Back at Khuzhir

Saturday August 23rd

We had originally planned on spending the one night at Khuzir before proceeding to Irkutsk, where we would spend our last night before catching our train back to Moscow on Sunday.

However when making our enquiries about buses to Irtusk, we were offered the option of a bus (actually a shared mini-bus which in Russia seems to be called a "mushroom taxi") on Sunday morning which we were assured would get us to Irkutsk in time for our train. Given the punctuality of the bus that brought us to the island, I was apprehensive. But the convenience of avoiding an extra move and the trouble and expense of finding accomodation in Irkutsk, coupled with the fact that we were told that the bus would be able to drop us right at the station, was tempting enough to make use take the chance.

	At 12:47 on our last full day on Olkhon, Lena and Gu Shung at our polatka. After a thorough search the previous evening, we decided that we really couldn't improve on our first location, so we made camp at the same place again. As you can see from the dress, this side of the Island was as warm and sunny as when we had left it.

At 17:30 Lena appeared claiming to have been braving the Baikal waters. However she always seemed to pick a time when nobody was looking, so I was skeptical.

Yung Sheng makes a final attempt to gainfully employ his fishing rod before our departure in the morning.

He finally found an acceptable spot, but sadly the fish refused to cooperate.

I made a final trip in to the village to do the shopping for the supplies that we needed for our trip back to Moscow.

The bustling centre of Khuzhir.

Lena had come along to help with the shopping, and we decided to make our way back to the camp along the waters edge.

It was now 20:56, just in time to witness a last Baikal sunset

The village at dusk

At 21:07 the light was fading fast.

back at the camp, it was getting a bit too dark for pictures.

until at 23:21 Yung Sheng decided that, as we were leaving first thing in the morning with no time for a cooked breakfast, we might as well throw all of our remaining wood into the flames, and made quite a bonfire..

Sunday August 23rd - Leaving Olkhon for Irkutsk

	We managed our early rise, packed and hiked back to town in time to catch our bus, and by 09:20am were already the ferry for our voyage back to the mainland.

Olkhon island recedes into the distance as we get underway.

a last view of the island

and at 9:33 we are approaching the shore and our dash back to Irkutsk to meet our train.

Unfortunately the bus driver did not seem to have been given the message about dropping us at the station, and refused to believe that is what we had been promised. So we ended up being dropped in the center of Irkutsk, having to make a last dash back to the station on the tram.
We did, however, make it in time to catch our 16:35 train (11:35 Moscow time), even though we did not have time to take advantage of the station showers as we had hoped.

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