June 28 Olkhon to Irkutsk

Today, we traveled from Olkhon to the capital of Irkutskaya Oblast - Irkutsk. As you remember, the road between the ferry and Khuzhir is very poor - this is for the ignorant tourists. There are plenty of alternative routes just parallel to the “motorway”, which are much smoother and are clearly the preference of locals. This time, we did what locals do - we took the alternative “highways”.

We started by exploring the southern part of the Island with some offroading in rocks and hills to catch magnificent views of the Baikal Lake and Olkhon beaches. As we were driving towards the ferry, we saw quite a few motorhomes with German and Swiss number plates. We had a quick chat with a Swiss couple - they are traveling through Russia, Mongolia, Kyrgyzstan and other Central Asian countries for 4 months in a large organised group. Olkhon really is world known it seems - we heard plenty of different languages here.

As we reached the mainland, we stopped at the same cafe where we had our lunch on the way to Olkhon - they had wonderful pozy - large Buryat-style meat dumplings that we could not miss. There are several salt lakes just behind the cafe where we headed after lunch to continue the exploration of the Tazheranskaya steppe. This is where I (Anna) caught another tick (I believe this is the 12th tick on our common record). Really, this is getting serious! The grass was short and the area seemed so innocent - and here you go! If you decide to explore nature (not only in Russia), watch out for these little bastards. Make sure your trousers are tucked into your socks and your t-shirt tucked into your trousers. Most important: do regular checks while you walk. Don’t wait until you arrive home! They don’t like to waste their time.

After the salt lakes, we headed directly to Irkutsk. As we were approaching the city, we went through a thunderstorm with multiple lightnings. We had been asking heaven for rain to wash off the mud from the car to arrive to Irkutsk with a more decent look. And we’ve got it! The rain got rid of the dirt for us. We arrived to Irkutsk quite late, but we managed to beat the big group of Chinese tourists who arrived shortly after us at the hotel.

Hoopoe (удод)