18 km from the village of Listvyanka, a major tourist center on Lake Baikal, there is a village with an interesting name - Bolshie Koty.
There are several versions of the origin of its name: according to the dictionary of V. I. Dahl, “cats” are a trap in the mouths of rivers for fish. And in Kotinka, once the fish actually rose to spawn, and “cats” were used to catch it. According to another version, the name was given by shoes made of wood, they were made for convicts. And it was called "cats" or "cats".
The history of the village is closely connected with the history of Lake Baikal: gold-bearing sands were mined here, a glass factory was located on the shore of the lake, and a biological station has been operating for more than a century.
Gold mining on Baikal began in 1842. Placers were discovered and began to be developed along the river valleys of the western coast of Lake Bolshie and Malye Koty, Bolshaya and Malaya Sennaya. For 51 years of mining in this area, gold was mined 10 pounds 12 pounds 52 spools 42 shares (more than 160 kg).
Recently, the village has become one of the most convenient and popular places for tourists. This is due to both the proximity of Irkutsk and Listvyanka, and sufficient isolation, which allows preserving the picturesque local nature.
HOW TO GET TO
ROUTE FEATURES
There is no normal road to the village of Bolshie Koty - the route through the taiga laid many years ago by timber trucks is insurmountable for ordinary cars and even jeeps. Therefore, you can get to Bolshiye Koty from Irkutsk on the "Rocket" - a hydrofoil, in about 1.5 hours. In winter, on the ice of the lake along the shore, a road is laid and marked with special milestones.
Also, from the village of Listvyanka to Bolshiye Koty can be reached in the summer by water - any private boat that can be hired at the pier in Listvyanka will deliver in 30 minutes.
And, of course, nothing compares to a hiking trip from Listvyanka to Koty along the Great Baikal Tourist Trail! The view of Lake Baikal from the rocks is amazing.
ATTRACTIONS
All the sights of the village can be explored in a couple of days off with accommodation either in a guest house in the village or at a camp site in the Chernaya padi, located 3 km from the village, or in a tent in any picturesque place you choose.
1. Museum of Baikal Studies and Aquarium of the Institute of Biology
In the village of Bolshie Koty, near the shore, 100 meters from the pier, there is the Museum of Baikal Studies and the Aquarium of the Institute of Biology. The Museum of Baikal Studies was founded by Professor M.M. Kozhov. The museum presents more than 400 different exhibits, a rich collection of insects. There is also a permanently operating scientific station, on the basis of which Irkutsk students undergo summer practice. A small village is becoming more and more a summer cottage, old houses are being bought up by townspeople for summer vacations.
2. Sennaya Pad and gold mine
3 kilometers east along the coast from the village. Bolshiye Koty, in front of Mount Skriper, is the Sennaya Pad, known for its gold mines and good hay meadows. Not far from the coast in Sennaya Pad you can see the abandoned gold mine of the Irkutsk merchant Patushinsky. Vertical shafts with side drifts have been preserved, where you can go down. In the valley of the river Bolshaya Sennaya (the length of the river is about 7 km), there are numerous rock dumps; along the stream bed, the wooden troughs of gold miners are still preserved. Gold was found not only in river sands and pebbles, but also on Baikal. Near the mouth of the rivers Big and Small Koty, pebbles were taken from the bottom of the lake, in summer - from rafts, in winter - from the ice of the lake from ice holes.
You can get acquainted with the history of gold mining on Baikal from the lips of an eyewitness and a prospector.
Near the pad there is Mount Skriper, a separate mountain range, composed of a rare rock on Baikal - the Jurassic conglomerate, which is a sandy rock with rolled pebbles of various sizes. The rocks of this massif easily collapse, which must be taken into account when climbing them freely.
From the Sennaya Pad the trail begins a steep and tiring ascent into the mountains. Climbing the cliff, you can admire the opening panorama of the western shore and the water surface of Lake Baikal for hours.
Name of the cliff. Previously, in 1772, it was called Gull Rock. The origin of the toponym Skriper is associated with a gold mine that operated in the valley of the Bolshaya Sennaya River in the 19th century. At the right side of the pad you can see a huge pile of dumps of pebbles and sand processed by gold miners. In 1891 alone, more than a million poods of rock were washed here and 28 pounds of gold (more than 12 kg) were mined.
