I arrived at Lake Baikal after a previous frost had turned the leaves on the trees to brilliant golden and red colours. I took some excellent photographs of the deep blue Lake Baikal, the steep hills round the lake that were golden and red with the fall leaves and the clear light blue sky (see picture at right). I could understand why in the fairy tales of native Siberians,  the lake is referred to as the "Pearl of Siberia". The lake is the largest freshwater lake in the world and contains 18% of the world’s surface fresh water. Also it is 1637 meters deep which makes it the deepest lake in the world.

Near the hotel I visited the Limological Institute and Museum where I found out about the large number of different living species that are in and around the lake and the geological formation of the lake by a major fault. This fault accounts for the very steep hills that surround the lake. Listvyanka village was the first Russian settlement on Lake Baikal and  has delightfully painted single story wooden houses. The village has a beautiful church that is the oldest church in that area (see picture at right). I crossed the lake from Litvyanka on a small motor launch to see the famous Circumbaikal Railway that was part of the Trans-Siberian Railway prior the flooding of some of the track in 1956 with the construction of a dam across the Angera River. This large river is the only outlet to Lake Baikal. The Circumbaikal Railway was built at the base of the steep hills along the shore of Lake Baikal to connect the eastern and the western sections of the Trans-Siberian Railway (see picture at right). Prior to this, railway passengers and freight railway cars had to be  transferred by ferry across Lake Baikal. The Circumbaikal Railway was built between 1989and 1904 at considerable cost as it required 33 tunnels and 200 bridges for a short section of track ( see picture at right). In 1956 a new 126mile section to the Trans-Siberian Railway was built from Irkutsh to the southern part of the lake to by-pass the costly and difficult to maintain section that ran along the southwestern part of the lake.

After 3 days at Lake Baikal, I returned to Irkutsh to get my train to Vladivostok. The train that I was on, originated in the Siberian City of Krasnoyarsk and was much more crowded  than the train I traveled on before from Moscow. This time I was in a compartment with a young Russian army officer who was stationed in a small town called Okhotsh. This town is on the East Coast next to the Sea of Okhotsk and about 1000 kilometers north of Vladivostok. He was travelling with his wife and 5 year old daughter and was returning from an annual leave spent visiting his and his wife’s parents (see picture at right). So for 3 days we had a chance to talk about ourselves, where we lived and of course share our food at mealtime. I found out all about how they lived in a small town near the sea in Northern Siberia. There were only Russians on this car and they told me about the towns and cities that we were passing through. They were very interested in talking to me and finding out about my life in Canada.

From Irkutsh the train took a route to the south of Lake Baikal and the turned North to follow the Eastern Shore of the lake (see picture at right). The Eastern Shore of Lake Baikal was very picturesque. After about 100 kilometers of shore travel the train turned northeast over hilly country and followed and crossed a number of rivers. This was pretty and interesting country to travel through. The train traveled about 100 kilometers north of the Mongolia border for 550 kilometers from Lake Baikal and near the northern part of China the train was only 50 kilometers or less from the Chinese border all the way to Vladivostok. 

 At Khabarovsh that is 766 kilometers north of Vladivostok, the train crossed the very wide Amur River and then turned directly south to Vladivostok. Kharbarovsh (population 614,000) and Vladivostok (population 648,000) are the only 2 large cities east of Irkutsh. There are a number of smaller cities and towns along the line east of Irkutsh. The army officer and his family got off at Khabaroysh and had to take a plane north to Okhotsk.

I arrived in Vladivostok on October 1, 1997 at 10AM exactly on time. I had traveled by rail from St. Petersburg on the Gulf of Finland and on the West Coast to Vladivostok on  the East Coast of Siberia, a total of 9,947 kilometers which was 38% of my journey round the world (see picture at right).