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Международная летняя школа «Лимноэкология Байкала»

Baikal Diary of Caroline Krause (August 20th to September 2nd 2007)

20-08-2007 Our trip starts at Hamburg airport. 10 people (teachers and students) from the University Kiel on the way to discover the “pearl of Siberia” Lake Baikal.

21-08-2007 17 hours later we are in Irkutsk/Siberia and get a warmly welcome from the participants of the Irkutsk State University. A bus with trendy music takes us to the Physical Department where we get a tasty snack and a short guiding tour to the nearby Angara River. Than the whole group (Russians and Germans) take again the bus to Listvianka and afterwards we travel by ship to our destination Bolshi Koty. We build mixed groups (Russians and Germans) and move into our accommodation for the next two weeks.

22-08-2007 Today every student holds a presentation about their student-project at their home university or about their PhD-thesis. We get a first impression about the different backgrounds of the participants. Also we discuss what is going to happen in the next days and in which different working groups we are going to splitting up. In the evening the Germans get their first experience how to celebrate a “Cucumber Party”. It’s really great for the group process to sing, talk and drink together. Natasha has a guitar with her and almost everybody tries to sing. Of course singing in Russian is impossible for most of the Germans but when it comes to the song “ Yesterday” of the Beatles we can also sing it by heart.

23-08-2007 This time the professors give basic information of their field of work. We get an introduction about the environment of Lake Baikal. And the participants split up in their working groups. There will be provided a Benthic, Pelagic and an Integrated Group (System Analysis and Integrated Coastal Management). My group (Integrated Group) starts to structure the tasks for the coming days and we discuss on our working schedule.

24-08-2007 Today we are discussing about the process of the Limnology Summer School. We gather ideas how to bring different tools together into the “Virtual Phase” (Internet page about the summer school). Christiane holds a presentation about e-learning which should be also implemented in the “Virtual Phase”. The previous day Anastasia filmed the lectures of the professors. This shall be also a part of the “Virtual Phase”. In the afternoon some of us also participate the Benthic group. We walk to Chernaja Valley to take the population samples at the upper shoreline. It’s a wonderful landscape. I can really recommend seeing it once in a life. At night there was also a beach party with a warm fire. The Russian girls sing Russian songs and I enjoy the time.

25-08-2007 Our group is working on a questionnaire for people who tourists, locals, guesthouse- holders, kiosk-holders and local scientists. We like to know how live has changed in the previous years. Why tourists come to this place. How many beds the guest houses providing every day. That’s just the beginning. We are coming up with around 70 questions for the different steak-holders in our questionnaire.

26-08-2007 Nice weather and we have a new cook. We are starting the interviews. The Natasha’s are interviewing and I take some pictures of the interviewees. The Russian girls thought that the people don’t like to get interviewed. But the first impression is not as bad. Most of them don’t have excuses and answer our questions and react very friendly. Later that day we are discussing the first results of the interviews. We go out for a second interview round to get more answers from a more multitudinous spectrum. The good thing about this job we are outside during the interviews so we can enjoy the lake, it’s so beautiful.

27-08-2007 The ship-expedition starts. We will stay four days and three nights on two cutters. Now it will be proofed who is becoming seasick or not. After six turbulent hours we arrive at a remote bay (Peschanaya). And what we haven’t expected is a Banja (Sauna) direct in front of the lake. So you can heat up and immediately cool down in the lake. This is really an adventure. Most of the girls try this and we feel relaxed afterwards. The engine starts again and we are on the way to our next destination “Olkhon”. During the late afternoon we follow the coastline of the Lake Baikal which is so impressive with these steep cliffs.

28-08-2007 That day is full of surprises. We open our eyes and can see the island “ Olkhon”. It is by far the largest island in Lake Baikal in eastern Siberia, with an area of 730 km². During the night the crew caught with a net not only fish but also some deep water Amphipods. After a while we make a new stop at the Shaman-Rock, the most famous landmark on Olkhon. Natives believe that Burkhan, a modern religious cult figure of the Altai peoples, lives in the cave in this rock. The rock is one of nine Asian Most Sacred Places.

29-08-2007 “Here comes the sun”. The third sunny day is a really good reason to start the day. On the other boat they have caught again some fish which will end up in our stomachs soon. Natasha and I are preparing some evaluation from the interviews which we collected three days ago. The ship headed already back to Bolshi Koty. In the afternoon we arrive again in Peschanaya. The Banja is warm enough to enter again. But this time there is another task to experience. The Russians fetched some branches of nettles and slashed our bodies with it. This is Russian tradition. So we escaped soon to the cold lake.

30-08-2007 In the morning we arrive at Bolshi Koty. We have lunch together. In the afternoon Mister Windhorst is holding a presentation about the “Millennium Ecosystem Assessment” and “The Global Scenarios of the coastlines”. We are discussing about the final presentation and start with the preparations. So in the evening everyone is really busy to prepare for the following day.

31-08-2007 In the morning we are still preparing for the presentations. After lunch and the exchange of some presents we take some group pictures and the presentation round starts. Every group has prepared a presentation. Interesting results come up and we talk about what to improve of the summer school.

01-09-2007 Again we take the boat to Listvianka. Half way between Listvianka and Irkutsk is the open air museum. Here, the wooden houses from the valley of the Angara river are moved to when the second power plant was built, flooding the valley. We have tasty lunch and afterwards we visit the Museum of Regional Studies. Than we go to our hosts where we leave our luggage and at 06.00 p.m. we have our last joint dinner.

02-09-2007 And after a long night in Irkutsk we fly back to Hamburg airport. Hopefully it was not the last stay at Lake Baikal. I have really enjoyed the hospitality which made it really easy to like the people. And I hope the legend about Baikal’s water will become true: Dip a toe in, locals say, and you add a year to your life. A hand and you get five. Risk a swim and you‘ ll last a further 25.

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