Pebbles were scraped into a dump and shipped by an earth-moving machine - a scraper. For many years, this machine served as the main landmark of the area, and then passed into the name of the entire rocky massif. The very word “scraper” (from the English “scrape”) has turned into the Russian “skriper” - from “creak”. In 1985, Skriper was given the status of a landscape-type state natural monument.
4. Cave on Mount Skriper
On Skriper, at an altitude of 200 m above sea level, there is a small cave with an area of approximately 60 sq.m. during the study of which ancient tools, dishes, jewelry were found. The entrance to the cave is clearly visible from the lake, as well as to the left of the path when descending to Baikal from Mount Skriper towards Cape Bolshaya Kadilnaya.
The cave on Mount Skriper has two small halls, 6 and 8 m long, up to 3.5 m wide and up to 4 m high. In the cultural layer, archaeologists found stone and iron hunting tools, fragments of ornamented dishes.
Near the cave, on a low terrace of Lake Baikal, there is a site of the New Stone Age, the inhabitants of which, apparently, found temporary shelter in the cave in winter or during bad weather.
5. Gold mine on the stream in the Black Pad
Another attraction is a gold mine on a stream in the Chernaya Pad, where in a picturesque mixed forest there is a camp site Shelter of Prospectors, where you can spend the night in small wooden houses, have dinner and take a bath.
ROUTES
All the sights of the Bolshie Koty village can be bypassed in one daylight hours. But it is worth staying at Bolshiye Koty for the night, if only to see a colorful sunset and a fabulous dawn on the shores of Lake Baikal and take a steam bath in a bathhouse with swimming in Baikal.
With only 2-3 hours available (for tourists tied to the excursion "Rocket") in Bolshiye Koty, you can only have time to walk around the picturesque surroundings of the village,
visit the Museum of Baikal Studies, located in the village right next to the pier and go to the left of the pier (if you stand with your back to the lake) along the picturesque path along the lake to the Chernaya Pad.
If you have a full daylight hours (with a one-day stay), it makes sense to go east along the lake along Route No. 1 (it will take at least 4-5 hours) and, if there is time left before the evening flight, you can have time to go along the picturesque path along the lake to another side - to the Black Pad, which is about 3 km from the village (part of Route No. 2).
If you have two days of stay in the village, it is better to divide these routes by days for the most comfortable viewing of all the sights in the vicinity of the village of Bolshie Koty.
Route number 1. To the Sennaya Pad and to Skriper Mountain
Type of route: on foot, length in one direction - 5 km from the pier of the village of Bolshiye Koty to the east along the shore of the lake.
Difficulty of the route: the route is non-categorical, but requires physical preparation.
Travel time: 4-5 hours.
The thread of the route: the pier of the village of Bolshiye Koty - a rocky path along the lake - Sennaya Pad - a gold mine - Mount Skriper - a cave on Mount Skriper
This is a popular route, with a well-trodden path. Ropes will not be needed anywhere, but comfortable trekking or sports shoes are required.
The trail starts from the pier and heads east along the coastline up the cliffs. In the Sennaya Pad, climbing 1.5 km along the stream bed, you can see the wooden troughs of gold miners who worked at the local gold mine in the 19th century. Behind the Sennaya Pad, the ascent to Mount Skriper begins. Behind Mount Skriper, continuing to move east along the rocks along the coastline while descending to Baikal, on the left side is the entrance to the cave.
You need to plan the whole day for this excursion. The next day, people without preparation may have muscle soreness.
Route number 2. To the camp site "Shelter of Prospectors" in the Chernaya Pad and to the gold mine on the stream
Type of route: on foot, length in one direction - 4 km from the pier of the village of Bolshiye Koty to the west along the shore of the lake.
The complexity of the route: the route is walking and does not require physical training.
Travel time: 2-3 hours.
The thread of the route: the pier of the village of Bolshiye Koty - a picturesque dirt road along the lake - Chernaya Pad - the camp site "Shelter of Prospectors" - a gold mine on a stream
The route goes along the coastline of Lake Baikal along a picturesque forest road and after 3 km (the reference point is an old wooden pier in the gorge), the trail turns right into the Sennaya Pad. After passing through the picturesque forest for another 1 km, the trail comes to a clearing, where there are several wooden houses of the camp site "Shelter of Prospectors". Another 1.5 km from the camp site, along the stream bed, there is an abandoned gold mine.
