Russia. Olkhon - May

It is my 3rd or 4th trip to Baikal. But it was the first time I arrived in Olkhon by airplane! Olkhon is the main island with a couple of villages and main touristic spots. This time we came only for a weekend. It was an excellent addition to our trip to Buryatia.

In Ulan-Ude and Irkutsk, you can hop on a small plane by the Sila company (which means "strength" in Russian) for a price cheaper than a bus!

We fly on an L-410 airplane, which fits around 19 people. The flight from Ulan-Ude takes less than 1 hour. It flies low so that you can see the mountains and the lake. Read to the end! There will be a video of taking off from the island!

The runway is located in the small village of Kharantsy, which is 5km from the main settlement of Khuzhir. No public transport exists, so feel free to talk with other passengers about cooperating to get a taxi. Also, the road is quite good and empty, so walking is also an option.

The airport:

We wanted to stay in the same village as the airport, but there was no cell phone coverage necessary for us to do some work that day. So, we decided to move to the main settlement Khuzhir. That’s where we lived:

On the next day, we headed on foot to lake Khankhoi, which is 17km far from Kharantsy. That's how our route looked like:

Animals:

Lake Khankhoi is separated from Baikal by a narrow strip. That's the best photo I have:

That day we have passed 25km:

On the next day, we walked back to the airport, and a local picked us up halfway. This is what it looked like:

We had some time before the flight, so we went for a walk. The vast expanses of frozen Baikal are just amazing:

And that’s the promised take-off from Olkhon:

And bypass over the Shamanka rock and Khuzir: