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The Time for Lake Baikal Round Trips

Diving safaris started in May.

The first safari on the boat Valeriya (May 22-27, 2015) followed a difficult route: 6 days in Listvyanka - Ushkan Islands - Chevirkuysky bay - Listvyanka. The reason for calling this trip difficult is the the short period of time to make it. However, we managed it with our international group of divers from Irkutsk, Sakhalin, Germany and Switzerland - without missing a single dive (mind it we made 2 dives a day). We enjoyed diving in the most remote parts of the Ushkan Islands wildlife sanctuary and, of course, explored the dive sites of Olkhon, Birkhin and Bolshiye Koty.

Two weeks in the beginning of June we spent making Lake Baikal round trip. A unique experience. 13 days of well-packed schedule. From the extreme south of the Baikal to Khakusy. Diving in the sites of both east and west coasts, as well as in the Maloye Morye (the Small Sea) and in the proximity of Olkhon. This scenic route was designed especially for those who value wild nature and DIVING most of all. Within the framework of this trip one has enough time not only to see the greater part of the Baikal, but also to dive it. Every day we started with an early (7 a.m.) breakfast and almost every day we made 3-4, some people even 5 dives. During the time out of water we made strolls of Lake Baikal deserted shores, climbed its mountains, hiked to the in-land lakes and canyons or simply walked to relax.

June is a great time for Lake Baikal safaris. Tourist season has not started yet - no boats, no people. We were the first this summer to come to the Ushkan Islands, to visit the Brown Bears Shore and Frolikha. We once again found confirmation to our firm belief that all animals are very peaceful and friendly creatures. If you are not disturbing them when you come on a visit to their habitat, if you behave as a polite guest, they are always happy to meet you. One could spend hours and hours watching and making photos of their everyday life in natural habitat. For instance, we watched 3 bears from the distance of 10 meters. One of them exposed himself to our cameras for over an hour, being extremely busy looking for something in the stones on the shore. We dived close to Lake Baikal seals sealery - exceptionally patient divers even stood on the stones where the seals slept undisturbed by the presence of humans. We were lucky to run across a rattlesnake, which was frightened by this meeting more than us. We surely took some photos of it and calmly left not to cause inconvenience to it. Ducks, chipmonks, gophers, eagles go uncountable in our recollections of the trip encounters.

As for the diving it was simply awesome! Crystal clear water in the southern and northern parts of the Baikal, amazing underwater landscapes in the bright sun light. The highlight of these dives were « the dancing amphipods » (the word combination used by one of the female divers to describe it): these creatures turned a regular dive site with poor visibility into a wonderful show to roll out the whole beauty of the magic Baikal. Suffice it to say all 14 divers spent 80 (!!!) instead of the planned 45 minutes underwater.

There is always a chance for a miracle when you travel the Baikal, one simply has to be open to see and feel it. We would like to thank the WaterWorld (Austria, Germany, Switzerland) team of divers for their tender and caring attitude to the Baikal they brought with them and for their love of the Baikal that will stay here forever.

The first safari on the boat Myth started on May 30, 2015 and was a success! For almost a week we cruised the Baikal with our guests from Poland (our long-time friend Jakub Swiatkewich team from Krakow club Nautilus) and enjoyed the waking up nature. The spring in the area of Lake Baikal is slow to come due to the huge volume of cold water. The Baikal presented us with great visibility in Circum Baikal Railway dive sites, as well as in Bolshiye Koty; welcomed us in the hot Russian saunas on the shore and the cold water jumps for contrast; gave us a chance for great photos during the strolls of Peschanaya and Babushka bays and treated to a small storm in the end (on the way back from Olkhon). For some of the people it was a first-in-a-life-time experience of cold water diving, however, this fact did not keep them from diving several times a day and photographing, photographing, photographing.

Our second safari on Myth was arranged for the "RuDive" team. They are our regular guests, but this is their first safari on boat Myth.The boat team and BaikalTek Instructor Alexey Bormotov did their best during the 6 day safari to make our guests feel happy. By this time we knew for sure which sites had better or poorer visibility, so we focused on choosing those with great visibility only. The majority of the places were in the area of Bolshiye Koty and Circum Baikal Railway. There was no reason for travelling to Olkhon in the first part of the summer, as visibility was quite poor there. Hopefully, "RuDive" team liked their trip and their visits of the Baikal by Myth are to be continued.

The third safari by Myth was a search safari. This safari was arranged for Andre, who spent 4 days exploring Circum Baikal Railway dive sites, and namely, he was interested in the metallic parts which could be found underwater. Excellent visibility made the search easier and the use of underwater detector helped to make the search more detailed. As a result, we accumulated a great volume of video materials about this trip and, hopefully, Andre is satisfied with his trip.