The village is very popular with tourists coming here from all over the world. In summer, you can get to Bolshiye Koty either by boat or on foot. There are no roads leading to the village. In winter, after it freezes, a road is laid along the ice along the coast. In the off-season, the residents of Bolshie Koty remain practically cut off from the world.
A biological station of the Irkutsk State University operates here, a monument to the famous Baikal expert prof. MM. Kozhov. There is a regular connection by boat with Irkutsk and Listvyanka. The area is attractive with the Skriper cliff, a picturesque path along the coast, the Two Brothers rock, and abandoned gold mining sites. There is a hotel with 70 beds, a research base of the Limnological Institute of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, which receives tourists in the summer (about 30 beds), about 50 tourists can be accommodated by local residents in private houses. 3 km from the village in the picturesque valley of the Cherny stream, 200 meters from Lake Baikal, there is a recreation center for 16 people.
Source: Baikal: nature and people: encyclopedic reference book / Baikal Institute of Nature Management SB RAS; [res. ed. corresponding member A. K. Tulokhonov] - Ulan-Ude: ECOS: Publishing House of the Belarusian Scientific Center of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 2009. - 608 p.: col. ill.
Pos. Bolshiye Koty is located 18 km north of the village. , in the summer it is connected by regular water flights of the m / v "Voskhod" with Listvyanka and Irkutsk. You can also get to the village from Listvyanka on ATVs or off-road vehicles equipped with winches. In the village there is the Museum of Baikal Studies, founded by Professor M.M. Kozhov, and the aquarium of the Institute of Biology. The museum presents more than 400 different exhibits, a rich collection of insects: bugs, butterflies, dragonflies. There is also a permanently operating scientific station, on the basis of which Irkutsk students practice. A small village is gradually becoming a dacha.
Source: Volkov, S. On Baikal / Sergey Volkov. - M. : AST: AST Moscow, 2010. - 568 p.
origin of name
The origin of the village's name remains unknown. According to one version, the name comes from the word "cats" - the so-called trap for fish that came to spawn in the river. According to another - from the word "cats" (emphasis on the first syllable) - warm shoes, usually used by prospectors of gold mines in cold wet weather in marshy places.
Story
The village of Bolshiye Koty appeared in the middle of the 19th century. It was founded as a village of gold miners. Gold mining at the place where the village is located began in 1842. At the beginning of the 20th century, a mine was organized there, where both convicts and civilians worked. Gold mining in Bolshiye Koty continued in 1968. In the entire history of Bolshiye Koty, more than 160 kg of gold have been mined there.
In 1947, special settlers settled in Bolshie Koty, mostly families deported from the Baltic states. They lived in barracks that they themselves built. Special settlers worked at the mine. They were allowed to leave for their homeland in the mid-fifties.
The largest number of people lived in the village in the 1960s. At that time, an elementary school, a kindergarten, a club, a shop, a bakery, a bathhouse, and a feldsher-midwife station were built. Amateur art performances were organized in the club, people actively visited it. Movies were shown every day except Monday. In the sixties, gold mining at the mine began to decrease, in 1968 the mine was closed.
Three kilometers from Bolshie Koty, in front of the Skriper Mountain, a natural monument, you can see an abandoned gold mine, vertical mines with side drifts are still preserved. In the valley of the Bolshaya Sennaya River, one can find rock heaps and wooden troughs of gold miners.
Scientific life in the village
In 1918, by decision of the Baikal Commission of the Academy of Sciences, a biological station was opened in Bolshiye Koty. For many thousands of years, the area where the village is located has hardly changed, which made it the most suitable for research work by biologists, cartographers, and meteorologists. For many decades, ISU students have been coming to Bolshie Koty every summer to study microbiology, flora and fauna of Lake Baikal and the coast
Big Cats today
Since the 1990s, the population in Bolshiye Koty has been greatly reduced. A shop, a medical assistant's station, a bathhouse, and an elementary school were closed. The village gradually began to turn into a summer cottage. The resident population in it is now about a hundred people.
