A morning in Listvyanka

After admiring the view from our overnight spot we headed down the road to Listvyanka and found a spot in the lakeside parking lot. It was still early for the Russians, the parking lot was sparcely occupied and all the souvenir stalls and food stalls were just being set up.

We spent a pleasant couple of hours walking along the waterfront in bright and warm sunshine drinking in the views of the lakes and surrounding village. Nina and I were here in the summer of 2006 and it was interesting to see how much tourist development has taken place in the intervening years. Now we could even hire ATVs if we had wanted to.

At the end of the road (the road terminates in Listvyanka) there is an old falling down complex of soviet era buildings. This area now appears to have been opened up and sports a cafe and some picnic tables. It would make a good overnight parking spot for overlanders looking to spend a night or two in Listvyanka.

On the way back to Irkutsk we stopped at a place called Taltsy, it is advertised as a museum of Architecture and Ethnography. It is a large complex of traitional Russian and Buryat buildings some of which are original and some reconstructions. We saw buildings ranging from bark teepees used by the indigenous peoples of the area, Russian hunting shelters from the 1800s, Russian pioneer farm houses, a watermill, chapel and Evenki aerial grave. We also saw large groups of locals out for a spring days picnic on the river front. I was particularly captivated by some of the building techniques. The use of opposing splits-logs to provide rain proof rooves, and the use of logs with the tree root still attached to provide L shaped building members.

Eventualy we had to cease soaking up the sun and make tracks back to and through Irkutsk and start the return to Ulan Ude.