Eco-camp in Baikal Lake
Welcome! or Amar Mende!
from July 25 untill Aufust 6 2016
The program starts in Ulan-Ude, the capital of Buryatia Republic.
In the morning the participants arrive to Ulan-Ude and meet the team.
From this moment every participant becomes a Great Baikal Trail VOLUNTEER!
Excursion in the City
Next day group goes to Ivolginsky Buddhist Temple – the spiritual capital of Buddhism in Russia.
One of the temples contain the sacred body of Buddhist monk named Hambo Lama Dashi Dorzho Itigelov. He was a leader of Russian Buddhists in 1911-1918.
In 1927 Dashi Dorzho Itigelolov, put himself into meditation state and according to the Buddhists today, he is still in the same state. In 2002 his body was taken out of the ground and put in a special shrine.
Old belivers - In Russian Orthodox church history oldbelivers was sent to Siberia and in Transbaikalia in 17 century.
Settlers was named Semeyskie (Russian family) due to big families and possessions what is different than single convicts.
Oldbelivers settled big groups and made villages in Bichura, Mikhorshibir, Tarbagatay region and other.
Meeting point in Ulan-Ude
In buddist temple
Meeting in Old belivers village Tarbagatay
Volunteers arrive to Lake Baikal. It is the deepest and the purest lake in the world! Locals call it SACRED SEA or FATHER BAIKAL.
Accommodation – hostel, located near the bay. You can see the light house nearby. Lunchtime. The owner of the hostel greets the guests. Food is provided. Allthough, during the next 2 weeks volunteers will cook their own meals. A pair of volunteers will be chosen to cook. Different pair for every day. Usually, its mixed pairs from different countries. This way everyone will have an opportunity to
Get to know the culture and cuisine of a different country.
3 hour car travel to the shore of Lake Baikal.
First day – after lunch the crew will go on a site visit of the trail they are going to work on. The project manager will give a speech and the project starts!
What to expect from your program in the next 2 weeks?
Read “One day in the life of a volunteer”.
Lighthouse in Turka village
One day in the life of a volunteer
Morning
At 8 am the camp starts to wake up. Everyone enjoys looking at each other’s sleepy faces.
Its an important day for volunteers who are responsible for cooking. They got up earlier than others and prepared breakfast for everyone. You can smell tasty hot porridge all over the camp! Everyone knows it’s a day for delicious milk rice with cinnamon.
The team meets at the fire place and enjoys sitting on wooden benches while eating their delicious breakfast.
The crewleader is speaking. He(she) talks about safety, day schedule and gives out tools. When everyone is ready, its time to head out to work place.
Baikal is usually a sunny place.
Lunch
There are 3 hours of work ahead of us.
The team is divided into small work groups and work on clearing of trail corridor, steps construction or bridge construction.
The work could be challenging sometimes.
Sometimes, they have to deal with big logs which they have to cut into small parts and pull off the trail.
The group which works on bridge construction had a hard time installing the first logs but with the help of additional volunteers they successfully accomplished the task. The first 3 hours of work pass very quickly! It’s time for lunch!
After lunch, its time for some entertainment. You have different choices: sunbathing, swimming, berry picking, fishing or simply mingling and talking.
The translator has some fun activity in mind for today!
After that everyone comes back to work.
Three more hours and the crew is back to the camp. They are tired but happy.
Evening
Dinner is ready. The cooks did a good job with cooking potatoes with stew. It turned out to be very tasty!!! Or, maybe everyone likes it because they had a long day. Everybody worked hard and deserves good food.
Girls love eating sweets.
After dinner everyone gathers around the fire and starts to discuss different countries and different cultures. The translator works hard to make sure everyone understands each other.
Yesterday everyone celebrated American 4th of July. Volunteers have made their countries flags and hung them above their tents. There are Russia, France, USA, Germany…
Tonight nobody wants to go to bed but everyone is looking forward for the next day.
Digging rocks
Berries are best friends!
Day off
Every 4-5 days they have weekends. The team usually goes hiking or kayaking, visit excursions or goes to Russian banya (sauna) and etc.