The safari to follow was for BaikalTek club members, however, there were some other participants as well - our guests from Germany Oscar and Mariann. Oscar took a Dry Suit Diver course during the safari. Sergey Galata finished Advanced Diver course. During the 4 days we dived in the area of Bolshiye Koty and Circum Baikal Railway.

July was again devoted to the Baikal round trip safaris - these are diving safaris following the route around the whole lake. These trips take 12-14 days and due to this are held only 1-3 times a year. There are not really many companies that are ready to make such a long trip. In the year 2015 this was the second and the last trip following the round Baikal route. In spite of the fact that safari takes so much time, it is impossible to see all of the Baikal anyway, so such trips are usually tailored in different ways - to see the places where we rarely dive or those where we have never been before. This time we dived in Selenga estuary - an absolutely new place for the Baikal divers, in Tankhoy, visited northern capes Mouzhinay and Kotel’nikovskiy - very rarely visited by us, as well as at Brown Bears Shore, Ayaya bay, Olkhon, Bolshiye Koty and Circum Baikal Railway. Diving was great everywhere, the weather was nearly always to match it. Gennady Misan dived to 125 meters in dive site Izhimey. In the Ushkan Islands Olga Kamenskaya made unique underwater pictures of Lake Baikal seals.

We started this Lake Baikal round trip from the South. Circum Baikal Railway area - scenic dive sites in combination with beautiful nature and magnificent old railway.

In Tankhoy we dive quite rarely, so visiting it was a big event for us. This time we used a scooter to make a detailed exploration of the bay. A good place for those who like diving in search of sunken objects.

The area of Bolshiye Koty we visited twice during this safari. After having dived in Tankhoy and then on the way back. A nice diving area, picturesque nature and divesites. What is of great importance is that many places are accessible from Listvyanka in the framework of daily diving. We make use of this from time to time.

Then the Selenga estuary, by the by the second biggest in Russia after that of the Volga. Water trips of the canals were awesome. A great number of birds, beautiful thick woods on the shore. The diving quality is of disputable value, but is possible. We dived to make photos of the fish and had a success. A perch was our model.

On the fifth day of Lake Baikal round trip we were in Izhimey area, close to the deepest point of the Baikal. Gennagy Misan dived to the depth of 125 meters here. A deep dive close to the deepest place in the Baikal next to the difficult to reach Izimey - this is surely a big deal. On the same day we visited Shounte and Uzury. Dive site Shounte is famous for great opportunities for macro photos, and Uzury bay is beautiful for its trecking to the mountain tops surrounding the bay. All these places comprise the dive area of East Olkhon - difficult to reach, it can only be reached by water, as well as other places we visited to contunue this safari.

Brown Bears Shore - the name of the place is suggestive of how wild it is. Words fail me to describe the beauty of this place - both underwater and on the surface. However, in the extreme north of this place there is a comfortable resort that can be reached only by water or air. It is famous for its hot water healing springs. We visited this place after magnificent diving in dive sites Radouga, Ledianaya, Khibelin and Kotel’nikovsky.

Ayaya bay and Lake Frolikha are in the list of the most beautiful places in the Baikal. How many are there «the most beautiful places »? It took us 4 hours to get to Frolikha on foot and in Ayaya bay with its nice underwater rocks we arranged intoduction dives for the children members of the safari.

In the Ushkan islands we had a special nature reserve permission for underwater photographing of the seals. Olga Kamenskaya made wonderful photos. The best ones we are not publishing. Yet. We need some time to ponder over them.

Dive area Birkhin is rarely missed during a north route safri, because it is surrounded by «empty » in terms of diving places, so it is difficult to go past it. Its divesites are excellent, there are many underwater nature sights and a gallery of ancient petroglyphs. We were here on the 11-th day of the safari.

Between Cape Kadil’niy and Ushkanka we witnessed the sad picture of lake Baikal flora and fauna distruction due to Spirogyra weed, which flourishes thanks to the chemical elements contained in the waste waters that are dumped directly into the lake without any special treatment. The Baikal fights it. Not so long ago we saw the sme picture in many of Bolshiye Koty dive sites, but powerful upwelling currents washed away this mess, so the area is clean of it now. We find it to be the matter of the uttermost importance to hold various events in protection of the lake, as the Baikal is a unique water reservoir of worldwide significance!

These were our safaris in May-July.

BaikalTek does not only specialise on safaris. We also offer daily diving. Divers from Russia, Germany, the USA, the UK, Spain were our guests for daily diving. We teach courses on regular basis. The popular ones are Dry Suit Diver and Intro to Tech. We also gave Trimix courses to divers from Irkutsk and Volgograd.

There are many interesting things to come. The lake will not be covered in ice until January, 2016.