Lake Baikal
Is it possible that the feeling of bitterness, revenge, passion for the destruction of our species should survive in a man in front of such a spectacle?Tolstoï
After several days on board the Transsiberian train from Moscow to Irkoutsk, to adapt myself to the Siberian cold will be a survival principle to get closer to the people around this lake: ice fishermen, lonely guardians of weather stations, doctors that brave the frozen lake to work, woodcutters in forced wintering or nerpas happily playing on the ice shelf... All are looking forward to the break up of the ice, announcing a new cycle of life.
That way, the lake Baïkal coming out of its hibernation will be like a revival at the beginning of this journey. Between the last winter frosts and the beginning of spring activities, the gradual thaw of the lake will be my first reason to meet the natives around the lake, and to discover their culture and their emotional relation to this continental sea whose water and animal life are symbols of purity.
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There aren't enough superlatives to describe the lake and the few figures that follow should convince us of the richness of this natural lacustrian environment, born from the confrontation of Indian and Asian plates 25 billion years ago, which counts a tremendous number of endemic species.
- Length: 636 km, width: 79,4 km
- Maximum depth: 1637 m
- Maximum wave heights: 6 m
- Biggest natural water reserve
- The oldest and deepest lake
- 2635 living species, one third of which endemic