Famous Babushka Skates Across Lake Baikal in Winter on Ancient Ice Skates Made Back in 1943
It was not easy for our reporter Ilya Buklov to reach the inhabitant of a remote village on Baikal, but it was worth it: Lyubov Morekhodova is a truly wonderful person, and the scenery in the report is quite impressive.
Lyubov Morekhodova: Hello! Welcome!
- Lyubov Nikolaevna, happy Women's Day!
- Thank you very much!
Guests rarely visit her, especially in the winter, but it's here in a small house on the shore of Baikal, lives a famous elderly woman, Lyubov Morekhodova.
Here, on Baikal, it is still difficult to feel the beginning of spring. This is the so-called small sea. Today it's -20, and the wind is piercing. However, even in such a weather, Lyubov Nikolaevna skates on the ice every day.
Lyubov Morekhodova: "Who gave them to me? Either Natasha, my older sister, or someone else."
Ice skates tied to her boots made back in 1943, is her main means of transport across the frozen lake. This way it's easier to quickly reach friends, who live in the neighboring bays, and to find lost calves.
Lyubov Morekhodova: "This is a cow Anfisa, and this one is a bull Osip".
The tourists are surprised when for the first time they see the lady skating boldly on the ice, but the locals got used to this for a long time, and even suggested she should set an example for the youth by taking part in competitions.
Lyubov Morekhodova: "I need a fair wind so that I fly like an arrow.Come here my little ones!"
All year round her day begins when it's still dark. The nights are cold now, so the first thing is to chop firewood and definitely get water. Lyubov Morekhodova got it from an ice hole in Lake Baikal, and she carefully wrapped it up in warm blankets the day before. Weather forecasts are of no interest for the elderly woman, she knows exactly where the wind will blow from and when it will calm down, and what is happening under the ice surface while Baikal sleeps.
Lyubov Morekhodova: "It is clear because a wave is coming".
She rarely watches TV but closely followed what was happening in PyeongChang. Today she's waiting for the Paralympic Games and remembers how she worried about the team, trying not to miss the broadcasts.
Lyubov Morekhodova: "Oh, I can't even say it, I even let my farm go, when I had a spare minute I cried and sobbed and everything".
She doesn't complain and almost never gets depressed, always smiling, modest and optimistic, Lyubov Morekhodova lives most of her life on the shores of the famous lake, for the cleanness of which she's very worried, and every time asks Baikal visitors to keep it clean.
Ilya Buklov, Eduard Chuzh, Victor Strotsky for Vesti from the Irkutsk region.