Attractions
Three kilometers from Bolshie Koty there is a natural monument Skriper rock - a separate mountain range, composed of a rare rock - the Jurassic conglomerate, which is a sandy rock with rolled pebbles of various sizes. At a height of 200 meters on a rock there is a cave that has two halls with an area of about 60 sq.m. Archaeologists in these caves discovered stone and iron hunting tools, fragments of pottery, including the bottom of a vessel with ancient Turkic signs.
Also in Bolshiye Koty there is the Museum of Baikal Studies, the exposition of which allows you to get the most complete picture of the flora and fauna of Baikal.
Annex 1. Gold mining in Koty
The name of the Baikal village Bolshie Koty attracts, if we consider it from the point of view of two languages. In the Evenki interpretation, the word "koto" means "knife". A possible Russian interpretation is associated with the concept of cats - a kind of warm footwear used in cold wet weather in marshy places, usually by prospectors of gold mines, but not only by them. As J. Kennan noted in the book “Siberia and Exile”, “the government, probably out of economy, in summer and autumn gives prisoners low shoes instead of boots - cats, which are ordered to the contractor in bulk from the cheapest material” (see 168). The fame of the village is associated primarily with old and not so old realities.
Firstly, in the valley of the rivers Big and Small Koty, Bolshaya and Malaya Sennaya, in the territories near Listvyanka and the village of Nikola, as well as at shallow depths of the Baikal coast in these places, somewhere from the middle of the 19th until the 60s 20 th century, official and unofficial gold mining was carried out. For this, dredges were used, excavation of gold-bearing soil from the water with large buckets, panning for gold with trays, etc. In all these places, one can still see stone dumps, overgrown canals, grooves and large pits, and not far from the village on a small lake, a wooden dredge “lives out” its age. In connection with the most difficult conditions of gold mining before the revolution, this hard work was mainly done by convicts. Many of them and others died in these places. There was an unwritten law among the miners: collapsing mines and underground passages, which buried people under their vaults, should never be developed again. When they stumbled upon corpses littered with earth, they immediately abandoned everything and left the development site. It was considered a great sin to disturb the dead. In addition to information about the gold-bearing places in the region, it is worth adding the opinion of academician V.A., who at the end of the 19th century discovered gold-bearing sands in the basins of the Baikal rivers Sarma, Ilikta, Kugan. But the exploration of deposits at that time turned out to be unprofitable, and the question of their development remained open.
Secondly, it was in Bolshie Koty that one of the first two research stations on Baikal was opened in 1925 at Irkutsk University (the second one was formed in Maritui). According to other sources, the station was opened by V.I. Dorogostaisky in 1917. In this scientific monastery lived, worked and buried the famous Baikal scholar Professor M.M. There is also an aquarium of the Institute of Biology of ISU.
Karnyshev A.D. Baikal is mysterious, many-sided and multilingual. 3rd ed. 2010
Appendix 2 Rest in the village of Bolshiye Koty
If you want to relax on Lake Baikal, but don’t want to take a long trip along a dusty road or in an electric train, don’t want to carry tents, sleeping bags and blankets and buy kilograms of food, then Bolshie Koty is what you need. For example, on Thursday you also wanted to go to Lake Baikal for the weekend. You thought about Listvyanka, about,. The last two are far and long rides. The first two are already boring. How to be? Go to the village of Bolshie Koty!
Big Cats. Where is it?
Bolshie Koty is a small village on the shores of Lake Baikal, surrounded by mountains, 18 km north of Listvyanka. You can only get there by water. Or on foot, but that doesn't suit us.
On the river steamboat "Voskhod" from the pier "Rocket" in Solnechny to the destination is only 1.5 hours by water.
Where to live?
It is best to go to Bolshie Koty on Friday, and back on Sunday. On weekends, transport runs three times a day. By the way, if there are no tickets, the captain of the ship can always be persuaded to leave standing for the same money. And in the ship you can perch on the wide ledges between the two salons or on the bag.
There are many houses in the village in which rooms for a different number of places are rented. In the room - beds, bedside tables, chairs, table, socket. Almost everywhere on the second floors there is a balcony overlooking Baikal. There are hotels.
It is not necessary to bring food with you. There are kiosks and even mini-cafes in Koty. Almost every house sells hot smoked.
What kind of cats?
What the name of the village means, no one knows for sure. Someone will think that we are talking about big cats living here, but this is not so. There is an assumption that the village took its name from the river on which it was founded and on which gold miners washed. Koty is a word of Evenki origin. Koto - literally "palm", "knife".
Some believe that the name of the river comes from shoes koty (emphasis on the first syllable) - warm shoes, usually used by prospectors of gold mines in cold wet weather in marshy places.
Entertainment
There is little entertainment in Bolshie Koty. You can take a walk along the ecological path of the Baikal National Park. The trail is easy to find. If you look at Baikal, then it will be on the left, there are signs on the fences.
The path goes through the mountains. On the one hand there will be high mountains and rocks, on the other - a steep cliff and a lake. You can walk along the path indefinitely.
There is also the Museum of Baikal Studies and the Aquarium of the Institute of Biology in Bolshiye Koty. The museum presents more than 400 different exhibits, a rich collection of insects: bugs, butterflies, dragonflies, lake animals, fish. Here are all the paintings drawn by the founder of the museum, Professor M. M. Kozhov. The museum is already about 90 years old.
There is also a permanently operating scientific station, on the basis of which Irkutsk students undergo summer practice.
If you manage to find a guide or a guide, you can visit a multi-meter rock-cliff called Skriper. However, you can find it on your own if you follow the ecological path. Here, on a steep slope, a cave was found with the remains of hunting tools and utensils from the Iron and Stone Ages.
There is a cave on Skriper: two small halls with an area of about 60 square meters, their length is 6 and 8 meters, their width is up to 3.5 and the height is up to 4 meters. In the cultural layer, archaeologists found stone and iron hunting tools, fragments of ornamented dishes.
So, on the fifth of July, on Tuesday, our first meeting with Baikal took place. Let it sound like a stamp, but it was unforgettable! And we went on a meteor to the village of Bolshie Koty.
Bolshiye Koty was founded in the middle of the 19th century as a settlement of gold miners. To actually cats, as animals, this name has nothing to do. Cats with an accent on O, these are rough shoes made of leather and wood, worn by convicts. It is from them that the village got its name.
"Prospectors were walking, looking for a gold mine and went their way through the gorge, where a tramp, a fugitive convict, stopped to rest. Where he left his cats, they found gold ..."
But this gold quickly ended, mining stopped by the 60s of the 20th century. The destroyed wooden dredge, which was used to mine gold in the Bolshie Koty stream, can still be seen.
But the village has come into existence. In 1916 in B.K. created a fur farm, which closed by 1932. It is believed that the Kotinsky nursery was the first state fur farm in the USSR.
In 1918, a biological station was built. On October 1, 1928, it was transformed into the Baikal Limnological Station, and on January 20, 1961, it received the status of the Limnological Institute of the Siberian Branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences. The workers of the institute believe that it was from that small biological station in Koty that the science of all Eastern Siberia began.
In short, Big Cats are the beginning of all beginnings! This village was the beginning for us, the beginning of our acquaintance with the great Baikal Sea!
(Necessary note: I apologize in advance for the fact that some pictures (landscapes, panoramas) are repeated. It’s just that in Bolshiye Koty our camera failed after an hour of shooting (due to humidity, large white spots were obtained instead of the frame), there were few pictures and it’s a pity for them You will not see such repetitions in the future).
I explain just in case that first there is a photograph, and below is an explanation. :-)
A meteor called "Voskhod-2", on which we will go to Bolshiye Koty from the "Rocket" pier in Irkutsk. Since early morning the weather has been inclement.
Angara spill. Harsh landscape for the beginning of July. It seems to be the season, but the dubak is terrible.
Passengers waiting for a flight. There are practically no people like us to go there and back on the same day. Almost everyone goes to Bolshie Koty with things for a few days. However, some will get off at Listvyanka, this is an intermediate point of our trip.
I specially circled it with a red line - on Voskhod-2 there is a tiny platform where you can go out and observe the surroundings. In good weather, people crowd there, there is not enough space for everyone, but in bad weather - it’s better not to go there - it’s too cold and wet!
