The temperature when we arrived in Irkutsk was a balmy -13, we were greeted by Costa, walked through the station and got into a waiting minibus with destination Listvyanka on the banks of Lake Baikal. A journey of some 90 minutes leading to many of the group making up lost sleep by having a snooze on the way.

As we arrived we could see the lake - it's amazing to think that such a big lake (636 km long, 70 odd km wide and a mile deep) could be frozen solid! Apparently it contains 1/5th of all the world's surface freshwater which gives some idea of its size.

Once at the chalet-style hostel we were allocated our rooms and given an hour and a half to freshen up! It was nice to be in our first private room together having had to share our space with others both in Moscow and on the train. After a well deserved shower each, we were ready to meet and go into the village to get some lunch. Lunch for me was Solyanka soup (meaty soup with a drop of mayonnaise) and a chicken and mushroom pie, so much nicer than Greggs or Ginsters! Kirsty opted for the chicken noodle soup together with two huge pasties (filled with mashed potato). She couldn't eat both so I had to help!

Once everyone was fed and watered we layered up again to brave the cold and stepped onto the frozen lake for the first time. So surreal as snow crunched under our feet to think that for 6 months of the year (June - December) what we were walking on was a fresh water lake. Especially when a couple of cars whooshed by atop the lake and a hovercrafted floated by! There were patches where there was no snow and it was possible to get an idea of how thick (very!) the ice was. No way this could come out in a photograph!

After a while we were all suitably windswept and we returned to the road and a market full of local souvenirs and food. We then plodded up a hill for a very long, drawn out stroll in the snow to a vantage point at an observatory. According to Costa the observatory is used to take pictures of the sun but all we really cared about were the views we had of the lake from up there. Again the photos don't do justice to the beautiful sight before us. Amazing!

For Costa returning the way we came was too boring so we opted for a more cross-country route where the snow was knee-deep in places leading to a lot of stumbling and falling for a lot of the group. Fortunately the landing was relatively soft!

After finding yet more vantage points of the lake and walking along the shoreline, we returned to the chalet, via the supermarket. Next on the agenda was a group sauna which started off perfectly normal until Costa decided he wanted to raise the temperature (literally) to nearly 100 degrees celsius. Once we'd endured this for a while, we were then split into two groups (male and female) and the males were subjected to getting naked together and being hit with birch branches by a naked Costa in some sort of massage/treatment in the sauna before exiting the sauna and being "refreshed" with ice cold water being thrown over us and a rest outside in the cold wearing just a towel! Very bizarre, very Russian! I understand the females were subjected to the same treatment just with neither them nor Costa being naked.

This left us all very chilled out and ready for our cooked dinner of salad (with mayo), beef patty (at least I think it was beef...) and rice with tea and wafer biscuit for afters. All very tasty and a very satisfying end to a great day.

After a very solid sleep we all met at 10am for a communal breakfast in the hostel of omelette and tea. We were then told that we would be meeting at 1 to leave to the dog sledding and the rest of the morning was free. This time was spent chatting with the others and reading. Kirsty even went back to bed!

At 1pm we met up and wandered down the hill into the village and towards the cafe to get some supplies of pie to keep us going during the afternoon activities. We opted for the mashed potato pasties, hearty and filling! From the cafe we headed to the snowmobile place. On the way we had to cross a bridge over a small stream where some workmen were digging a trench to help channel away the snow when it had melted. They clearly had had some problems previously because on the bridge and just before there was a huge expanse of ice which proved incredibly treacherous to walk across.

Once at the snowmobiles four of the group jumped on and zoomed off up the road following their instructor while the rest of us went on towards the dogsledding place. The businesses in Russia don't seem to go in for a lot of advertising from the street, they just look like normal houses and without our local guide we would never have been able to find anything! Having said that the dogsledding place was easy to find due to seeing the sledges and hearing the dogs!!

Once there and after a quick snack pie it was time to begin. Each sled was built for one person to sit and one to stand with seven huskies to pull. We had the choice of standing at the back and steering or sitting in the sled and enjoying the ride. Our Russian driver would take the place we didn't opt for. Obviously being on holiday I decided to sit and enjoy the ride, driving seemed too much like hard work! It was such good fun, if a little juddery and the 5 kilometres was over in a blink of an eye. When we were done, we wanted to go again! A huge thanks to Jess for her wedding gift contribution for us to do this!

