Big cats. Baikal village big cats Listvyanka big cats in winter

But with a dose of extreme. We went on a hike from Listvyanka to the village of Bolshiye Koty, by the way, we didn’t see any cats there at all, especially big ones. We took the most dangerous path that runs along Lake Baikal. There are three paths in total, two of them are not as scary as the one we walked along. The hike started quite cheerfully, despite the obstacles we overcame. We walked along such thin paths, with a slope of probably sixty-five degrees. We climbed rocks, where the main thing was to hold on to the stones, and this was the case almost the entire way to Bolshiye Koty. We have never encountered anything like this before; it is a truly difficult and dangerous trail. But very interesting and extreme, what we love, although the nerves were seriously naughty. On the first day, having reached the place where we settled down, we decided to make a bathhouse, with swimming in the icy Baikal. Oh, it was unforgettable! The bathhouse turned out great, it was very hot, so people flew out of it like bullets and splashed into the cold Baikal. True, not for long, my legs quickly went numb. The evening spa in nature was a success, and I could go to bed with pleasant tiredness.

Big cats

The next day began with acroyoga, which we hadn’t done for a long time, but we still remembered something and even learned a couple of new movements. On this day we planned to go to the cave, which is located near Skriper Mountain. After snacking on homemade dumplings in the store (there are simply no cafes in the village of Big Cats), we recharged and hit the road in a great mood. But in this mood we didn’t walk for long, as giant flies – gadflies – were waiting for us on the way. Everything should be as simple as possible even when the path is quite difficult, and when everything becomes so complicated that you simply cannot go forward, the ground under your feet goes into the abyss and you are eaten alive by giant insects - then everything around says: “You chose the wrong path and it’s time It’s not too late to get rid of it!” The decision had to be made quickly and we turned into absolute “no trail” with a huge slope and everything you step on rolling from under your feet. We had to go down to the shore and be as careful as possible so as not to fall off, roll, get ragged or get dirty. Somehow they slid down and Vasya, fleeing from the gadflies, immediately dived into Baikal. The rest of the way to Skriper Mountain, we continued along the coast. We found the mountain, the view from it is simply amazing! But even the locals didn’t know about the cave, but we didn’t give up and, having climbed the mountain, we saw a small hole in the rock. They decided it was her.

Hike to the cave

It was very difficult, it’s easier to say, we thought it was completely impossible to get to her. After all, the path to it is just a slope down the mountain without the slightest unevenness to step on or catch on. The slope was such that you could slide down on your butt, the thorny plants and the heat, all this gave the trail plus 500 points of difficulty. It’s okay to go up to the cave, it was still difficult to approach it, again rocks, again stones and a lot of lost strength during the ascent, I wanted to give up this matter, not having reached just thirty meters. You feel like in a reality show, when one of the heroes gives up at the last moment, and you think: “Well, this can’t be!” In front of the rock itself, above a hundred-meter cliff, first you walk ten meters like James Bond from window to window on the fiftieth floor along a ledge, then you generally need to climb the rock without any insurance. But we still got to this cave, and were more impressed by the road to it than by the cave itself. They say primitive people lived in it, and it’s hard to believe! Unless, of course, in their time the cave was at such a height. It was a small opening in the rock, and it seemed to us that huge birds rather than Neanderthals lived here. Probably the second main feature of this cave is the beautiful and unusual view of Lake Baikal. Satisfied that we had made it this far, we headed back to our campsite, where we immediately collapsed from fatigue.

The way home

We also took a dangerous path back, because it was the shortest and we didn’t want to overcome the eternal ascents and descents through the forest. This time it seemed much more difficult, apparently because we were exhausted after two days. The rocks seemed somehow unreal, there was a desire to go to another path, but we decided it would be better to go as we were, because this path has already been tested! The narrow paths seemed even narrower, and those big flies pestered us again. With them, every step became more difficult and dangerous, the main thing was not to make sudden movements and not stumble, they flew straight into your face, and it was difficult to do without sudden movements. During the entire return journey, Vasya finished off seventy of them. And although the situation was again at a standstill, this had its big plus! We walked without rest and reached it faster than planned. Our hike ended in the village of Listvyanka, where we swam and rested, and went home with great impressions of the hike to Bolshie Koty.

