Back to Baikal and Goodbye Russia

While we were still in Irkutsk we visited an open air museum which was like a mini village of preserved wooden architecture (think the Beamish of Siberia), it's really impressive the houses they built and lived in - we also had a play on some stilts (I was much better than Vicky).

With a couple of days left before our train departed we decided we wanted to go back to the lake, so we got up early morning and jumped on a rickety old minibus for a 6 hour drive to Olkhon Island. The drive itself was an experience, with the road quality varying as much as the scenery. We even had to stop at one point to change the wheel (on the way back we had to give the bus a push start).

The island itself is stunning, there is a main town/village made up of wooden buildings with wide dusty road and cows just wandering around. Away from the town there are cliffs and sandy beaches around the coast - we were really lucky with the weather so explored a bit and chilled out on the beach and swam in the lake -still very cold, but nice.

We are now back in Irkutsk awaiting the train to Ulan Bator, we have met a few people going the opposite direction and everyone has loved it, so although we are a little sad to be leaving Russia we are very excited about Mongolia!