The Steppes of Siberia

World Adventurer (September 19, 2003 Chautauqua)

    On the third day of my journey, I awoke at 8:00, just before we stopped at Amazar (7,012 km from Moscow). There is a graveyard of steam locomotives, but the very short halt does not give any time to explore. The countryside is now fairly well wooded and hilly, described as "taiga" in the "Lonely Planet" guide. Our train followed a river that flowed over icy-looking rapids next to the tracks.

   We were now about half-way through eastern Siberia, rolling southwest towards the junction with the Trans-Manchurian at Tarskaya (6,312 km from Moscow).

   About 10:00, we stopped at Mogocha and stretched the legs on the platform. When we got rolling again, I joined the three Aleks in my compartment for breakfast. They were already into the beer, and we all continued to imbibe off and on for the rest of the day. A very convivial atmosphere developed, and we played cards for a few hours to while away the time.

   I also managed to find the time to finish the book I had been reading, Thomas Carlyle's history of the French Revolution, when it began to warm up inside the train considerably. All that day, in contrast to the day before and the days following, it was like summer. It is possible that there may have been a forest fire nearby, as the air was hazy, as well. There were a number of grass fires in evidence as the hilly, wooded regions gave way to flat, bald prairie.

   There were stops at Anyireyshevsk (about 4:00 pm), Shilka (6:00 pm), and Chita (11:30 - 6,204 km from Moscow).  Just before Chita, the train had to slow down considerably, as there was work being done on the track. Just what sort of work is a mystery, perhaps they were clearing a rock fall. We passed the crew, taking a break from whatever exertions they may have had to endure.

   Between the cities, we saw log cabin settlements, which showed the abuse that the Siberian winter inflicts on the countryside and anything else that gets in its way. During the summer of 1998, this area was flooded in some places right up to the tracks, and all that was visible of the towns was the roofs of some houses and the tops of some haystacks.

   Our stop at Chita brought us a whole new batch of passengers, filling out the rest of the compartments in our car. Many of them were soldiers, including one officer with a really big hat. Some luggage was stored in my compartment, but I did not get a new room-mate.

   During the night, we passed through Bada (5,884 km from Moscow), a small town built around an airbase. There is supposed to be a view of the airdrome and some Mig fighters, but they were not visible at all that late at night.

   While I slept, we passed through Petrovsk-Zaibalsky (5,790 km from Moscow), known as the place where a lot of the Decembrist revolutionaries were jailed in 1830-39. There is supposed to be a large mural in the train station depicting this, but I was snoozing.

   Also while I slept, we passed through into a new time zone at the 5,771 km marker (time was Moscow plus 5 hours), and the town of Zaudinsky (5,655 km from Moscow), where the Trans-Mongolian joins. A little over 100 km south lies the capital of Ulaan Bataar, containing many interesting sights to see, not the least of which are museums dedicated to the history of the Horde, led by Ghenghis Khan, that conquered an empire stretching from one end of Asia to the other, and beyond.

The terminal at Ulan-Ude

   My fourth day on the train started at 7:30, and I had just enough time to get cleaned up for the stop at Ulan Ude (5,647 km from Moscow). Founded in the 17th century as a Cossack garrison on the Selenga River, it grew as a trading post on the tea route between Irkutsk and China. It began the 20th century with a population of 10,000, but this grew tenfold with the onset of Stalin-era industrialization.

   The weather outside had gone cold again as we passed down the Selenga river valley towards Lake Baikal, which we reached at 10:30. Our train passed by about one quarter of the lake's coast, but it took over three hours.

   The "Pearl of Siberia" slashes through the taiga for 636 km. In area, it is the world's sixth largest, but in volume, it ranks number one. It's bigger in size than Belgium, and sinks to a depth of 1,637 metres. One-fifth of the world's fresh water lies here, more than all five of North America's Great Lakes combined. The water is so clear, that any swimmers brave enough to try it (never warmer than 15 Celsius), can see down about 40 metres.

   As we passed by, all I could see was a great body of... ice. It was still frozen!

   There were a few ice fisherman along the way, and there were occasional open spaces where I could see some clear water. To the south, the Western Sayan mountains were visible. Pretty snow-capped peaks, very reminiscent of the Rockies.

   Our train was about a half hour behind schedule, so the stop at Sludyanka was very brief. There was no time to run down to the lake, and in fact, we weren't even allowed off the train. The elder Alek was looking forward to this stop most of all, as he intended to buy some of the local delicacies, including some smoked fish. He was forced to deal with the merchants at the door to the car. It almost developed into a frenzy of buying and selling, as the sellers tried to unload as much as possible to as many people as possible before the train pulled out.

   All that effort was worth it, as the fish turned out to be delicious.

The dam at Irkutsk

   After passing through Irkutsk (5,191 km from Moscow) at about 4:00 pm, we made a long stop at Zima (9:20 pm - 4,940 km from Moscow). It was here that we said goodbye to the elder Alek, who got off to a warm welcome from his family.

   I managed to get all three of the Aleks to pose with me. The photo turned out quite well, I thought.

   The train rolled on towards Tayshet (4,522 km from Moscow), and a new time zone. At the 4,484 km marker, the time became Mocsow time plus 4 hours.

  We had reached the halfway point in our journey, and celebrated this fact many times that night before retiring. The next day, we would be entering western Siberia.