Hiking at the Holy Nose
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photo: Thomas Heidbüchel
The peninsula Svyatoy Nos (Holy Nose) on the eastern shore of Lake Baikal belongs to the Zabaikalski National Park and is subdivided into several areas of different protection status.
Tourists aren't allowed to enter huge parts of the peninsula which is a popular place among Russians due to its natural pureness and the diversity of species. Especially places which can be reached by car easily are used intensely during the summer holidays by Russian tourists. Bays you can only reach on foot are made accessible by the many boats which are waiting for tourists in Monachovo.
Svatoy Nos offers 2 beautiful tours varying in scenery and degree of difficulty. The first tour leads onto the highest peak (1877 m) of Svatoy Nos, the second one to the Snail Bay with its thermal springs. Numerous sandy bays invite for relaxing after those hikes.
Starting point for visiting the peninsula is the village of Ust-Barguzin.
Ust-Barguzin
Arrival/Departure:
There's a daily bus leaving from the small bus station in Ulan-Ude and there are also several marshrutkas for this route. The prices are between 200 roubles (bus) and 300 roubles (marshrutka). The trip lasts about 6 hours. For the return journey, in particular, tickets for bus should be either bought in advance or booked by telephone.
Accommodation:
Besides a couple of pensions and hostels there are a lot of families who are most willing to earn some extra income by accommodating guests. One night costs about 150 roubles, sometimes this will even include the use of the banya (Russian sauna). Full board usually is about 450 roubles. Addresses can be obtained from the national park offices but usually people know each other and most likely will tell you where you could stay. Some of the possible accommodations:
- Svetlana Erkovna, ul. Barguzinsky 47, telephone 91276 (speaks Russian)
- Andrey Rasuvayev and Eva Heitzmann, ul. Yubileinaya 60/2, telephone 91593, zabaikal@burnet.ru (young German-Russian couple)
- Lyubov Frolov, per. Bolnitshy 7/1, telephone 91505
- Tatyana Ilina, ul. Stroitelnaya 5, telephone 91757
There are also some other kind of hostels which will accommodate guests, e.g.:
- Centre for Ecological Education, ul. Sovietskaya; simple accommodation in dormitory if not reserved by children groups; the headmistress, however, can assist with looking for alternative accommodation;
Food: food can be bought in several stores (magasin or produkty)
How to get there:
The peninsula can be reached by own car or national park van. Visitors will arrive over a crushed stone road which starts right behind the ferry across the Barguzin and which leads over a 20 km long connection to the land.
National park:
Ust-Barguzin, per. Bolnitshny 11, telephone 91578, zabaikal@burnet.ru, http://ngo.burnet.ru/znp; visitors will have to pay a fee of approx. 20 roubles per day at the road to the national park
