We left our hostel in Irkutsk and when getting ready we met two swiss bikers. They were heading for Mongolia and even further to China.

We had a little problem with my registration as it was not ready. For people flying in and out of the country it is not so important to register I have been told. But for overlanders this is more important as they can check it while crossing the border. We had to go to Hotel Angara to meet a lady from the local registration administration. The registration was done and even until first of September, nice bonus.

To be honest, the first and second time and Russia I didn’t care about registering. But now, as we stayed longer, it got more important, I guess.

We filled up the tank and left the city. Our goal was the famous island of Olkhon.

It was a nice asphalt road all the way to a crosspoint in a town called Bayandai. From there we had to turn right, and again it was an easy asphalt road.

 

Under the way we made a little stop to do some exercise and have some food.

After the easy ride of a good 200km we reached the ferry. Olkhon is a big island on lake Baikal. As the local road stops you need to take a ferry to get there. It is only a few kilometers and about 20 minutes to cruise over. We waited for about 30 minutes for the next ferry and had some cheboreks and tea with lemon to warm up.

The ferry is for free as it can be seen as an extension of the road. As a biker it is best to get on it as the last one as the system is LIFO. This means Last In First Out.

The water is also very calm, so it not like crossing the channel from France to the UK.

Once on the island there is no more asphalt, but there is a good graded gravel road to the main city of Khuzir. We followed this road and got in the city quickly. I used the HUBB’s waypoints to find the famous hostel called Nikita’s. The man who owns the hostel is called Nikita, he was a former Russian ping pong champion and now keeps the hostel.

You could say it is a bit touristic, but we actually liked the place. We got a nice room with view on the shaman rock and the baikal lake. You get three meals a day, and it is buffet, so you can eat as much as you want. Every evening they have performances like a pianist playing Rachmaninov music.

In the hostel we met a french photographer called Nicolas. He arrived in April 2012 in the place when the ice was melting and stayed here until now. Now he organises excursions on the island. He had a very nice photo album and told us about the good places to see.

In the evening we went to the shaman rock, this is a very holy place for shaman belief. It is also a nice rock to free climb 🙂 Larisa came along for some part, until it got to vertical. I climbed back another route than the way I came. This turned out to be a bit tricky.

In the evening we watched the sunset over the lake. There was also a very nice tree.