The Diving boat "Jacques-Yves Cousteau"
 |
The characteristics of the diving boat
|
Length |
21 m |
|
Cabins for passengers |
2 |
|
Number of passengers |
8 |
|
Sanitary services |
|
|
Speed |
18 km/h |
|
Engine room |
|
|
Navigation |
|
|
Recompression chamber capacity |
2 persons |
|
Special equipment (during the technical diving safari) |
|
|
Diving equipment |
|
|
Additional equipment |
|
|
Team of the ship |
|
Speaking about Baikal safaris it's necessary to say some words about Baikal itself.
Do you dream about the place without
telephones, without crowds of tourists? About the place where you are face to face with wild nature? About the place where almost there is no any civilization at all?
It is Baikal, our Siberian lake, that is the world-famous lake - the nature's treasure, surrounded by the mountains and the virgin taiga, that is wonderfully beautiful and that is always ready to
see you.
Baikal contains about 20% of the world supply of the purest water. The lake is a home for a great
number of different kinds of fish, plants, animals, many of which are endemics, that is they can live only in the waters of Baikal.
Baikal is the deepest (1642 m) and the oldest (more than 30 mln. years old) lake in the world. This makes Baikal an attractive region for non-standard tourism - you can travel
there on foot, by ship or yacht and diving is especially attractive.
When you see the transparent water and the underwater landscapes with their severe
beauty, you can't be indifferent. Dives to grottos, canyons, along vertical, decorated with spronges walls, going down to the water chasm, dives with nerpa (baikal seal) - they are unforgettable.
You got tired of diving in the coral seas? If "yes", dive in Baikal - it can't be compared with the diving in any corral sea, because it's something different.
Various safaris (short or long) can be made
on board the ship named "Jacques-Yves Cousteau". The longest duration of the safari is 2 weeks; the shortest is 2 days. The groups, wanting to reserve the ship, can be different - consisting
only of divers or mixed, for example, fishermen and divers.
In practice there are safaris with teaching people to dive. In case of so called "zero groups"
(groups of people, who can't dive) come to Baikal, the ship is in one of the bays of the Irkutsk sea, where the water is warmer and not so deep, for a
couple of days theoretical and practical lessons in the open water are organized. Only after that the main safari starts around Baikal in its usual rhythm - about 3 dives a day.
Of course, it's possible to get higher CMAS qualification or TDI advanced nitrox-diver.
A lot of divers from Moscow, Saint-Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Krasnoyarsk, Ulan-Ude, Pervouralsk, from Ukraine, Germany, Denmark, Holland, Poland, New Zealand, South Africa and
Brazil have taken part in our safaris.
Plan of diving safari
In fact there is not any by the hour plan of
safari. Only following things are fixed: breakfast, dinner, supper and 3 dives a day (one of them is at night) And the places of dives sometimes can depend on the weather. And, of course, everything
depends on the client's wishes, on the rout and the duration of safari.
If a safari lasts for 2-4 days, diving is taken place in the region Bolshie Kotu, Listvjanka and
Old Roundbaikal Railway. There are many wonderful canyons in the Bolshie Kotu. From the wide and vast canyon, which can be seen in fall only than it is clear visibility (Tchernaya
Rechka) and to the narrow, deep and dark, making your adrenaline work (Srednja).
As for the Srednja canyon it is absolutely
vertical and characterized by windows of the grottos and wide-open caves (you have to have special preparation and equipment to get into the cave, as it is located very deeply). There is very
beautiful canyon in the Sennaya bay. It begins with the underwater tunnel and, probably, is the most visited diving location in Bolshie Kotu.
As for the Roundbaikal Railway safari,
besides diving along drop-offs, beginning just from the coast, tourists can make an excursion around the old railway - a wonderful creature of Russian engineers and workers, introduced into
the life at the beginning of XX century. 
Listvjanka is a wonderful place here too. It
usually takes you about an hour to get here by car and you can dive in very good places, where there is much interesting: the fields of spronge, vertical walls, canyons and even little caves. And on the
broken moorage we could find old cannon and old anchors, old bottles and other things of house hold too. This place is very busy; people have been living here for a long time and they have left many
things in water, which you can look for.
If it takes you only 5 days to get to the
Olchon isle, so in 7 days of safari we can go round the biggest island of the lake. Eastern part of Olchon isle is one of the best places from the point of view of diving and more other there is much on
the surface to see. By the way, and it's a great interest, near the isle and near the highest mountain of the isle called Izhimey, there is the deepest place of Baikal and its depth is 1642 m.
Also there is wonderful canyon here, it is absolutely smooth, like a drain.
The drop-off here begins with some steps
and, becoming deeper, it gets vertical and goes down to the water chasm. Circling around the Olchon, the safari goes through the Maloe sea, - one of the most remarkable places of Baikal. The
people here have much more sunnydays than in Sochy; the place is characterized by a lot of sandy beaches and by steppe landscapes. Here in the cave located in the rocky cape Burchan - the god of Baikal, lives. 
If you have 9-day safari you can visit the habitat of
nerpa (baikal seal) on the Ushkaniy Isles, and if you are lucky, you'll be able to dive together with these beautiful animals. Also you'll have a chance to drop an anchor of your ship in Chivurkuiski bay
and have a rest there - in one of the biggest and the most picturesque places of Baikal. Swimming in hot springs, sun bathes on the clearest beaches, fishing, walking - is at your disposal during dissaturation.
But in case your safari lasts for 2 weeks, you'll
reach the very north of the lake. And it is here, where you can find indescribable beauty of the nature: high snowy mountains, cedar taiga, hot springs in Hakusas and in Kotelnikov cape,
beaches of Ajaja bay and of "angara's mouth", Frolich lake and, of course, wonderful dives along absolutely smooth and absolutely vertical walls in the region of "the bank of brown bears", in
canyons near the Severobaikalsk and among grand underwater boulders of the north-west coast. Besides all these places there are places, where
nobody has ever dived. There are a lot of white places on the map of diving, so you can be a discoverer, if you'll join us in a long safari.
Programmes of diving safaris
| [Standard & Technical Safari] [4 Days Safari - "Southern Baikal"] [7 days safari - "Around Olkhon"] [9 Days safari - "Trip to nerpas'] [Ice safari on Lake Baikal] |
For detailed diving location map at lake Baikal
please click here.
Last updated: 22/08/08 20:25
Copyright © 1999-2008 
AQUA-ECO