Poppy's Grand Adventure: Lake Baikal--train and boat (Day 17)

Thursday, June 23
Lake Baikal via Circum Baikal Railway and Boat

I know you are thinking--why is she starting with a picture of a black speck in what might be water? Wait--there is a black speck, almost in the exact center of this, please try to find it before you read on.
It is NOT a fly--it is the only fresh water seal that I saw today. And just in time since our boat ride was almost over. Molly and Dad saw two this morning when they took a walk. Then they saw one from the train when I was looking out the other side's window. We are all hoping we will see some more tomorrow.
From this picture, I am sure that you can tell the difference between fresh water seals (called the Baikal nerpa) and salt water seals, so I will not waste your time telling you the differences. I do think they are a bit bigger than this photo shows, but since it is my only one--I cannot verify this yet. I will update you tomorrow.
We started the day by getting to sleep in. Yeah, with Dad, that is a moot point. He was up and ready by 6:30, but breakfast wasn't until 8:30. They really know how to cook great eggs here. Dill is a major part of them and they are delicious.
After breakfast, we took a short boat ride (about 15 min) to the Circum Baikal Railway-an old steam engine. Then we had a 2 1/2 hour train ride along the lake. Turns out this is a VERY expensive bit of train track due to the hardness of the rock they were trying to flatten and blast through. It took 300 tons of dynamite and the track is only about 240 km long, but it has 27 tunnels.
We passed the Angara River (remember-- it is the only river heading out of the lake/300 heading into it). It's 1,127 km long and it flows to the Atlantic.
We also learned that Baikal protects himself (they give it a male gender) from harm. Because it is so cold, if litter gets into it, there is no organisms that can grow on it. There is a bug in it that will strip a body down to bones in less than 3 days. Not thinking of swimming--if the cold doesn't get us the bugs will! Galina says it is drinkable. Dad says we can't try it.

We all found the next bit unbelievable--the entire lake freezes every winter. How can something this massive freeze? And to about 1-2 meters thick? They have ice golf, you can drive your car on it, and people do. Scooters, and all sorts of transportation go on it. Ahh, how fun to come back here in winter and see this.
Now for the other pictures. I'm sure the order will be mixed up, but I will try. Nope, they are out of order.
amy

Dad and me walking down the train track. I could say we were kicked off after Molly broke the window thing (see photo below), but in fact it was just a nice walk to see the area.

Molly's bird picture. You can even see twigs in its mouth. Of course, in my picture of the Baikal nerpa I'm sure you saw the fish it was eating.

Lake Baikal

Lake Baikal (pronounced Bye Khul) from the train.

At this point, the lake is 2 km deep! It was quite handy that this boat was going by or I would never have figured out which one of the many, many pictures of the lake was the one that was 2 km deep!