[kweks]

A few years ago, got an Ural motorbike and set off across a frozen lake Baikal to find the cabin of Sylvain Tesson, a French author that spent a full winter in the cabin.

http://travel.ninjito.com/images/2018-03-15-Siberia/qx-baika...

Inspired by the sheer beauty, I went back next year, found another abandoned fisherman's cabin and spent 2 weeks .. existing.

What is definitely true is that your days are very quickly filled with important tasks: skate 5km every other day to get water, trek across the forest to get wood, cut wood, maintain your fire, etc.

Completely astounding experience to be so isolated and independent in nature.

http://travel.ninjito.com/2019-02-30-Baikal

[virgulino]

Congratulations, I hope to make the trip one day.

Sylvain Tesson made a documentary about his experience, "Alone, 180 Days on Lake Baikal", https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2127242/

https://youtu.be/JlLaWBXfQxU

[bogomipz]

This looks great. Relatedly, Werner Herzog made a documentary on the Taiga:

"Happy People: A Year in the Taiga":

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1683876/

[virgulino]

Thank you. What Herzog did was re-edit and put his own narration on the original Russian Happy People, a 4-part documentary. I like the original much better, I think of it as the authentic view, while Herzog's version is the typical old German hippie looking at an alien world (and I love Herzog!). Still, I found it very interesting to see both versions.

The original 4-part documentary, with English narration, is available on the original Russian director's YouTube channel:

https://youtu.be/fbhPIK-oBvA

https://youtu.be/dIdHG9zyrtE

https://youtu.be/MnAF_amhups

https://youtu.be/wjCs8qi3R0U

[3d3456]

> a 4-part documentary. I like the original much better, I think of it as the authentic view,

It may be better than herzog's version, but it's still inauthentic propaganda. A better view would be a youtube/tiktok/etc of an ordinary person living in the area. It still is limited, but far more authentic and real than any documentary. There are lots to hate about social media is one of the positive aspects is the ability to follow people's authentic lives across the world in their vlogs, etc. One of my favorite documentaries was the 7-up series. But with social media, it killed any and all enthusiasm I had for the series because social media exposed it as manufactured and inauthentic view of one man. Better to follow brits on social media to get a better understanding of british life.

[4gotunameagain]

So every single thing produced by Russians now is considered propaganda ? The original film was co-created by the nephew of Andrei Tarkovsky.

With this point of view. Every single motion piece is propaganda. Every single social media post.

It is impossible to not impregnate your creation with elements of what you dream to create. There is no such thing as following people's authentic lives, unless you stalk someone 24/7 with a camera, and post the complete footage, unadulterated, without cuts or edits.

[jvican]

+1. Btw I’m excited that the nephew of Tarkovsky made this documentary - I’ll definitely watch it!

[holografix]

This is one of my fav documentaries and I had no idea there was an “extended version”.

Thanks for sharing!

[remindedmeofdu]

That reminded me of this Akira Kurosawa movie

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dersu_Uzala_(1975_film)

[anonymousDan]

How did you manage with bears? My brother went to Lake Baikal recently and did a bit of hiking but the locals thought he was nuts and warned him where he was headed was teeming with bears

[CGamesPlay]

Dealing with bears is a pretty normal activity in USA national parks. You bring bear spray and attach a bell to your backpack, and you don't stand in between a momma bear and a baby bear.

I also remember seeing an informational sign somewhere near Baikal that said there are about 400 individual bears on the 600km coast of Baikal, and in the winter the are hibernating, and they don't do that on the frozen surface of the lake.

[8bitsrule]

Maybe his brother wasn't hiking on the frozen surface of the lake.

I've learned to listen to the (not-unfriendly) advice of groups of locals anywhere, when it comes to animal behavior at least. Maybe the bears didn't find enough food in the summer.

[dorchadas]

This is something I've had a desire to do for a while now (either summer or winter), thanks for sharing your writings. Going to read into that, and maybe see about planning it in the future before I'm too old to reasonably do it.

[Chilko]

Great photos! Just wanted to say that I find your website very inspiring every time I come across it. What do you photograph with? Some of those images have quite a medium format vibe.

[brokenodo]

Beautiful photography and I love the simplicity of the site design. Nice work on both counts!

[lfodofod]

> skate 5km every other day to get water

Is it so shallow you can’t just make a hole in the ice?

[agumonkey]

Never expected to read about Tesson here. That said I know very few of him. Is this cabin something he made and then left out when he went onto another venture ?

ps: your pics are stunning

[bogomipz]

Wow, what amazing pictures. I had a few questions if you don't mind:

What type of wild life did you encounter?

How did you manage to find and rent the cabin?

Did you travel solo?

[YeezyMode]

I've rarely come across photography online that completely transports me. Great work on the Baikal blog!

[rOOb85]

Great pics! Someday I’d love to visit lake Baikal.