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
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