Day One:

We got up early this morning ready for the taxi to pick us up at 8am. After turning up 20 minutes late, he threw our backpacks on the roof, turned the Crazy Frog music up to eleven and we were off. 5 French, 4 Koreans and 3 Brits all packed into a little mini bus on a five hour drive to the island of Olkhon in Lake Baikal.

The journey was an interesting one, the driver appeared to mirror his driving to the happy hardcore music he was playing and rather liked driving on the left of the road. I can only imagine he wanted to make us Brits feel more at home...

(Laura) As I got the VIP treatment and sat in the front with the driver my perspective was a little different! I was given a glorious leopard print pillow to sleep on and the driver kindly helped fasten my seat belt! The poor 12 passengers behind me were squished in and at one point covered in dust! My journey felt like five hours in a very bad club. The driver wanted everyone to share his passion for happy hardcore music and even with my iPod on full blast I could still hear it. Sadly I had full view of the approaching road. I often found myself gripping the seat and holding my breath hoping the rocks the size of melons wouldn't fly up and hit the already badly cracked windscreen!

(Sarah)The drive was similar to ones driven in South Africa, but where we would normally slow down for rocks or pot holes, he just seemed to plough on through! Laura was very nervous sat in the front seat watching all the rocks fly at the windscreen.

Just when we thought the bus wouldn't make it any further, we went around the corner and had our first glimpse of Lake Baikal. It definitely made the journey feel worth while. We were at the top of the hill looking down at the island and it was beautiful. Only a ferry ride and another hour in the car was left, but no-one seemed to even notice now as there was an amazing view to look at.

We arrived in one piece at what is our home for the next two nights. The guest house is situated in a tiny town on the island which has mainly wooden houses. The streets around are just dusty tracks and there is one shop (cleverly disguised as a house as well).

Our guest house is amazing! Each of the rooms are wooden lodges with a wood burning stove and a view across the lake. We even get all our meals made for us! Fresh fish from the lake every day. Real food is really appreciated these days!!

Once we had made ourselves at home we headed over for lunch. We had soup to start, then fish, potatoes and salad for our main. It was lovely to have some healthy food in us!! After that we headed off on a walk around the island. There are little beaches everywhere and people swimming. The weather here is so cold so I can't imagine we will be doing that any time soon!!!

We spent several hours this afternoon exploring the area and taking photographs, the views are amazing! It is such a remote and beautiful place - we cannot wait for our Jeep tour in the morning!

Day Two:

We woke up early and headed down for breakfast. We are really being spoilt here! Pancakes, porridge with jam and egg & soldiers. Everything home cooked and free range! After that we headed in search of our driver. He's a lovely old fisherman who lives on the island and was going to take us on a day tour in his jeep. The jeep is not what we would all suspect, it looks like a VW camper but is an old soviet vehicle so built like a tank! We were lucky enough that it was only the 3 of us in the back of this van. Another tour going at the same time had 11 people crammed in and weren't happy that there was only 3 of us in our van. But because we had booked from our hostel in Irkutsk, the hostel had sorted a private hire. We felt very lucky!

So we headed off into the distance to explore the island. We were grateful that this vehicle was 4x4, there was a variety of different terrain to cover which most vehicles wouldn't have coped with. Our guide first stopped at a little beach for us to get out and take a look around. Like most Russian people he spoke no English, but was quite happy to chat away in Russian to us and hope we understood.

After lots of photographs we carried on to the next stop. The town we are staying in only has 1,500 residents and once outside it there is no houses for as far as the eye can see. Our next stop was an amazing view point up high looking out at Lake Baikal. We have been so lucky today as the sun is shining, making it that even more beautiful. Our guide then decided he wanted to take us off on a walk down closer to the water. We would all describe it as a cliff, but not as dangerous. There was a path leading us down!! So off went the little old fisherman, my god he can move quickly. He put me (Sarah) and Tom to shame!! We were madly trying to keep up and stay breathing. Guess it shows the different lifestyles. He had us climb down to look at the water in-between the rocks. But it was worth it, we got to see even more amazing views.

(Laura) We drove on, feeling much better from the climb and the driver stopped about half an hour later and told us to get out. He said something in Russian and pointed to an area in front of us and said "one". He then pointed out a circle, got in the van and drove away. We assumed he meant come and find me over there at one! At this point I was starting to feel sceptical about our lunch - fish soup! At one, we went and found him. He had kindly laid a picnic table and was cooking our soup on an open fire. The soup consisted of 3 fish (cut in half with the eyes and tail still visible), onion, potato and basil leaves. Aside from having to cover the fish's eyes me and Sarah managed to eat up almost the entire meal (Bendall and Trowell parents be proud)! We had a kettle of tea and sweet buns which were lovely.

After a nice sit down (we were grateful to have a break from the smell of fuel) we headed on up to the end of the island. We stopped and were greeted with the best views yet. We walked out onto the rocky peninsular and could see across the whole lake, with the sun shining across it, making it look even more beautiful. We stayed a while enjoying the view and taking photographs. The island is quickly becoming our favourite place so far. We had a few more photograph stops before heading back to our hostel.

This evening we had a traditional banya- a Russian style bath. The island has no running water so this is the only way you can wash. It basically involves being in a steamy room, mixing hot and cold water and having a wash- heaven after a busy day!

Day Three:

We headed back to Irkutsk early this morning, we have been so lucky with these past few days. Had the hostel on the first night not been full we would have known nothing of trips to the island. It has been the most amazing three days and we will be very sad to leave. The journey home was a long one, we have gone from one extreme to the other! The driver was the slowest in the world and stopped every half an hour to check the bags on the roof. It took us 7 hours to get home and then he dropped us off the other side of town! We made it home safely and we're just getting ready to head off to Mongolia in the morning.

So that's the Russian part of our adventure over. We have really enjoyed Russia and will be sad to leave. We would do this part of the trip all over again which is a good sign! We're hoping Mongolia will be as good!