Welcome to the 'Baikal Ice Fairytale'

These astonishing pictures are taken by Ukrainian photographer Alexander Cheban, a doctor from Kiev who is also a travelling photographer and blogger. 

'I'm not about your standard travel reports. I'm trying to pass the mood of the place where I've been or event I've witnessed', he says, and at Lake Baikal on a recent ten day trip he has certainly managed this. 

The lake is famed for so much: holding 20% of the world's freshwater, the oldest and deepest in the world, with 1,700 species of plants and animals most of which are found nowhere else on the planet. 

Alexander saw something else here -  the Baikal 'Ice Fairytale, a journey through the universe, the northern lights, bits of icebergs  - the rest depends on how far your fantasy takes you when you see it. This is the ice of Baikal. I didn't expect to be so impressed...'

He tells his readers: 'Go with me over the incredibly beautiful ice of Lake Baikal. 

'This time I won't comment of the images much - the beauty of nature is far too perfect to spoil it with words.

'You can see air frozen inside the ice, making for tubes or pyramids close to the surface of the ice... and ice hummocks and formations created by nature with  no human involvement. Look how stunning it is!'

Thank you to this doctor for his cure which can only fill the heart with wonder and warmth from this jewel of Siberia. 

You can read Alexander's blog and see his other pictures here.