Meeting Kurt at Lake Baikal

Posted by Amanda Kendle Jan 11, 2007

It was on a bus between Listvyanka - a small village on Russia's incredible Lake Baikal - and Irkutsk, a major city on the Trans-Siberian route - that I chatted with Kurt. He was a German traveler who came to Lake Baikal every year for his summer holidays, and the most notable thing about him was his lack of luggage. A change of shorts in a plastic bag and not much more was all he carried with him enroute to his return flight to Berlin.

He eagerly told me that he'd swum in Lake Baikal every single morning of his two-week holiday. I'd only dipped my foot in and knew it was freezing, so Kurt was one tough guy (he looked it, too!). Then things started getting a bit creepy when he told me his theory about Lake Baikal being the source of all life in the world ... and luckily, we soon arrived in Irkutsk. But if you want to know more about Lake Baikal (whichever theory of evolution you subscribe to), check this week's article, Visiting Lake Baikal.