By the time we got on board, it was raining. It became difficult to admire the beauties: the windows immediately fogged up, and even raindrops flowed down them.
Pay your close attention to this man with a beard! He served as a prototype for the new term "bikeiler" for me. Baikailer is a tourist, a traveler, a brave person who explores Baikal regardless of weather difficulties. Baikaler is not afraid of anything, he is not afraid of anything, he loves Baikal and knows a lot about it.
This is what the interior of the meteor looked like. Taken before we left.
And here we are starting. I nevertheless got out to the observation deck and, under a rather strong pitching, took a few shots. The quality is poor, but I hope I managed to convey the emotions.
What a gloomy weather it was!
We are in Big Cats. Fortunately for us, the rain stopped, although it could start again at any moment. In B.K. - a bay, so the wild wind that shook our meteor along the way died down and Baikal became very calm, albeit gloomy.
This is what the coast looked like.
And this, in fact, we have already gone ashore. Most of the passengers were met, some with wagons. The biker and company loaded their belongings onto a cart, and a truck drove up to other tourists. The people dispersed to the bases, and there were only seven or eight people like us, who arrived only for a couple of hours (among them - two Germans, a married couple).
The people go to the beach.
And here is our Sunrise. After a while, he will go back, and we are on it.
We (and the rest of the "one-day tourists") wanted to go to the "Museum of Baikal Studies", which is written about in all guidebooks. But the museum was closed. While the people were thinking and wondering what to do, the travelers resolutely headed along the Baikal (or Bolshekotovsky) coast.
The transparency of the water immediately caught my eye, the main difference between Baikal and other water bodies. And this despite the fact that the sky was overcast! What happens when the sun's rays pierce the water column?!
Looking back at the place we left.
And rushed forward along the road. We immediately saw the legendary Baikal larches. Behind the fence were several houses. Looks like a turban.
We observed such powerful (and, in my opinion, ancient) structures. The inhabitants sat inside, no one leaned out into the courtyard. The rain had only stopped a few minutes ago, and it had been raining, judging by the puddles, for several hours.
Again, I pay attention to the transparency of water.
Big Cats close up.
The lowland between the mountains in Siberia (or only on Baikal?) is called "padya". It is clearly seen how houses are located in the "pad".
Visual agitation in B.K. enough. Immediately behind it are tourists in a tent. In such weather it was difficult for us to envy them.
And again a view of the Cats. The building on the left, closest to us, is the non-working museum.
Pay attention to the mountain ranges and spruces standing there. This is exactly what I wanted to capture, but my photographic equipment leaves much to be desired.
River Kotinka. Reminds an ordinary stream, but I think in the spring it is much wider.
She's just a little deeper into the shore.
Some kind of pier. Details, alas, remained behind the scenes.
Gradually, the trail went higher and higher, and typical Baikal landscapes began to open. Only that day we did not yet know that they were typical and just admired the cliffs. By Baikal standards, they are quite low, but if we compare, say, with Lake Ladoga or Karelia, they are very impressive and high.
Larch again.
View of Baikal.
Back towards the Big Cats.
Somewhere a lone ship rushed.
This is what the forest looked like, in which it was dangerous to enter - because of the ticks, and besides, it was wet.
At times, nice platforms opened up below, which I wanted to go to, but there was no opportunity. All that was left was to look down.
Another top view.
It seems that the stone is close, but not reachable.
We were lucky with the weather - the rain didn't start and we watched the quiet, calm Baikal.
The trail, meanwhile, kept going up.
And here is the trail itself. At some point, we realized that we had to return, because the meteor stays in Koty for only about two hours.
A few more shots.
familiar stone...
and back along the trail. The fotik could not stand the wet weather and began to give white spots, water got into the lens.
And here you can clearly see why you can’t stand on the edge of a cliff on Baikal. By the way, one of the most common causes of death for tourists here is a fall from a cliff. Indeed, I want to get closer to the edge, because you can’t see what is hiding there. From above it seems that this place is quite strong and solid, but in reality - see the photo. If you stand on the very edge, the soil will collapse under your feet.
We return back.
And we came here for a reason: my friend decided to commit a heroic deed.