Less than a few days after Listvyanka, we came to a village with the interesting name Bolshie Koty. There are many coastal villages on Lake Baikal, and this is one of them.
At the mouth of a small river, or rather a stream, on level ground, between the hills there are several dozen houses.
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There are practically no abandoned houses, and many are a hundred years old or more.
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But on the contrary, there is a lot of abandoned equipment. The remains of engines are scattered everywhere, and on the shore lies a ship tilted to starboard. Economic activity is in decline.
Local residents are mainly fishermen. Here everyone has their own boat, as evidenced by the large number of boathouses near the water.
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Some of them are made from ordinary cargo containers, judging by the hieroglyphs on the wall, of Korean or Japanese origin. The only thing missing is the curved edges at the roof for full compliance.
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Behind the fence there is something similar to equipment for weather observation.
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By the way, as one local resident told us, the name of the village Bolshie Koty came not from a domestic animal, but from the shoes of prisoners. Stress on the first syllable.
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In the distance, in a cove, there is a small pier - for most this is the only full connection with the outside world.
Judging by the maps, there are no roads on land where vehicles can travel. There is a winter road, but I don’t know if it’s used. Maybe there is some kind of road that is not on the balance sheet of the region, but is in full use by local residents.
And, considering that we came here on foot, we feel cut off from the world more than ever.
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Here we tried smoked Baikal omul for the first time.
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The local beast, patiently looking at us from afar, was also disappointed. She greedily pounced on the treat - either she was really hungry, or she knew a lot about local fish :)
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The weather improved, and when we set out again, the sun finally came out and illuminated the departing cloud with some unusual light.
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When summer was upon us and there was no vacation, my friend Alina and I decided on two days off to take a relatively desperate step: walk from the village of Listvyanka to Bolshiye Koty, climb to the top of the Skriper rock and return to Irkutsk by boat. This step was called relatively desperate only because we had no idea which road to take or where to spend the night in Koty.

According to Wikipedia, the village of Bolshie Koty is located on the western shore of Lake Baikal, 16 kilometers northeast of the pier of the village of Listvyanka. In summer, a hydrofoil sails to it from Irkutsk via Listvyanka; in winter, a temporary road route runs along the ice of the lake. From Listvyanka to Bolshie Koty there is a walking tourist route along the coast about 20 kilometers long, part of the Great Baikal Trail. The population of Bolshie Koty in 2012 was 56 people.

Among the attractions are the Baikal Biological Station of the Research Institute of Biology of ISU, where there is the Museum of Baikal Studies and an aquarium, as well as the abandoned gold mine of the Sennaya confluence located 3 kilometers to the east and the Skriper cliff located 4 kilometers away.

Day one: All roads lead... to Koty

We arrived in Listvyanka late, around 14.00. At such a time, wise tourists do not go on long journeys, but we are not wise, so... We went to the very end of the village and walked up Partizanskaya Street to the territory of the observatory.

- Girls, you are desperate. Together, so late? – the woman on duty was surprised, tearing off a piece of paper from an A4 sheet of paper, on which with a pen she began to draw us something like a map of the area.

From the diagram it follows that you need to go up the road towards the telescopes. At some point, a fork in wide roads will appear on the horizon. Two branches will lead to telescopes - from the front and back sides, and the third, steepest one - to the power plant. Before reaching the third path, we should have discovered a narrow path and follow it straight to your destination.

We wandered around three roads for an hour, and when we were already desperate, we decided to give up on everything, go to Listvyanka and bourgeois on the shore with hot smoked omul. Alina came up with a very simple idea: go up the road to the power plant and from it turn left into the forest : the path, if it existed, we must definitely meet. And she met.

Narrow and nondescript, it led deep into the forest. Thus, we set off after 15.00 and planned to reach the place by 21.00. At some point, the birch forest began to mix with long pines that spoke their own creaking language. The path went up, became steeper, and then we reached the first fork: one road led down, the other up. Knowing that there was some kind of dangerous path along the shore of Lake Baikal to Kotov, we decided not to go down, but certainly to go through the mountains, that is, up.

