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One of June’s Baikal Diving Safaris

Irkutsk, Baikal, Dive-center “BaikalTek”. This Baikal safari started on June 11^th 2011 when the ship “Valery” left from Listvyanka. The idea for this safari came up in October 2010, when divers from club “BADDI” (Novosibirsk, who participated in safari “Golden Fall”) found ship’s mast near Ushkanii Isles. We thought that it might be a mast of a steamship “St. Innokentij” that sunk in 1888 near Ushkanii Isles. A couple of expeditions have been looking for this ship, but had no results.

So, ship - “Valery”, club - “BADDI” and 8-day safari with lots of goals. What goals?

1. Diving at Eastern Olkhon
2. Looking for the sunken ship at Ushkanii Isles
3. Underwater hunting at Tchivyrkuiski bay, where Andrei Makarevich (Russian celebrity) had a very successful underwater-hunting spree in 2008.
4. Have a good time – really the most important thing during any vacation.

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It was decided to dedicate the first day to get over to Olkhon. We made a check-dive at Malaya Kolokolnya on the way, took a walk on the shore at bays Peschanaya and Babushka, and also hiked to the top of Bolshaya Kolokolnya.

On the next day we dove at Eastern Olkhon at dive sites “Uhan-Zyun-Kugun (Finger)”, “Burun-Bude (Napoleon)” and “Otstoinyi ”. Here Igor, led by Gennady Misan, started to practice deep dives to prepare for a deep-water sunken ship search, and also to prepare for trimix dive to 90 meters. Study-dives were done at “Finger” and “Napoleon” to 45 and 55 meters respectively. We practiced the technique of deep diving in cold water (+3 degrees!)

The night was spent at beach “Otstoinyi” at Olkhon. We made a bonfire on the shore, grilled shashlyki (Russian barbecue) and Buryat pozy (sort of local ravioli). We set the fishing nets for the night and started our third day with much more weight, brought on by lots of grayling.

On the third day we dove at a beautiful site: “Izhimei”. The weather was favorable, which is very important at this site, thus we were able to look at the grand deepwater canyon without disruptions.

Long move and we got to the famous Ushkanii Isles. Evening dive was done where we found the mast last year. Group split into three smaller subgroups: one went right, one –left, and the third one went deep down to 65 meters. We saw everything –great rocks with multiple towers, grottos, tunnels, walls, we saw the mast and even nerpa, but we didn’t see the steamship and it would be surprising to find the wrecks right away during the first dive.

Day four marks the middle of the safari. We made our first dive where we expect the ship has sunk. The strategy for the search was the same as yesterday only more to the south. We did not find a steamship, but the dive-site is great and beautiful and the dive was certainly not a waste. After this dive it was decided to mark our goal “looking for the sunken shop” as done. BaikalTek will continue looking for it in our next safaris, and “BADDI” has more goals to achieve at Baikal this time.

We visited nerpa’s habitat. FANATSIC! We saw big thick block of ice, practically an iceberg, and that is certainly unbelievable in mid-June, but that’s not the point. There were hundreds of nerpas on the ice-block – the huntsman estimated about 700 nerpas! Plus there were more, those that were near the shores, on the stones, and on little blocks of ice. Huntsman said that we were lucky – this is a rare sight. (I’ve seen more nerpas in the past, but on shore, never this many on a block of ice!). Carefully, keeping quiet not to disturb the animals, we took many beautiful photos and lots of video material. This was a real luck!

So much has happened but the day was not over yet. We moved to Chivyrkujski bay and relaxed under the night sky in hot streams in bay Zmeevaya. In the end of the day Oleg Bocharnikov decided to try out some underwater hunting here. The try lasted for three hours and started our fifth day of the safari.

So the fifth day started as usually right at midnight and at 2 am Oleg came back with a notable catch of a dozen large pikes. The start to the underwater hunting has been marked an full of hope in the morning we moved to bay Kruglaya, where a couple of years ago Andrei Makarevich very successfully hunted from one of our other ships, “Myth”. Bay Kruglaya reestablished its status of a great hunting spot and to put it modestly - pike was not small. We started our way back with lots of pike for cutlets and uha (fish soup).

On the sixth day we dove south of cape Uhan at site “Uhan-Burun-Kutun”. Here Igor once again went deep down for a long time. Then we went to Olkhon Gates with their wonderful sponge on white sand and almost never-stopping currents. The third dive was at magnificent “Hoboi-Hushun”, with a wall that goes down to abyss at 22 meters with separate-standing stones covered in sponge. We saw a cavern at 30 meters and a canyon that drops down from sandy shelf and the visibility was great as well. Next day we are moving to Bolshie Koty dive-sites.

Day seven started with site “Sobolev”. Here we have narrow deep-water canyon that leaves nobody indifferent. Just imagine, a narrow gap with walls up to 10 meters, almost like a cave (because in some places walls almost collapse with one another and there is no way to exit through the top); it zigzags to the depths, periodically dropping in vertical tubes. Everybody dove down to 40 meters, but Igor and Gennady made a trimix dive to 75 meters, which let them look around the most part of the canyon that was researched last year by Tatyana Oparina. Then we saw “Skipper” with its mountain system.

The third dive of the day was at “Srednyaya”. We visited a grotto at 10 meters and a canyon. On the sandy hills there were as usual plenty of fat, yellow gammarusses (Baikal shrimp). In the evening we parked by Baikal Circum Railroad and visited its famous tunnels. Day ended with sauna aboard the ship.

Day eight, 18^th of June was the last one for this safari. Dives were at sites “Polumesyac (Half-moon)” at the Railroad and at “Krestovka” in Listvyanka. These are great sites with interesting canyons. At Krestovka besides canyons and caves we saw destroyed deck that was used by gold-traders and an old cannon.

Full of impressions club “BADDI” left us with the night train. See you again soon, friends!