Olkhon (Khuzhir)

Days 4 to 8 of the trip

On Tuesday we woke up early for a 363 km drive to another hotel, this time in the village of Khuzhir on Olkhon Island. It was drizzling outside after a wild stormy night. The previous evening I had learned from our neighbors, who had arrived in Listvyanka from Germany, that they were going to Olkhon the same day as we were, but by bus, and they planned to return that very same day. They left Listvyanka at 6 a.m., while we left at 6:50, but we never met them on the road. Later I realized that one-day trips like that to Olkhon are not a great idea. You really need at least two sunny days on Olkhon to see everything, and they still had to do the whole Listvyanka - Olkhon - Listvyanka route in one go.

Our path first followed the now familiar Listvyanka - Irkutsk road, and then turned northeast through Khomutovo, Ust-Ordynsky, Bayanday, and Elantsy. The Irkutsk - Elantsy road was excellent, comparable to roads in the Moscow region. The scenery there is beautiful: steppe landscapes alternating with rolling hills. The 12 km stretch from Elantsy to the ferry crossing to Olkhon either never really had a proper road or had its old surface removed to lay a new one. Those 12 km shake you badly unless you know that local drivers have made side detours to the left and right, where you can drive much faster. On the way to Olkhon we did not know about them and drove slowly along the main road so as not to break the car. On the way back, once I knew where to go, I rushed along those side tracks much faster.

Somewhere near Elantsy there is Aya Bay. We tried to get there by car, but quickly understood that the road was not made for a Solaris, and we did not want to walk there in the rain, so we had to cross that bay off our list.

When we reached the ferry crossing, we found ourselves in a small queue of about 16 cars. A ferry arrived ten minutes later and took all of them, but we were unlucky and became the first car that did not fit, so we had to wait another hour for it to come back. We had also arrived during the lunch break of one of the ferries. Normally there are two of them: a small one for 8 cars and a large one for 16. By the rules, local residents board first. You can check the ferry schedule here.

Once we got to the island, we were back on roughly the same kind of road as after Elantsy. The road is maintained by heavy machinery. It is regularly cleared of stones and sand, but that same machinery leaves such a washboard surface that it is hard to drive fast without shaking the whole car. On the other hand, the road does not get washed away by rain, although in some places the car still felt slippery. Later, after arriving in Khuzhir, I learned from the guesthouse owner that expensive cars are better driven on the side detours that run next to the main road, though those are the ones rain can seriously damage.

The 30 km from the ferry crossing to Khuzhir took us about 2.5 hours, with occasional stops to photograph the scenery even though the weather was poor. We reached the guesthouse at 3:40 p.m. As soon as we arrived, we went to the main attraction of Olkhon, and really of all Baikal: Cape Burkhan, which ends with the beautiful rock called Shamanka, or Shaman Rock. We spent the rest of the evening there. That same day we bought groceries in a local shop. If you have the chance, it is better to stock up in Irkutsk because the selection is larger there. We also booked an excursion for the sixth day of our trip, and at that point it was only day four. Around 53.196688, 107.342258, at 22 Pushkina Street, there is a small souvenir stand where, according to the owner of our guesthouse, a woman also sells tours without middlemen. That was where we went, and we successfully booked an individual 8-hour tour of northern Olkhon for day six, since day five was already occupied. Individual meant a Niva and a driver who also cooked lunch in the middle of the day while we walked around the sights. At first we were wary of that option, but the alternative was a "bukhanka" packed with ten passengers and rushing everyone from place to place without enough time to really enjoy the landscape. In the end we took the proposed tour. It cost us only 4,000 RUB for the two of us, even though the car could have fit one more passenger.

The fifth day of the trip turned out rainy. We waited for the rain to stop, rented bicycles, and rode around the nearby area. In the end we cycled for no more than two hours because it started pouring again, so we returned the bikes and spent the rest of the day inside, only going out in the evening to look at Cape Burkhan one more time. In fact, we went there every evening while staying on the island.

On the sixth day, as if on command, the sun came out, the weather got warmer, and we left at 9 a.m. for our Niva trip. The driver was good and drove his car through places where I would have crawled in my Solaris, and maybe would not have made it through at all. He overtook every car we met on the way while telling us about the sights. After that trip I almost wanted to buy myself a Niva and drive it through local swamps.

So, in the Niva we drove from Khuzhir toward the village of Kharantsy. Our first stop was Haraldai Bay. Then we visited Cape Ulan-Khushun, the settlement of Peschanaya, the Three Brothers cape, and finally Cape Khoboy, the northernmost point of Olkhon. People usually spend a lot of time there, so while we were exploring, our driver and field chef prepared lunch for us. After lunch we first went to Heart Rock and then to the village of Uzury. All of these places vaguely reminded me of New Zealand, with one important difference: driving around New Zealand is easy, driving here is not.

That same day we arranged with the driver that he would take us around the south of the island the next day for the same 4,000 RUB. When we got back, we realized that we had managed to get sunburned over the course of the day despite hiding from the sun. Apparently it is stronger there than in the Moscow region.

On the seventh day of the trip we put on sunscreen, wore covering clothes to protect ourselves from the sun, and headed south with our driver. Our route was the following: first the viewpoint gazebo on the hill near Khuzhir, then Lake Khonkhoy, then a lonely birch tree somewhere out in the steppe, then Cape Khorgoy, and after that Cape Kobylya Golova. From the parking spot we had to walk quite far, but we managed it in 1 hour 40 minutes, just in time for lunch. I still wish we had been able to spend more time there. By the way, the people traveling in the packed "bukhanka" vans did not have enough time to walk closer to the end of Cape Kobylya Golova because they were pressed for time. After that we went to Lake Nurskoye. Its water warms up better than Baikal itself and you can swim there, but we did not risk it and only dipped our feet in. Then we visited some bay and after that climbed a hill from which you can see both Baikal and the Maloe More strait at once.

The next morning, day eight of our trip, we left the guesthouse early and set off for Irkutsk. Along the way we revisited some of the easier places we had seen the day before and wanted to explore once more. The main one was Lake Khonkhoy. The day before we had walked along the spit, but did not realize that we would be unable to climb the nearby hill because the lake turns out to be connected to Baikal by a channel that is not easy to cross. So the next day we drove out onto the cape and climbed the hill from there on foot. After that we headed closer to the ferry, but still wanted to swim in Baikal once more, so we stopped at Lake Nurskoye and swam there before leaving. I do not know why they call it a lake. To me it feels more like a bay.

By noon we reached the crossing and waited 1.5 hours for our turn. After crossing back, we spent 3 hours getting to Cape Mukhor. The hill that blocks the way to it had to be climbed on foot because the slope was too steep for our car. We reached a place called Mandarkhan, where my girlfriend swam once again. The water there was even warmer than in Lake Nurskoye because the entry into the water is very long and shallow. After that we headed to Irkutsk, since there was not much time left. We arrived at 8 p.m.

On the ninth day of the trip I returned the car after washing it and filling it with fuel. There were no new chips or scratches, although I had been afraid that roads like those would definitely leave some. In total we drove 800 km in it. In Khuzhir the car had stood still for 3 days.

Then came the flight, 6.5 hours in the air, and we were back in Moscow.