Severobaikalsk Getting there & around

Getting there & away

An aerokassa (22746; Tsentralny pl; 9am-noon & 1-4pm Wed-Fri & Sun-Mon) in Dom Kultury Zhelezne Dorognikov sells tickets for flights from Nizhneangarsk, 30km northeast.

Land

Bus

From outside Severobaikalsk's train station marshrutky run to Baikalskoe (six per week) and Goudzhekit (four daily). The half-hourly marshrutky 103 to Nizhneangarsk airport (R29, 25 minutes) passes Severobaikalsk's hydrofoil port and yacht club (2km), then follows the attractive Baikal shore.

In February and March locals regularly drive across Lake Baikal to Ust-Barguzin, en route to Ulan-Ude. For a paid hitchhike to Ust-Barguzin, around R800 per person is appropriate. Ideally, ask local contacts to find you a ride, offering to pay 'petrol money'. Otherwise, try going out to a lonely but well-known hitching spot on the ice near the Profilaktoriya (Lager) children's camp. It's on an attractive curve of Baikal shore: take a marshrutka 2km south of the museum towards Zarechny, then turn left and walk another 2km via either fork. Best chances are between 6am and 9am on Friday and Saturday but it's hit and miss, and waiting can get lonely and very cold.

Train

Heading towards Moscow, locals consider train 91 (even-numbered days) somewhat better than train 75 (odd days). Train 91 attaches a Tomsk-bound carriage (42½ hours). On odd days train 71 loops round to Irkutsk (33 hours) while on even days train 347 runs to Krasnoyarsk (33 hours). All go via Lena (seven hours), Bratsk (14 to 16 hours) and Tayshet (24 hours). They also stop in Goudzhekit (R130, 35 minutes), though the trip is vastly cheaper by elek- trichka (R20, one hour, twice daily).

Eastbound trains 76 (28½ hours, odd days) and 98 (26 hours, Tuesday and Saturday) go all the way to Tynda (train 76, 28½ hours). There are also daily trains to Novaya Chara (14½ hours) and very slow elektrichki to Uoyan via Kichera (departs 6.15am).

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Boat

From late June to late August a hydrofoil service should run the length of Lake Baikal between Nizhneangarsk, Severobaikalsk and Irkutsk (R1400, 12 hours) via Olkhon Island. Unfortunately, the precise timetable is only announced days before the service begins, making advance planning difficult.

Boat trips are fun and reveal the lake's vastness. Baikal's mountain backdrop looks most spectacular from about 3km offshore, so going all the way across doesn't add a lot scenically and you'll need permits to land on the almost uninhabited east coast. It's possible to negotiate cheap charters with fishermen at Severobaikalsk, Nizhneangarsk or Baikalskoe, but think carefully before taking a boat that's small, slow or seems unreliable if you're going far: storms can come from nowhere and getting help in the middle of icy-cold Baikal is virtually impossible. To rent better, long-distance boats typically costs from R1000 to R1800 per hour. For a reliable charter, contact the charming Viktor Kuznetsov in Nizhneangarsk.

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