I was very sad to read about the planned Russian oil pipeline set to run within 900 yards of Lake Baikal. If only I had my photos with me (the pre-digital 1995 ones) I could have posted pictures of those tranquil waters, the beautiful meadows and woodland, the sheer peace of being on the shores of the largest (by volume), deepest and oldest freshwater lake in the world.

Lake Baikal was the culmination of my first experience of Russia in 1995. It was the only time in my life when I kept a diary. I was 19, and after living in Novgorod, in western Russia, for five months I took a 96-hour train journey east passing through three time zones, crossing the Russian steppe and the Yenisei River and traveling deep into Siberia. I arrived in Irkutsk at 5am on an August morning and drank my first ever cup of coffee in order to stay awake long enough for the boat trip across Baikal to a village where I and a couple of friends (where are John and Hugh now?) set off on a four-hour hike to a meadow where we camped for just short of a week.

In the meadow we were guests of Baikal’s first American park ranger called Hank who let us look after his log cabin while he ventured into the forests to check the trails. There was nothing to do but skim stones over the water (surprisingly nifty for a lake that’s a mile deep and, if I remember correctly, had its own tide) and build a raft (which sank). In the evening we entertained passing hikers who shared their food and cognac around the camp fire. The weather was gorgeous, about 25C. And the water was freezing.

I remember at the time everyone complained about the wood pulp factory on the shore of the lake which was said to pump an endles amount of filth into the lake. Now this.

The NYT report says that according to scientists:

Because the region remains seismically active and the lake is still expanding, earthquakes could sever any pipeline, causing its contents to flow into the lake. They also say that because Transneft’s planned route will require crossing many of the lake’s tributaries, the project will cause erosion and send dirt and pollution into the lake’s nearly pristine water.

According to a Times report:
Earthquakes widen the lake by 2cm (an inch) every year — the same rate of expansion as the Atlantic Ocean.

There was one while we were there.

Fun Wikipedia facts about Baikal:

Baikal contains as much water as all of North America’s Great Lakes combined — 23,000 km³, about 20% of the total fresh water on the Earth. However, in surface area, it is exceeded by the much shallower Great Lakes Superior, Huron and Michigan, as well as by the relatively shallow Lake Victoria in East Africa and the second largest in volume, Central Africa’s Lake Tanganyika.

Its age is estimated at 25-30 million years, making it one of the most ancient lakes in geological history

Lake Baikal hosts 1085 species of plants and 1550 species and varieties of animals. Over 60% of animals are endemic [prevalent in or peculiar to a particular locality, region, or people]; e.g., of 52 species of fish 27 are endemic.

Of note is an endemic subspecies of the omul fish (Coregonus autumnalis migratorius). It is fished, smoked, and sold on all markets around the lake. For many travellers on the Trans-Siberian railway, purchasing smoked omul is one of the highlights on the long journey.

Baikal also hosts a species of seals, Baikal seal or nerpa.

Bears and deer are observable and hunted along Baikal coasts.

P.S. The only thing hunted while we were there was us. We were chased through a village by an ax-wielding man. We never did find out why. He was probably just trying to sell us some samogon.