Coming across some bigger towns today on our approach to Irkutsk. Ulan Ude was a big town and we passed by this town (I forget the name) which was supposedly built by Peter the Great to manufacture arms. The steel factory is still in operation.

Makes me wonder what was ones motivation to travel to such desolate places to set up settlements.

Ulan Ude was the town where little Andre and his family got off to meet his grand parents I reckon. Barely an hour later, we set sights on lake Baikal – a frozen body of water as far as te eyes can see. Literally. The sun is bright and the frozen lake reflects almost the entire spectrum and it is blinding and hot inside the cabin.

I see pictures of the lake in summer and it is unamiginable that the weather can make such dramatic changes to the landscape. I am more intrigued by imagining how adaptable the people should be to handle such wide range of weather.

But people do seem to be doing things normally. At stations, I find people shoveling snow, trading, moving goods etc… Pretty normal commerce. Just the weather is 20 below. And I am freezing to keep my wits about.

We stopped at a station by lake Baikal and witnessed locals shoving their wares through the train door. Primarily smoked fish and beer. Fish that they probably fished in the lake this morning by digging holes in the lake. I took a couple of pictures but since I don’t eat fish, I could not give any business. I guess the locals don’t like that much. But I did get a good shot.

It is difficult living out here in the dead of winter, selling smoked fish to travellers by braving the winter.

Well that seems to be Russia. Resilient and survivalist at it’s core.