Irkutsk

When we arrived in Irkutsk last Saturday we were keen for a change of scene. So we traded in the busy Siberian city of Irkutsk for the remote and beautiful Olkhan Island on Lake Baikal. After staying only one night in Irkutsk we jumped in the first minibus we could find.

It was an interesting journey to say the least. At the start everyone was grumpy and pushing for storage space in the small confines of the van, but after an hour the mood changed and it was smiles and jokes all round.

2 hours into the trip we stopped to pick up two very drunk Russian's and a bottle of vodka. Unfortunately there was only one spare seat on the bus next to Richard but that didn't matter, they climbed aboard and managed to squeezed onto one seat. They also managed to finish their bottle of vodka, I guess to make more room on board the bus....

The next 5 hours passed trying to stop one of the drunk guys leaning forward and falling asleep on this poor old ladys lap. At one point Rich had to hold the guy back in his seat so he wouldn't fall forward and annoy the lady.

We arrived at MRS the ferry dock to Olkham Island, we couldn't take a boat to the island as the lake was frozen solid, so we drove over the ice. Now I have never been more scared and excited in my life. It was mental driving (sliding) 30km/hr over the ice. You could see cracks and the water below but it seemed our driver had done this many times before and was pretty relaxed about it all.. the same could not be said about his passengers.

This blog is getting quite long so I'll leave you with some pixs taken on our first day on the island (last Sunday).

We had access to all the mod cons...

Rich tucking into a frozen barrel;