Journey to
The Eastern Sayanys - Lake Baikal

(August 1993)

Long Long ago (in the days of knights and princesses) we travelled far away to deepest Russia - to the town of Irkutsk. Our first priority was to reach the mountains of The Eastern Sayanys, which spread for hundreds of kilometers to the East of Irkutsk. Then we would head to Baikal, in order to cool our bodies.

I've been to some mountain ranges in my time - those in my own country (Poland), the Swiss Alps, the Pyrenees, and most recently in Sierra Nevada, California - but never have I been so moved by the beauty and the feeling of being completely free which came from being in the Eastern Sayanys. Here there was no need to dream. So, welcome to the description of my adventure - I hope these web pages give you at least a taste of what I saw and experienced.

I went with a group of close friends. It was organised not just by our own initiative, but also with the help of a student's tourist club "Jarema". With the help of another tourist agency in Kiev, who provided us with guides and the guides' friends, and the guides' friends' friends - mostly Ukrainian teenagers who wanted a holiday - we set off, a group of about twenty of us. So, we formed a formidable team.