After some time of ascent, the silence of the forest was interrupted by the choking of Vysotsky’s song.

“If he didn’t whine, didn’t whine, Even if he was gloomy and angry, but he walked, And when you fell from the rocks, He moaned, but he held on,” Alina pulled out, persistently rising up.

Vladimir Semyonovich gave us strength - we reached an organized tourist camp, where there was a fireplace and several logs around, had a snack and continued climbing along one of the trails (we no longer counted the forks). A completely inconspicuous path overgrown with grass led to the mountain itself. Sometimes it was so implicit that it seemed like we were about to get lost.

Day two: In the footsteps of ancient people

We get up at 8.00, by 9.00 we had already said goodbye to the hostess of the house and set off along the coast towards Bolshoi Goloustnoye to the Skriper cliff.

I’ve always been terribly curious, what is the Great Baikal Trail? The project is large-scale, multinational and all this splendor is very close to us, you can start right from.

Our plan, as usual, was global - to walk from Listvyanka to, but then we significantly shortened it - the village of Bolshiye Koty was chosen as the end point.

Bolshie Koty can only be reached on foot or by water transport. A private boat from Listvyanka, for example, would cost about three thousand rubles, but you can get there from Irkutsk in just 1.5 hours (see the schedule on the website of the East Siberian River Shipping Company).

The trail starts from Gudina Street (if you are facing the nerpinarium, then this street is on the right). We go all the way to the forest, where there will be a sign for the Pribaikalsky National Park, don’t get lost - there are signs everywhere:

But here we got out on the way back, and our path “There” began from Partizanskaya Street (where the picnic area ends, past the large brick “Gold Hotel”).

Leaving the car in the private sector (we just agreed with the people who rent out the housing), we immediately walked along the shore of Lake Baikal.

The beginning of the route Listvyanka - Big cats

The owner of the house where we left the car warned us that this path was more dangerous than the official path, and recommended that we stay to the left, i.e. higher. Indeed, by comparison, I can say that the path from Partizanskaya Street is picturesque and, in principle, normal, but there are a couple of places where you can stumble and you have to hug close to the rock, and stones are falling under you. It was there that our dog flew down, who usually copes quite well with such transitions...

Thank God everything ended well!!!

We already thought that we had lost Buhl forever, but he appeared from under the rock and hobbled to drink water from Lake Baikal. He scraped his paw a little, scratched his muzzle, limped a few hundred meters - and now our dog is back in action!!!

After such shocks, a smoke break is mandatory:

After 2.5 hours we came to a fork, from where the BBT continued.

Great Baikal Trail

The road goes along Lake Baikal all the time - incredibly beautiful, especially if the weather is sunny!

Great Baikal Trail – Listvyanka-Bolshie Koty

Our clearing, where we had an overnight stop

I really liked the fact that the trail was carefully widened, strengthened, and steps were made in difficult places, so I mentally thanked all these people who did such a great job.

Here is a small example - reinforced steps on the descent

There was one kind of dangerous place, a slope with crumbling stones, marked with signs, but, frankly speaking, it was not even comparable to the place where Buhl stumbled, so go boldly along the official path, even with children.

We noted the time - a distance of about 20 km or a little more was covered in 6 hours with stops.

Some more photos of the great Baikal trail to Bolshie Koty:

Everything is in flowers!

We've almost reached Kotov - is there a barrier?

Here we are!

Big cats need a big backpack)))

Evil horses, which our auntie furiously waved away before our eyes)

And now the promised nuances:

1. Choosing the beginning of the trail - beautiful or safe. In principle, I think everything is clearly described above.

2. Before going here on foot, you MUST obtain a permit to visit the Pribaikalsky National Park. It costs 60 rubles a day, and will save a million in nerves). You can register in Irkutsk or Listvyanka (Gorky St., 2a).

I’ll tell you a secret - I’m a criminal now))) The patrol simply drove up on a boat to our parking lot, with video cameras, drew up a report - and voila! I got!

To summarize: the road is very beautiful, short, and if you don’t want to spend the night in a tent, you can stay in hotels or private accommodation in Bolshie Koty or find an equipped parking spot on the shore of Lake Baikal.

Accommodation in Bolshiye Koty on Baikal:

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