Barguzin Valley and Chivyrkuy

Baikal's quieter eastern side, with valley scale and remote bays.

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Why this ride

Baikal's quieter eastern side, with valley scale and remote bays. The road: Regional roads. Distance and riding time are estimates from the checkpoints until the road is measured on this page.

Roadbook

1. Ulan-Ude start

   Ulan-Ude is a Siberian city with a distinctly Asian face. It is the capital of Buryatia, a republic of Mongolic people who follow Tibetan Buddhism, and it sits at the junction of the Selenga and Uda rivers, east of Lake Baikal, with a population of about three hundred and sixty thousand. The Trans-Siberian railway runs through, and the Trans-Mongolian line branches off here to Ulaanbaatar and Beijing, so the station is busy with travellers. Soviet blocks and wooden merchants' houses stand side by side, and in the main square stands the largest head of Lenin in the world, a bronze giant about seven metres high.

   Buddhism is part of the city's identity. The Ivolginsky Datsan, a monastery about thirty kilometres away, is the centre of Buddhism in Russia, with colourful temples, prayer wheels and monks in maroon robes. It is also home to the preserved body of the lama Itigilov, who died in 1927 in a meditation posture and whose body is said not to have decayed. Visitors should dress modestly, walk clockwise around the temples and ask before taking photographs. The Old Believers, Orthodox families who fled religious reforms in the seventeenth century, also settled here, and their villages keep a distinct culture, with elaborate costumes and songs.

   For a rider, the roads from Ulan-Ude lead toward Baikal, whose eastern shore is quiet and wide, with long sandy beaches and low forested hills. The route to Goryachinsk passes through the Selenga delta region, with farmland, birch woods and steppe, and the village is known for hot mineral springs near the lake. Further north the road to Ust-Barguzin leads along the Barguzin Valley, with views of the snow-capped Barguzin range across the plain. Surfaces vary from good tarmac to rough sections with potholes, and trucks and local drivers are fast. Mosquitoes and midges in the wetlands can be fierce, and summer storms arrive quickly.

   Ulan-Ude has everything: stations, shops and repair shops. Zarechny and Sotnikovo, near the city, add a few services. On the road to Baikal, villages have small stations that are not always open or stocked, so fill the tank here. Try buuzy, steamed dumplings filled with meat and broth, a Buryat staple, and salted milk tea.

   Summers are short and warm, winters long and bitterly cold, and the best season to ride is June through September. A morning at the datsan, quiet and incense-scented, is worth the detour.

2. Turka stop

   Turka lies on the eastern shore of Lake Baikal in Buryatia, a village of roughly fifteen hundred people on a flat, sandy stretch of coast with the Barguzin range standing across the water like a long blue wall. The land here is quieter and more open than the western shore: wide beaches, pine woods, dunes and meadows, with fewer tourists and fewer crowds. It is part of a coastline protected within the Zabaykalsky National Park, which means the surroundings feel remarkably untouched.

   The road along this side of Baikal is a pleasant mix of straights and gentle bends, passing through villages, past wooden houses with carved window frames and along the edges of the forest. Traffic is light for much of the year, except in July and August when holidaymakers fill the beaches and the roads. The surface varies, with good sections and patches that are rough or broken, so keep your speed under control. Wind can be strong near the water, and the weather can change quickly, with fog or rain sweeping off the lake. September is often the best month: warm days, clear air and few people.

   The east shore has its own history. Old Believers, Russians who kept their pre-reform religious customs, settled in parts of Transbaikalia in the eighteenth century, and Buryat herders have long used the pastures. Wooden churches and houses show the architecture of the region, with sturdy logs and bright paintwork. Local cafes serve omul, the Baikal whitefish, grilled or smoked, along with Buryat dumplings called buuz, which are filled with minced meat and steamed.

   Nature is the main draw. Baikal's water is clean, cold and astonishingly clear near the shore, and the sandy beaches here are popular for swimming on warm days, though the water stays cold even in August. The pine forest smells of resin, and in spring the meadows fill with flowers. Birds, including cormorants and gulls, feed along the shore, and the horizon is dominated by the snow-streaked Barguzin mountains.

   For practical purposes, the village has basic shops, small guesthouses and cafes, but fuel is limited, so fill the tank in a larger town such as Ulan-Ude or along the main road before arriving. Bring water, food and a warm layer, and enjoy the sense of space.

3. Ust-Barguzin finish

   Ust-Barguzin sits where the Barguzin River spills into Lake Baikal on its eastern shore, a long way from the crowds on the west side. The valley behind it is wide and flat, with the Barguzin Range rising on one side and the lake on the other, and the Barguzin wind, a strong gale that blows down the valley, is known to sailors and fishermen across the lake. The Barguzin Nature Reserve, founded in 1916 to protect the sable, is the oldest in Russia, and its forests are home to bears, elk and deer.

   The town has about seven thousand people and a remote feel, with wooden houses, fishing boats and a harbour. Buryat and Russian culture mix here, and the area is known for smoked omul, the lake's silvery fish. Hot springs bubble up along the shore at places such as Goryachinsk, to the south, and a few of them have simple bathhouses where you can soak after a day on the road. Across Barguzin Bay, the Svyatoy Nos peninsula is a wild, mountainous headland that is part of the Zabaikalsky National Park, with views over the lake.

   The riding from Ulan-Ude is long and unhurried. The road runs east, then north along the broad valley, with steppe, forest and lines of mountains in the distance, and the surface is mostly asphalt with patches of rough pavement. Some side tracks are gravel or sand. Weather can change fast on the lake, with cold wind and rain in the summer, and mosquitoes and horseflies in July are fierce. The best months are late June to early September.

   Fuel, food and rooms are available in Ust-Barguzin, but supplies can run short in summer, so fill up when you can. Villages along the valley are small and far apart. A walk on the sandy shore at sunset, with the wind dropping and the lake going still, is a fine way to end a day. Foreign riders should check current conditions and rules before planning travel.

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