Khuzhir village on Olkhon Island, Lake Baikal

Monday August 18th - Traveling from Irkutsk to Khuzhir

Our next destination was the village of Khuzhir on the island of Olkhon, which lies near the middle (measured along its longest dimension) of Lake Baikal. It can be found near the top right of the following map:

Lake Baikal is 636km from north to south, but only 60km wide. It is 1637m deep, making it the worlds deepest lake - containing nearly one fifth of the worlds fresh water and more than Americas five great lakes combined. Baikal was formed by a collision of two tectonic plates 25 million years ago, which left a rift 9km deep until sediments filled it to its current depth. It is gradually getting deeper and will eventually become the Earths fifth ocean.

We got out of bed at the crack of dawn, and made it to the bus station just in time for the scheduled departure (and in plenty of time for the actual departure) of our bus.
Unfortunately this picture, taken at 15:33 local time, makes the bus look far more roomy than it really was. In reality, every seat was taken, the aisle was filled with packs, and we all had baggage by our feet and on our laps for the six hour trip.

At last, at 16:01, we are at our destination, the town of Khuzhir on the island of Olkhon. Now comes the task of finding a suitable place to setup camp before it gets dark.

We were directed by some of the locals to head for the coast, which we did. There was no shortage of scenic terrain, but we would have a bit of a walk before finding a location that satisfied our need for a convenient source of firewood and water, and isolation.

We eventually found a suitable site, and by 22:00 our camp site was established and we were ready for dinner. Here Yung Sheng and Gu Shung seem engrossed in the cooking, whilst Lena seems to be having second thoughts about the whole situation..

Tuesday August 19 - Our first day at Khuzhir

By 09:15 the following morning we had Lena out chopping fire wood.

And here I am at 11:35, frying some Kartoshka (potato) while Yung Sheng works on some soup.

After lunch, at 13:14, some of us decided to find out if the Baikal waters were a cold as we had heard...

Yung Sheng and Gu Shung putting on a brave show

after which they spent a bit of time recovering on the beach.

Go Shung and I came across some local girls with some horses, who took us riding along the coast.

The "Man from Snowy River" shot.

Yung Sheng stayed behind, and took some pictures as we rode off.

Riding off into the sunset - almost..

At 20:24 as we head into our second night at Khuzhir, Lena sitting at the entrance to our polatka (tent).

Lena took this one of Yung Sheng and I working on dinner as we head into the evening.

sun set over Lake Baikal as our first day on Olkhon draws to a close

Wednesday August 20th - moving on

A last look at our beach as we pack and head for our transport across the island to our next site.

and we couldn't leave without a picture of the magnificent bathroom we had constructed for our camp site, complete with plastic screen and panoramic views.

Return to my Home Page