Lake Baikal, Russian Federation / Kate and Dan / And they're off! / Olkon Island on Lake Baikal

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Olkon Island on Lake Baikal

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Lake Baikal, Russian Federation
54° 0' N 109° 0' E
Oct 07, 2006 05:23
Distance 1542km

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Olkon Island on Lake Baikal

Text written in: English

After another 2 day train journey from Tomsk we arrived in Irkutsk at 7am, or possibly 2am, all the trains are still on Moscow time, it's very confusing. We headed straight for the bus station to travel to Olkhon Island, the bus was full but we managed to get a minibus with 3 German girls, 3 Russians and 3 Buryat women, one of whom stole Dan's seat leaving him with a broken one for a 6 hour journey, not comfy. To our horror the slightly dodgy looking minibus broke down in the middle of nowhere, leaving us to hike to the Siberian equivalent of a Little Chef, where we also find a mechanic and a guy from Cannock, who's travelling with a boy from Chester, ring any bells? (Rob?)

The mechanic proved more useful than his Eau de Vodka immediately suggested and we got back on the road.

We arrived at Nikita's Guesthouse in Khuzhir, Nikita is a Russian table tennis champ who we became slightly in awe of. We spent the next 6 days in our own wooden cottage, eating lovely food and sitting round campfires with folk from all around the world.

Lake Baikal is beautiful and we did a lot of hiking and travelling around the island in Russian military vehicles, there's even a beach. The weather was erratic, it went from 25 degrees one day to -1 the next.

On one of our trips out Dan became part of rescue team when a woman broke her leg after falling down a cliff. The word 'hero' is often overused but in this case...

Other highlights included Kate persuading Dan to turn back during a hike in the forest because she thought that she'd seen bear paw prints in the sand. The words 'over-active imagination' are often overused but in this case...

Unfortunately on the journey back there was a Siberian storm and we nearly got stuck on Olkhon Island for the forseeable future, which wouldn't have been so bad. If you ever get the chance a holiday here would be great.

We're getting back on the train this evening to travel to Ulan Ude, the only reason that we're stopping there is to see the world's largest Lenin head...stay tuned...