Olkhon Island on Lake Baikal, Russia – 09/18

(Michelle) The next day, TJ and I had a private all day tour of the island. We didn’t really need a private tour and we realized that we vastly overpaid for it, but it was pretty cool to be alone in this tour. Why go to a remote island in Siberia unless you can feel truly alone. You DEFINITELY get that feeling on this island!

Lake Baikal, the lake we are on, is the world’s deepest lake and it holds nearly 1/5 of the world’s unfrozen fresh water. This is more than the combination of the 5 great lakes in Northern America. Fortunately, this source of water is drinkably pure – we are happy to report that we didn’t see one motorized vehicle (except the ferry) or any factories on this water. I think this is the first lake I have seen with nothing on the water (check out the water in the pictures), so this really added to the remoteness of it all. They say the water in Lake Baikal is so clear that you can get vertigo by swimming in it because you can see so far down. Not that you’d want to, because it is damn cold. Although, we heard that some people at Nikita’s Guesthouse swam in it because the line was too long for the banya (which is how you bathe on this island with no running water – I’ll explain it more later).

Our guide didn’t really speak English, but he knew a few words and we were able to get some information out of him. For example, through hand gestures, we learned that the lake freezes over in the winter and sometimes bears cross the ice and get onto the island, but never fear – the island folk shoot them immediately, so they maintain an informal no bear policy on the island. I’m not sure if that was exactly what he was saying but that is what I took from it.

Our tour included lunch, which was lunch that our guide cooked at a campfire while we climbed Cape Khoboy (which has the most dramatic views from the island). Lunch was fish head soup. TJ was not pleased. He does not like seeing a fish head in his bowl.

(According to Lonely Planet) Olkhon Island is considered one of the five global poles of shamanic energy by the Buryat people and at the top of the cliff on Cape Khoboy, there is a little Buryat holy spot. We aren’t sure if it is a burial ground or just a place you go to pray for good fortune or what. It has many many little rock piles, one big rock pile and then one wooden post; around the wooden post, there were many coins on the ground.

(TJ) The Jeep tour was fun, we took the Russian version of Jeep that actually looks like a 4 wheel drive version of the Mystery Machine from Scoobie Doo. You need the 4 wheel drive too going around the island can be challenging since they are just trails where someone decided to drive a car. The more that these trails are used in certain spots the worse the roads got especially in the wooded areas. I wish I would have had a chance behind the wheel for a little off -roading.

The island is a pretty good size and on most of it there is nothing to indicate that anyone lives here. Once in a while you would see a herd of sheep or cattle and that was about it. Looking out over the lake its so amazing that there is so much water and no boats in sight, not only that but you look across to the opposite shore and it looks to be only 4-5 miles when in reality its 50-60 miles. We passed by a old fishing village at one point that had been burned to the ground. Through our guide, I think I got that someone had done something that pissed Stalin off and he had it burned to the ground, that’s one way of handling a disagreement. Another interesting moment came at lunch where we had fish soup and I was luck enough to get the fish head, which is a honor apparently. I did not eat the whole fish head, just part of it.