72 KITE TRIP Baikal lake: a different kind of paradise Baikal lake
wWhen we arrived in Irkutsk our local contact, Mikhail, had organized to build a rail of our choice with some local welders. It isn’t easy to build an obstacle for kiting; they have to be fast to setup, easy to carry and of a decent length. We arrived at the warehouse and there it was. Five pieces, each one of them too heavy to move alone. Luckily for us Mikhail was the man, he organized a truck with a built-in crane to haul the rail to the spots of our convenience. That saved our asses, we would have never moved that rail out of that warehouse alone. The first move was to the river mouth. The chances of wind were very slim, but we still made the drive to check it out. Two hours down the road, another four in a long and bumpy dirt road, through a green field and over stones to the end at the tip of a sandbar. Or should I say, “stone bar”. Either way, it really was the spot of your dreams. It looked insane; stones instead of sand and grass hills instead of palm trees, wild horses and fresh clear water. We spend the whole afternoon waiting for the wind, but it only picked up enough for a quick cruise on the foil. Nevertheless, we were all frothed up to ride there at some point during the trip. The wind finally made an appearance in the forecast, but on the opposite side of the lake and there we went. The crew was split in three different cars and we’d take turns on riding shotgun, navigating and napping in the back. Unfortunately, all the 4x4’s you can rent in Irkutsk have more than half a million km on the counter. So, an hour into our 4h drive one of the cars breaks down. Artem immediately took control of the situation, made some phone calls and after what sounded like a heated discussion he said: “we must wait”. And we did, one hour, two hours, three hours… We decided to spend our time at a little bar by the road. The kind of bar with dissected bears hanging on the walls. The replacement car finally showed up. It was a Range Rover, but they told us that such a car had to be hired with a driver. He was a maniac. All the roads have one lane only and they are really windy. Never a chance to pass the car in front. Yet, he somehow made it work. His timing was perfect, one second too late and we’d have lost our boss and camera crew to a frontal accident with a transport truck. The guys had to tell him to take it easy and slow it down in many occasions but communicating with him wasn’t easy. Or it was the sneaky Vodka shots he’d have throughout the day? We tried to keep up with the Range Rover, but they were too fast for our cars. Around eight hours after we had left the house, we arrived at the spot. There were two hostels in the little village, one grocery store and one restaurant. The “good” hostel was fully booked, and our only option was to spend the night in a room above the restaurant. I think we can all agree those were the doggiest beds ever. If I may call them so. In hindsight, it’s all part of the adventure and an opportunity so see a different culture. It makes you realize how dependent and accustomed we are to little everyday luxuries, such as comfortable beds and diverse food options. That being said, it wasn’t what we were hoping for after eight hours of driving. The next morning, we had breakfast in the restaurant downstairs. At that point we hadn’t yet realized that the exact same food was going to be our diet for the next four days. A Baikal lake