a swim in my lake! The water is damn freezing but it’s worth it.
A perfect meal in Irkutsk? Hot-smoked Omul. A must-have.
A little known fact? There used to be a war camp for Japanese prisoners in port Baikal (circa 1904-1905). They say you might be able to find the remains of its abandoned quarters deep in the forest. I only found out about this fact recently and I’m a local.
One of my favourite pictures
I have a strong personal opinion that this particular place, of all the numerous areas of Baikal I have visited in my life, has one of the strongest self-identities – identity as in ‘being able of conscious actions’. When applied to an ecosystem that would mean: affecting living creatures’ actions (including, but not limited to humans), inflicting changes of mood and motivations, causing peculiar coincidences that have explicit personal meanings for the adressees — as well as many other funny manifestations that one would expect from some, let’s name it a local deity
In the very essence, it is the unique ‘feeling’ of the place, a subtle but undeniable aura pervading all objects and sites within it, which makes it not merely a geographical spot, but an individual, a personality; and of course, this personality can’t really be told by words, you would have to visit it to know what it feels like
Yet, there is one further thing that can, and should, be said about it. This personality is friendly. The ‘special places’ – the ones that are ‘intuitively felt’ rather than perceived through ordinary sensory input – are quite common here in Siberia, and particularly so near Baikal. And, despite generally rough climate, damp air and solemn visual setting, the aura of Port Baikal is of the most warm and nurturing nature. It is probably the most nice of such places that I have personally encountered and, whatever entity represents its essence, it is truly kind and benevolent.