June 27 Olkhon Island - Day 2

Today, we took an excursion to the North of the island, which took us there by UAZ bukhanka. We had several stops to enjoy the beauty of Baikhal and had an organised lunch with fish soup at the Northernmost point of the lake - the Khoboy Cape. According to our driver, the road today was much better - yesterday the excursion vans were dancing and sliding in the mud just like us. It was also much warmer than yesterday. There were still some misty patches, when rocks got covered with fog and we could not see more than 200-300 meters in front of us, but these were rare and added their charm to the rocks. 

The return was by boat. We followed the same route, but on the water, where we could enjoy the geology of the rocks. At some point, I (Anna) had a nap in the cabin. We were lucky, our excursion was only for 10 people (it is designed for 10 people max). We saw bigger boats and caravans of cars full of tourists - not a pleasure the two lones like us are looking for.

We arrived at the Shaman Rock. Then we had dinner at the Chinese hotel (a hotel by the Chinese for the Chinese) to eat some Chinese food (kind of…), where we were later joined by a lady and a guy we met on the tour. We discussed their plans for Buryatia and Mongolia and learned about a big festival in Ulan-Bator in mid-July that we might try to visit. They shared smoked fish and beer with us that they bought in Listvyanka the day before. What a way to finish the busy day!

June 26 Olkhon Island - Day 1

Almost entire Olkhon Island is a national park requiring permits to visit (a piece of paper for a fee). There are three parts: South, Middle and North. Today, we learned that the Middle part was closed completely due to high danger of forest fires. We were going to visit the South part on our way back to the ferry. So this left us with the North. 

A side note on forest fires: Olkhon literally means dry. There is very little rain and snow and there are years when it does not rain at all as all moisture is stopped on the “continent” by the mountain chains. A year ago or so the island had to be closed as the first fires were getting out of control. Past three years apparently had much more rain than before and the fact that we had rain yesterday was rather unusual. 

The rain left the roads muddy. So when we tried to make our way to the North of the Island, but this plan was put to rest at the first mud patch as the car started to dance and slide without control. We then went to the nearest view point and stayed there to enjoy mystic views of fog over the mountains and the lake. As the fog was moving in and out, the views were constantly changing: nearby rocks disappearing and reappearing with the wind. This kept us amused and busy with photography for a while. We then returned to Khuzhir making several other stops on the way to enjoy the views. We ended the day visiting the Shaman Rock. We decided to take a tour the following day to be able to go past the mud patches.

Our palace was really quiet

Same place as previous picture, 20 minutes later

Our tires after dancing in the mud

Next generation of sousliks (ground squirrels)

Merganser ducks (крохаль)

Ruddy shelduck (огарь)

5 minutes later after the previous picture was taken

Shaman Rock