The guard woke me up far too early this morning for our disembarkation from out 3.5 day train journey. Consequentially, this meant everyone was standing around in the hallway for about an hour and being in the way of each other.

We arrived at Irkutsk passenger terminal early in the morning where our transfer driver Dmitry was waiting for us. We got on the bus and began the hour and a half drive out to Listvyanka. Having no idea whether or not the Lake Baikal would be frozen or not I didn't really know what to tell the passengers was available on arrival. I mean, not much is available there whatever the situation, its just a tiny little town on the edge of a lake. When the girls up the front started berating me about what excursions they could do when we got there, I thought….oh no this is tour one from last year all over again.

We came over the ridge and to my absolute delight we were met with a frozen lake Baikal….something I had never seen and which I had missed by a few weeks last year. We drove up the steep, bumpy road to the chalet, where one of my favourite characters from my travels was waiting for us. Nicholai. Nicholai is a short, Siberian man of about sixty, with steel grey hair and small crystal blue eyes. He has a perpetual smile on his face (unusual for Russians) and despite the fact that he speaks absolutely no English at all, always seems to make himself understood with his overly excitable actions and hand gestures.

I had told Nicholai that I wasn't returning this year, so imagine his surprise when it was me who stepped out of the front seat of the transfer bus. Our excitable Russian proprietor helped me off the bus and drew me into a big bear hug, Kristina! He exclaimed and proceeded to go on at me in Russian asking me why I was back. I don't know how Ncholai and I always seem to understand each other, but we manage with almost no effort. I was so gald to see a familiar face and have someone aroud who is so friendly. He greeted each person on the tour individually with their a hug or a handshake and proceeded to escort us into the cosy little chalet where he showed me which rooms we would have.

I took each of the passengers to their rooms, explaining that Nicholai had cooked us breakfast for our arrival and to come down after they had freshened up for something to eat. I allocated myself and Susan, my usual room. It was very unusual to have to share it with someone, as I had never had to before and I resented her being there a bit, because out of all the places on the tour this feels like home and this is my room.

I walked into my room, to be greeted by lovely wooden floor, the two twin beds with blue floral bedspreads and little brown two seater lounge in the corner. The room had a wooden balcony over- looking the lake with two giant satellite dishes on it as well as a table and chairs. I managed to get the first shower, I went into the small bathroom with its heated floor and kitty cat bathmat and noticed that the Australian flag sticker I had left on the mirror was still here from last year.

Of course, this room holds many more memories, that just being my room in the cosy chalet. This is of course the room that I had brought Valera back to last year and it absolutely reaked of those memories. I had already made the decision that I was not going to contact Valera, some things are just best left alone. Of course, I wouldn't have avoided him if I had run into him and this is a small town, but no….I would make no effort to contact him.

After breakfast, which consisted of a boiled sausage and buckwheat, I took the passengers out for a walk. Exactly the same as last year only the one extremely unhelpful tourist information was open and they wouldn't even give the passengers maps!

I showed them the basics in the small town and give them some information about the lake, which to my surprise had a hovercraft whizzing around on the ice.

The owner of the hovercraft must have seen us all staring at it and stopped and came over and offered us a half hour ride for 3000 rubles. Seven of us decided to have a go, we clambered over the giant ice formations on the lake and over the ice and climbed up into the hovercraft which was lovely and warm. I felt the craft rise off the ground and skid off across the ice. We stopped for pictures at the point where the ice had melted and right next to the circum-Baikal railway. Then we climbed back in and took off across the water! Something which I had not expected, I don't know what I expected sink, mean the craft actually sits on a big inner tube.

On the way back to Listvyanka, the driver sent the craft into spins and fishtails, which made everyone laugh. Our half hour was up and we clambered out of the craft and back across the ice. I then decided to go back to the chalet for a rest and to catch up on some paperwork.

At about 5pm I decided I was hungry and hadn't eaten since breakfast, so I trooped off down the hill to my favourite café….in which all the passengers we sitting having dinner on my recommendation…..its not the best café and its pretty much the best of a lot of bad options. It was also the place in which Valera basically tumbled into my life last year…why I would run into him in exactly the same way, I have no idea. We all stayed in the café until it was time for them to close and then walked back to the chalet in the freezing Siberian cold and wind.