russia: olkhon island

Last year at in March, at the beginning of my spring break, the girls and I went to Listvyanka so we could see a frozen Lake Baikal. It turned out to be one of my most favourite places I've ever been. Even though we didn't spend more than a few hours on the ice, it stuck with me, and I wanted to go back.

We did go back, about two months later. We visited the other side of the lake, from a small town called Babushkin. Though it was nearly mid May, we expected the lake to be ice free, it most certainly was not. Just walking along the beach on the lake was awesome, and again, I knew I wanted to come back.

When I planned my spring break this year, going back to the lake seemed obvious (to me.) Lake Baikal is so big that there are a number of places people go to see it, and experience its natural beauty. One of those places is Olkhon Island.

Wikipedia doesn't tell me when the island was first settled, but it does say there is a long history of habitation, and the first people there were the Kurykans, who were forefathers of two current ethnic groups, the Buryats and the Yakuts. Ethnic Russians didn't arrive until the 17^th century. From what I could see, the island is currently a mix of Buryats and Russians.

Olkhon Island is currently much more reliant on tourism than it ever was in the past. People come in droves, though the numbers have come down somewhat since the start of the COVID 19 epidemic. With the rise in tourism, transportation has also increased, which made it feasible for me as a single tourist.

My flight from Moscow landed at Irkutsk International Airport 45 minutes early, woo hoo! Since I was flying one of the super budget airlines (which only allow a small personal bag as carry on,) I had had to check a bag, which I had to wait another 20 minutes to get. 

From there it was easy to find the bus stop out front and get into the city.

Since the girls and I had only spent a day in Irkutsk last year it didn't seem very familiar, I was glad I had my phone to use for directions. It was easy enough to find the spot for Olkhon Express, a shuttle service to the island. I bought my ticket, then had to wait about 45 minutes for departure. I used that time to stock up on baked goods and drinks from a nearby bakery and supermarket.

The drive to Olkhon Island seemed like it took foreva, partly because there was a lunch stop, and I always hate those.

The last hour, after we were actually on the island, felt even longer. It's just short of 300 kilometers from Irkutsk to Khuzhir, but the roads once you're on the island aren't exactly full on roads. Since this was winter, the sand is pretty stable and solid, I imagine it's not much fun in summer. Even so, the bus wobbles all over the place, it's not a smooth ride. Surprisingly, I didn't get sick, but two kids on my bus did.

One of the nice things about the bus service is that it drops you at your accomodation. It was 1545 when I arrived, and my landlady checked me in straightaway. I could see that wifi wasn't very good, but the heater was, and the duvet on my bed was nice. (The heater in our room last year was insufficient, so this was pretty important to me this time around.)

I chatted with the landlady about my plans for my visit, and learned that while there is one sight closeby, pretty much everything else is visited by tour. 

Normally I hate tours, but I wanted to see places that weren't going to happen by walking. I'm guessing nearly everyone on the island provides these same tours, but I'm glad she dealt with the logistics of signing me up.

After relaxing for a few minutes, I went out walking. The big sight of Khuzhir was only a 10-15 minute walk from my room: called Shaman Rock.

As you're approaching Shaman Rock you're treated to views of the lake, which are amazing.

It was mostly snowcovered, so I didn't get to see the 'clean' ice I really wanted, but it wasn't as if I was in control of the weather. Along the way I saw a tree wrapped in prayer flags and ribbons, as well as a row of totem poles wrapped in flags and ribbons. I don't know how often someone adds a ribbon or flag, or how often prayers are specifically made in this spot.

Continuing on I figured out how to get down to the lake. Even though I knew it was solid ice, there was still a moment of combined trepidation and glee as I took my first step out on the 'water.' Nature is amazing.

I walked all the way around Shaman Rock, taking photos the whole time. The weather as winter comes is different each year (duh,) so the ice formations on the rocks are different too. I loved seeing how it was all built up in different places. I didn't see any caves there, but it was still gorgeous.

I did see the start of sunset, which is amazing. I can see where the iconic photos come from, they happen when there is clean ice around Shaman Rock, during sunset. 

I didn't see the clean ice, but sunset still made the rock look fantastic.

From there I hiked my way back up to my room. Even though I hadn't actually done that much exploring, the full day of travel combined with a serious lack of sleep had me zonked out. Fortunately, that made getting on the right time zone pretty easy.

The next morning my tour picked me up right on time, at 10. There were seven other people, three groups I think. I think nearly every tour on the island is the same, and the guides know that people are there to take photos more than learn. (Sad, but true.) 

Our driver took us down to the ice and whizzed along, I think we were going 90km/hr most of the time.

He knew the ice though, quite well. A number of times he slowed down way before I could see anything coming, and soon enough we'd go over a bump or around something. Sometimes we continued slowly for a while, driving over ridges and such. As the lake freezes it is smooth in some places, but definitely not over the whole thing.

