As with all destination in Russia Arriving at Irkutsk was easy but the taxi driver couldn't find our Hostel, so we spent the morning searching around the back of old soviet blocks in the center of town for the. One note about the Taxi, larders are rickety things but this was amazing with the passenger seat not fastened down, in the back luke looked like he was in a sun lounger, the boot didnt work, the screen was cracked and he had no lights, but the price was good! On arriving at the Hostel we dumped our bags, we had arranged to meet Jack the owner of the Hostel who was taking us on a tour to lake Baikal and Arshan but this was not until the next day, so we headed out for some sight seeing. Lukes shoulder at this point was strapped up and aching a bit but we managed to head out to see as much of Irkutsk as we could. Later that day we got in Contact with jack and arranged to meet in the Morning to head out. We arrived at lake Baikal around midday with a great view high from the hills. Lake Baikal is the Oldest and deepest freash water lake on the Planet and also contains 20% of the earths fresh unfrozen water. It is also found in the lands of the Burayt Republic. The republic of buryatia is a federal subject of Russia having been taken over in the 17th century, they are Mongolians who survive from farming and are not nomadic.

We headed down from the hills towards the lake where jack informed us it should still be ok to drive on, he also informed us not to put our seat belts on, just in case. Being Englishmen our number one childhood memory about ice was dont walk on it let alone drive, with apprehension we headed out onto the lake and along a small track that connects a Burayt town to civilization during winter. We stopped to take some photos and on leaving the car could hear the ice cracking which is always pleasant, we then drove down to the small Burayt village and got some great pictures of ice ridges where different plates had collided and been pushed up. Getting out onto the lake you could really get a feel of how big the lake is, in historical Chinese documents they referred to it as the North Sea and you could feel why, standing there, looking out its bloody massive.

After a tour of the Lake we jumpd back into th car to head to a small buryat village called Arshan thats home to some healing springs, lukes shoulder was still in the sling and aching so we were hoping if we submerged him in the water this may be a quick cure or possibly a nice way to have a bath. Along the way we drove past some really poor villages and also stopped at a Buddhist temple, where we spun pray wheels and left some money as an offering for safe passage. Jack checked us in to a Hotel in Arshan ( possible the strangest one, very spooky and gave us our breakfast in five courses) we then headed to the springs. Just before the springs Jack took us to another Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Arshan in the foot hills of the Sayan mountains, afterwards we walked back through town and reached the springs. The springs were coming from taps on a wall covered in ice and steam, there were cold springs and warm springs to try so we drank both and both agreed that the warm one tasted like old farts and stuck to the cold spring which we filled our bottles with. Adam bought some pine nuts and also some Siberian chewing gum made from the sap of the ceder tree, both of us were now on a mineral water detox. We headed back through town and picked up some local food in the form of Buuz a traditional Mongolian dish of mutton dumplings, that at the time we didn't know but we would soon be eating a lot of them, then back to the Hotel and rest.

Jack picked us up in the Morning and we headed out of Arshan for a walk in the hills to see a frozen water fall, the journey took us through forests of pray flags and beauitalful stands of birch and pine. Eventually we got to the waterfall but couldn't carry on any further as the path was to rough and Luke didn't want to damage his shoulder now it was on the mend, so we decided to head to our next destination the mineral baths. The minerals baths were created when the soviets were drilling for oil in the valleys next to the Sayan Mountains, instead of oil they hit the springs. We arrived at the baths to find them closed so jack made a few calls and a couple turned up to open them. We got changed into swimming gear thinking we were getting in a pool of mineral water but were soon presented with our own baths full of brown warm water. we got in and relaxed for fifteen minutes it was really soothing with us both nearly falling asleep and feeling much better after the bath Jack told us this was because of the healing minerals but we both thought it was because it was a warm bath. We got dressed and headed back a little earlier to get some rest and also get our train tickets for the next stage of out journey to Ulan Ude.

We stopped back at the russian cafe at the side of the road for dinner and managed not miss any turns or fuel stations on the way back but still talked about reincarnation and the meaning of life. We picked up our tickets from the station with the help jack which made things a hell of a lot easier as he was russian. That night we rested up, packed our gear and book a taxi for the morning. The next day we boarded the train for a eight hour journey the shortest so far to Ulan ude and our last stop in Russia before Mongolia.