When we'd all been, we wandered back to the hostel for a freshen up before going out for a pork kebab cooked over hot coals. On the way back from the dogs we had stopped at the supermarket for supplies and when we returned from dinner, we cracked open a bottle or two and whiled the night away chatting.

The following day was the last day in the hostel and at Lake Baikal in general and the first time we had seen any significant snowfall. We all met up for breakfast at 10 as per the day before, this time for fried eggs and a blini or two. After stuffing our faces(!), those going skiing and snowboarding disappeared to get ready and met up at 11 for their taxi to the piste.

For the four of us remaining we met up at our agreed time of 1 and with our bags packed and stored and keys returned we headed to the seal centre to watch a couple of captive Baikal seals. The experience was a little awkward on two levels. Firstly the audience consisted of only the four of us and the trainer spent the whole 30mins talking in Russian. If he was expecting any audience participation he was sorely disappointed. Secondly I wasn't sure about seeing seals performing to earn some food. Admittedly the tricks they were performing were very impressive. Seal versions of dancing, playing football, basketball and playing instruments were all very good but you got the sense they were being kept hungry just to perform. I know from the chat immediately afterwards the others felt equally ambivalent.

With it being another few hours before the others returned, we went for one last time to the pie shop for chicken pie and a coffee. And there ensued a long discussion regarding the benefit system and the various differences between the Australian government and the British one.

After we'd put the world to rights it was time to brave the falling snow and biting cold wind and go back to the hostel. We'd been back a matter of minutes before the others returned and the long wait began for the bus.

At 6pm the bus returned to ferry us back to Irkutsk stopping on the way to stock up on goodies for the train, enjoy dinner at Papa John's (pizza!), collection of our registration documents before finally arriving with twenty minutes to spare at the railway station. When we were safely boarded it was a quick but heartfelt goodbye to our honcho, Costa, who we'd tipped (deservedly) earlier in the day.

After a reasonable night's sleep we awoke on the train thundering to the border. I joke - the train travelled very slowly and stopped often (frequently for only a few minutes at a time) in complete contrast to the Moscow - Irkutsk leg. Also in complete contrast was the scenery, passing by our windows during this time: hills, meadows, trees, rivers and no snow!

At just before 2pm we arrived at the border town of Naushki. We were told we needed to be back on board at 4 for customs but otherwise were free to explore. We duly left the train but learned very quickly that like most border posts, Naushki is a very quiet, dusty place with only a couple of shops and not a lot else. I used some of the Russian learned in the past few days to buy some chocolate and some water before we wandered back and sat in the waiting room to wait until 4. We were unable to get back in the carriage as they were de-coupling and shunting it around ready to connect with another locomotive. Fortunately at about ten past three we were able to get back in and the really long wait began.

Russian customs were first on board, however they weren't interested in us. They were quickly followed by passport control represented by a young but very stern lady who inspected our passports closely and got us to stand up one by one so she could check us against our passport photos. Once satisfied, our passports were taken the train (we were warned this was normal practice) and we had to wait 45 minutes for her return with our passports suitably stamped with an exit stamp. During this time a sniffer dog was used and our cabins quickly searched.

A slow trundle through the 21km stretch of no man's land followed before a similar process started for entering Mongolia. Across no man's land we completed a customs declaration form and an arrival card for Mongolia which was duly stamped by Mongolian officials. The boss of customs immediately befriended our compartment and took the opportunity to practise his English. So the slightly surreal situation developed where he was sitting down with us asking us questions about english words while passport control and his staff worked around us. Once again our passports were checked and stamped, this time with entry stamps.

While this was all going on, a fellow traveller was caught with an issue as one of the Mongolian sniffer dogs had taken a liking to her anti-malarials and she had no prescription to explain what the pills were. Luckily the situation was resolved satisfactorily for all concerned though. There were also money changers boarding the train allowing us to all exchange our Russian roubles into Mongolian Tugriks.

And still the custom official sat with us practising his English pronounciation!

Amid all this chaos the hot water urn (one at the end of each carriage) had stopped working meaning we were unable to prepare our noodles for dinner. Leading to a couple of hungry Hanes'!!

Finally at 9pm we set off (after the customs official had left our compartment, decided to return and offer us the chance of a photo with him in his hat - which we gladly accepted!!), the hot water urn was back on, the toilets were unlocked and everything returned to normality.

And spirits were understandably higher. Seven hours in total waiting on a train to pass over the border can test anyone's patience!

Our first land border of the trip negotiated, we looked forward to finding out all about country number 2!