This is what we did for the rest of the tour: arrive at a spot, get a quick bit of info, then a time as to when we needed to be back on the bus. I call it a bus, but it isn't in the American sense of the word. Think of a Soviet style high riding van. Pretty much every tour has this same van, so you have to check the license plate of the one you're in to keep track.

We stopped at a number of different spots where ice had formed around the western side of the island, all the way to the northern tip. Some places were bigger, some were not. In some places the icicles almost pointed out. In some places I found small ice caves, those were what I loved most.

I was sad to see that some people hadn't respected nature, inside some of those caves I found poop and toilet paper. From dogs or humans, I don't know.

As expected, some people seemed more concerned with taking photos than with appreciating what they were seeing. Why is it so hard for people to behave nicely? 

There are even signs in a few places, reminding you to behave, and as they say, keep the ice nice for other visitors.

My favourite spot was a small cave where you could see the blue colour of the ice the best.

As the day went on, clouds and snow came in, making for a different experience. The clouds were slightly dark, and made for flat white light, which is awful in terms of being able to see anything. Meaning, at times it was hard to distinguish the horizon and divide the lake from the sky. 

At times we almost couldn't see the ice sculptures that had been made from big slabs of ice carved out of the lake. Too bad, but that's nature, you can't control her.

The tour included lunch, which was fish soup. Despite it being a common food in Russia, I don't think I'd ever had it. The guide cooks the soup while tourists are taking photos, then you come back to a hot meal. Simple and good.

At some point we turned around and stopped at a couple more places, one of which looked like frozen waves. 

I imagine a boat had come through just as the water was freezing, throwing up some pretty big slabs of ice. Fun to climb around, and since it was in the middle of the lake, it gave a better idea of how small humans are in the grand scheme of things.

I got back to my room around 1600, and warmed up for a bit. The van had been warm, but obviously the ice, snow, and wind were not.

My landlady had told me about a set of ice sculptures not too far away, so I went to check those out. I've found that ice sculptures are best seen after dark if they are lit up, and these were. 

Getting to the spot wasn't as easy as I'd hoped, since I hadn't brought a head torch with me, whoops.

The sculptures were far more intricate than anything else I'd seen around Russia. A human heart, a mermaid in waves, etc... There weren't too many, but I loved them. I don't know how late the lights stay on, but I was the only one there at the time, and it was only 2030.

The next morning I was picked up by another tour. I wasn't exactly sure where it would take me, but I figured it would be much like the day before, and it was.

We started by visiting one of the smaller islands in the lake. Even though the island was smaller than Olkhon, there were still plenty of ice caves and sculptures to see. It was a perfectly sunny day, which was amazing compared to the day before. It also made it really clear how much direct sun factors in to the temperature you feel.

When I stood in the direct sun, I could strip down to my t-shirt and pants and be okay. Cold, yes, but ok. When I was in the shade my fingers started to freeze up rather quickly. During this tour and the day before my fingers got cold a lot, then warmed up in the van, got cold again while taking photos and climbing on ice, then warmed up again.

We drove again and at the next stop could see a stupa on top of the island. The driver gave us a time, and we all started hiking up. The hike wasn't long, but I kept stopping to take in the views all around, which were lovely. I know my photos didn't capture how I felt about what I could see.

On the side of this island were a lot of memorials, I don't know from who, and for who. Rocks piled on each other, like cairns. Some were smaller, some a little bigger, nothing massive.

At the top of the island I was happy to see people circling the stupa in the correct direction (clockwise.) and not climbing on it.

I'm pretty sure that I went past the time limit the guide had given us for this bit, but no one seemed to mind, at least not that I could tell. The driver took us to our next stop, and again gave us a time, and said we'd have lunch after this. He drove the van a little bit away and started making the soup.

He cut up the tomatoes, fish, and potatoes, then started a fire, boiled the water, and cooked the whole thing.

Meanwhile we took more photos of ice and rocks. I'm pretty sure that anyone looking at this post will be tired of ice, snow, and rocks.

Lunch was good, I ended up having two bowls of soup. After lunch we had a couple more sights, just like the day before. One of them was an area with a lot more ice. Beautiful. Then we dropped off all the other people in the tour group. They had booked the tour but said they needed to get back to Irkutsk for the evening, so they missed the end.

I got the last sight all to myself for a good thirty minutes. I mean all to myself, there were no other groups there yet. We drove on the island, up to a 'mountain' top, from which the view of the lake was amazing. I loved the silence more than anything, and the chance to climb around and look at everything.

I was sad to go back to my room, but the tour was quite good and I was glad I had done both of them. I would gladly do both of them again.

The next morning the shuttle picked me up a little before ten, and I arrived back in Irkutsk at 1530.