Everyone made it to breakfast on time which was lucky because once again we were treated; Buckwheat porridge, fried eggs, and pancakes which came with what were either cranberries or cowberries. We couldn’t decide.
The local guide informed us that not only were those berries picked from the forest on Olkhon Island, they were traditionally used by the Shamans as medicine. If they’re cranberries that probably has something to do with the amount of Vitamin C therein; if not it must be some kind of Siberian magic. Just the same all the people with a bit of a sniffle or a cold were instructed to eat extra berries.
Also people were a bit worried about their baggage because we’d only taken small backpacks and daypacks with us to Olkhon Island, and the rest of our bags, including some wet washing, had been left in one of the homestay apartments back in Irkutsk. This was intended to be no problem because only Intrepid uses those particular apartments. We even left some of the washing hanging up to dry. Predictably someone else then turned up to use the apartment so our wet clothes and bags and all sorts had to be hurriedly moved. Not many people were happy when we found out that our stuff was going to be stored overnight in one of the vans we’d been driving around in.
In other words they were going to write ‘Jackpot’ on the side of the van in large legible letters.
Everyone piled back in the van looking forward to a restful journey composed of scenery-gazing or sleeping off the late nights playing cards, and for the first part – the trip back to the ferry point – that’s exactly what happened. On the Island side of the ferry point there’s only one possible entrance and it’s chained up. We were all having a bit of a giggle about what we might see when the ferry arrived today, but having been assured there would be no Borgnining of any kind we went to wait in the wind shelter because it really was quite cold, and because the van driver shoo-ed Nat and Ann out of the van when they tried to sit in there for a while. He probably thought they thought the van was going across on the ferry, which it wasn’t.
Anyway the ferry ride was quite straightforward, having no need to get the van on the ferry, until Ann started asking everyone where her backpack was.
Oopsy-daisy.
Cue multiple groans and remarks about ‘Aren’t you the one who always reminds us not to forget stuff’.
As Intrepid Tour leader she has everything majorly important in a handbag kind of thing which never leaves her side, so all she was missing was some dirty laundry, other things like that, and a fake fur seal she had bought on the Island, named Olkhon, and then got upset with the boys over when they took it out smoking and it came back smokey. With Ann being almost allergic to cigarette smoke this could be construed as a problem.
So there we were on the other side of the water, short one group leader’s backpack. Quickly the van driver was called. He’d left slightly before the ferry arrived and therefore could not possibly turn around and come back. No way. Never.
Next step was to call some people at the hostel we stayed at and arrange for them to get the bag off the van when it arrived because that’s where the van was going. That done, the next phone call was to arrange for a Russian guy called Ivan that Ann had met on the island to bring the bag with him when he came through Irkutsk to Ulan Ude. Of course all of this took a while, and eventually the van driver decided it would be time to leave soon, seeing as he must have to get up pretty early to leave Irkutsk, drive 4 hours, and arrive at the ferry point by 10.30.
Turns out it doesn’t take 4 hours to drive back to Irkutsk. Not when your van driver decides to be helpful by driving way too fast, overtaking on the wrong side of the road multiple times. and giving the 13 people in the back of the van a good jolting around.
No. of times the van bottomed out completely: 4.
The fact we somehow survived overtaking over blind ridges with trucks coming: Priceless.
Anyhow… the less said about that van ride the better. It took us 3 hours instead of 4, and I for one would very much have preferred listening to bad Russian techno.
Two other things I remember; Liam asking Dunya to ‘Get the driver to slow down because this is F’#%king ridiculous’, and getting delayed on the way into Irkutsk by (drum roll) a car crash.
We arrived back in Irkutsk happy to be standing on our own feet, and with more free time before the train ride than we thought we would have, and kind of wondering about the bag situation. But there was no time for that; Ann had to sort out with the local guide which tram we would catch and when to the station, and then we all went for pizza in a cheap restaurant across from the stadium on Ulitsa Karl Marx.
Then we split up, with some going to the supermarket, others to the internet cafe, and ourselves back down to the river. On the way we saw (drum roll drum roll) a car crash. Only this time the two drivers were just sitting in their cars, which were stranded in the middle of the intersection, looking at each other.
Meanwhile down the statue of Alexander III we couldn’t work out what the bad Russian Techno music was for until we saw that there was a ring set up and there was some kind of Karate tournament exhibition being staged.
Yes.
Of course.
When the Rocky music started I lost it.
So we sat there on the bench for about an hour giggling at the Karate tournament, and Alice had a great time taking pictures of the exotic local varieties of women’s shoes.
We met up back near the stadium and trammed over to the station, everyone got their bags, possessions, bits, pieces and funny smelling clothes back, and then we waited around in the departure hall for about 45 mins while the Russian cops filtered through the crowd checking, apparently, only the Mongolian-looking people’s Passports. On the train settled into what was a very comfortable carriage and a friendly-looking Provodnitsa after the ‘horrors’ of theTrans-Siberian. If you travel from Irkutsk to Ulan Ude during the day you get a great view of Lake Baikal as the train passes along the south edge of the Lake, but we couldn’t see diddly-squat out the window so we went to bed.
Greg