See the three figures on the left? This is one of the women who decided to swim in Baikal. Her actions prompted my friend to follow a bold example, and Paumen, in this very, very cold place, made the first dipping into Baikal. "It was cool!" - confessed later my friend. "Yes, you just made a feat!" I responded admiringly.
Another look at Big Cats.
View of the cliff, where you do not have to stand at the edge.
Details nearby.
I kept trying to remove that powerful rock.
Despite the large amount of visual agitation, there was still rubbish in Bolshiye Koty.
We return to the village.
At times, huge ants crawl across the road.
Another break.
Voskhod-2 awaits travelers.
Majestic mountains. Some call them "hills", but I think that the word "mountains" is more appropriate here.
Closed museum. This time, there are no frustrated passengers of the meteor in front of him, who sought to get into this museum.
View of the places where we returned from.
And again - a beautiful mountain range.
The village itself. We didn't have time to check it out.
Central road of the village.
And again - a delightful ridge.
Baikal has completely calmed down.
Wrong ship. Probably, it will slowly rust like this: no one will take it out of here.
Baikal propaganda. Comments are superfluous.
Here is a branch of Irkutsk University - a little further there were large tents, which accommodated students passing to B.K. practice.
I will end this short photo gallery with a picture of a local, typically Bolshekotovsky, rooster.
The village of Bolshie Koty Baikal is a miniature settlement on the shore of a great lake, surrounded by untouched taiga. It was founded in the middle of the 19th century and its first inhabitants were gold miners. Gradually, the village grew and became upset, shops, a medical assistant's station, an elementary school, a bathhouse and a kindergarten appeared.
It owes its unusual name not to the cat family, but to wooden cats - shoes that were handmade by local residents who worked in the gold mines.
People come here to relax on the shores of the beautiful Lake Baikal, go through the numerous hiking trails laid in its vicinity, climb the Skriper cliff and go diving on the lake. Another place of attraction is the gold mines, which were abandoned in 1968.
Since then, the life of the village began to fade, people left, all public institutions closed. Today, Bolshie Koty Baikal is 5 streets with one- and two-story wooden houses, some of which are dilapidated and are gradually collapsing. About a hundred people live permanently in the village, the number of people decreases from year to year.
Location
The village of Bolshiye Koty is located in the Irkutsk region, on the shores of Lake Baikal, surrounded by mountains. It was built in the valley where the rivers Bolshaya and Malaya Sennaya, as well as Bolshie and Malye Koty converge. The village is located on a gently sloping, sandy shore of the lake, behind it stretch mountain ranges, overgrown with forests.
The nearest settlement - the village of Listvyanka - is located 16 km; from it you can get to Bolshie Koty along the Great Baikal Trail, which runs along the shore of the lake or along the water.
Infrastructure
The biological station, opened here in 1918, gives impetus to village life. Students-biologists, meteorologists and geographers have summer practice at its base. Researchers are attracted by the virgin nature and the unique beauty and purity of the lake.
The second direction of development of the village is tourism. Despite the remoteness of Big Cats from the benefits of civilization and high roads, tourists, archaeologists, and local historians come here in the summer. For them, several tourist bases are equipped in the village and its environs, a small shop operates, and there is a pier for motor ships on the shore.
How to get there
It is better to come to the village in summer, after the opening of navigation, or in winter, when the Baikal waters are thoroughly frozen. This is due to the lack of roads and mountainous rugged terrain. In summer, it is enough to arrive in Irkutsk by plane and, having reached the bus station, take a regular bus number 524 to Listvyanka. The first bus departs at 7 am, the last flight from Listvyanka is at 8 pm.
You can also get to Listvyanka from the Central Market, from where private minibuses run. In summer, it is convenient to get to Bolshie Koty by water. From Irkutsk and from Listvyanka, the motor ship "Voskhod" regularly runs to the village. In winter, the village can be reached by car along the frozen lake.
Jeeping enthusiasts can build a route from Listvyanka to Bolshie Koty, in summer - along the Great Baikal Trail, in winter - laying a route right across Lake Baikal. Machines must be equipped with winches. The same trail can be followed on foot. In the off-season, you can not get to the village.
