"The team is complete and all luggage arrived!"

These reassuring words popped into our group chat from our guide Brecht De Meulenaer after he landed in Irkutsk, Russia just a few short hours ago. The pre-expedition preparation of any Lake Baikal Expedition is intricate and it is always a celebratory moment when our participants and our equipment arrive on schedule. A special shout-out goes to Eric Bonnem and Damian Tracoulat of Expeditions Unlimited for their expert travel arrangements.

Yesterday Brecht and our Belgian participant Max departed in unusually stormy weather from Brussels, while Marc-Olivier began his long journey out of Paris the day before. Our third participant, Nessim, took the romantic route via train on the Trans-Siberian Express with travels that began a week ago. Together this hardy team will spend the next 2 weeks discovering the mesmerising beauty of Russia's Lake Baikal under harsh winter conditions.

This evening our team enjoyed the chance to reunite in a cozy local establishment, taking the opportunity to get to know one another a bit better over a refreshing beverage and meal.

After a solid night's rest, they will spend most of the day tomorrow in final preparation mode. They'll first journey to Bol'shoye Golustnoye, a town on the edge of Lake Baikal, where they will unpack and reorganise their expedition equipment. If all goes as planned, they should take their first steps on the ice on Wednesday, February 9th.

You may continue to follow their adventure here and also via Expeditions Unlimited with its LiveExplorer feature.