Where to stay
There is a hotel for 70 people in the village, the research base also accepts arrivals (about 30 places), local residents willingly rent out housing (about 50 places). Not far from the village, on the Black Creek, there is a camp site where 16 people can live.
What to see
In the village itself
- Museum of Baikal Studies, founded by M.M. Kozhov. It contains more than 400 exhibits, an interesting collection of local insects.
- Aquarium of the Institute of Biology of ISU, with local fauna.
Around
- Abandoned gold mines, where dilapidated buildings, open pits and wooden dredges of gold miners remained.
- Rock Skriper, located 4 km east of the village, offering a beautiful view of Lake Baikal. Inside, a 60 m2 cave was found, consisting of 2 halls. In it, archaeologists discovered the remains of ancient weapons and ceramic dishes.
- The ecological path of the Baikal National Park, which runs through the mountains. It is easy to find with signs.
I have always been terribly interested, but what is the Great Baikal Trail? The project is large-scale, multinational, and all this splendor is very close to us, you can start right from.
Our plan, as usual, was global - to walk from Listvyanka to, but then we significantly shortened it - the village of Bolshie Koty was chosen as the end point.
Bolshiye Koty can only be reached on foot or by water transport. A private boat from Listvyanka, for example, would cost about three thousand rubles, but you can get from Irkutsk in just 1.5 hours (see the schedule on the website of the East Siberian River Shipping Company).
The trail starts from Gudina Street (if you are facing the nerpinary, then this street is on the right). We go all the way to the forest, where there will be a sign of the Pribaikalsky National Park, do not get lost - there are signs everywhere:
But here we got off on the way back, and our way "There" began from Partizanskaya Street (where the picnic area ends, past the large brick "Gold Hotel").
Leaving the car in the private sector (we just agreed with people who rent housing), we immediately went along the shore of Lake Baikal.
The beginning of the way Listvyanka - Big cats The owner of the house where we left the car warned us that this path was more dangerous than the official path, and recommended that we keep to the left, i.e. higher. Indeed, comparing, I can say that the path from Partizanskaya Street is picturesque, and in principle normal, but there are a couple of places where you can stumble and have to cling close to the rock, and stones are pouring under you. It was there that our dog flew down, which usually copes quite well with such transitions ...
Thank God everything ended well!!! We already thought that we had lost Bull forever, but he appeared from under the rock and hobbled to drink water from Baikal. He tore off his paw a little, scratched his muzzle, limped a few hundred meters - and now our dog is back in the ranks !!!
After such shocks, a smoke break is required:
After 2.5 hours, we came to a fork, from where the GBT went further.
Great Baikal trail The road goes along Baikal all the time - it's insanely beautiful, especially if the weather is sunny!
Big Baikal trail - Listvyanka-Bolshie Koty 
Our clearing, where we made a halt for the night I really liked the fact that the path was carefully widened, strengthened, steps were made in difficult places, so in my mind I thanked all these people who did such a great job.
Here is a small example - reinforced steps on the descent There was one type of dangerous place, a slope with crumbling stones, marked with signs, but, to be honest, it did not even compare with the place where Buhl stumbled, so go boldly along the official path even with children.
We recorded the time - a distance of about 20 km or a little more was covered in 6 hours with stops.
Some more photos of the big Baikal trail to Bolshie Koty:
All in flowers! 
We almost reached Koty - a barrier? 
Here we are right there! 
Big cats - a big backpack))) 
Angry horses, from which our aunt furiously brushed aside) And now the promised nuances:
1. Choosing the beginning of the trail - beautiful or safe. In principle, I think everything is clearly described above.
2. Before you go here on foot, you MUST obtain permission to visit the Pribaikalsky National Park. It costs 60 rubles a day, and saves a million nerves). You can apply in Irkutsk or in Listvyanka (Gorkogo St., 2a).
I’ll tell you a secret - I’m a criminal now))) The patrol just drove up on a boat to our parking lot, with video cameras, made a protocol - and voila! I got!
In summary: the road is very beautiful, short, if you don’t want to spend the night in a tent, you can stay in hotels or the private sector in Bolshie Koty or find an equipped parking lot on the shore of Lake Baikal.
Accommodation in Bolshiye Koty on Baikal:
Vkontakte community.
