From Russia with Love: Camping in Siberia – The Magic of Lake Baikal and Olkhon Island

From Russia with Love: Camping in Siberia – The Magic of Lake Baikal and Olkhon Island

When I thought of Siberia, I remembered concentration camps, snowy winters and lots of unhappy Russians. Never once I imagined sandy beaches, scorching summers, and a load of happy tourists at Baikal, the oldest and deepest lake in the world.

I usually preferred a more authentic, off-tourist destination. However, I can’t recommend enough the tourist-trap Olkhon Island, the largest island in the middle of Baikal, a popular base for travelers to get lost in the tranquility and wide-open space.

Camping wasn’t part of my travel plan in Russia, let alone in Siberia. I didn’t carry any camping equipment except for a light summer sleeping bag. A series of chance encounters changed all that. In Irkutsk, I met Carla, a Canadian backpacker at a hostel I wasn’t supposed to stay. One girl took me there seeing me standing in front of an apartment building ringing the doorbell and helped me calling the owner. Couldn’t reach anyone, she told me to go to the guesthouse where she stayed. I was eating my lunch in the kitchen when Carla showed up. After an hour chit-chat, she invited me to her camping trip with a local Russian teenager she met two days before at the train station. Julia wasn’t traveling. She lived in Irkutsk and followed her mom to pick up a guest at the train station. That how Carla and Julia first met. Then came Roberto, the super-smooth-every-happy Panamanian teenager who came to our hostel to arrange transportation to Olkhon island. I heard Roberto’s talking non-stop with Carla in the kitchen and laughed after every sentence. They were so loud; I had to come to the kitchen to see what was going on. Roberto sweet-talked me to exchange his Mongolian money for Russian rubles as he sweet-talked everything else to everybody he met in his life. Then came Rick from Singapore. Rick and Roberto sort of ran into each other again and again from Beijing to Irkutsk in the same cities, at the same hostels although they never made a plan to do so.

So I set out on one of the most anticipating legs of my long-term vagabonding with four complete strangers who were also strangers to one another.

(Also check out my article to know how to plan and travel the Trans Siberian Railway.)

5-day Camping at Olkhon Island

Day 1: Irkutsk to Olkhon Island

We left Irkutsk in the morning and get to the Khuzhir in the afternoon.

On the ferry at Irkutsk heading to Olkhon Island

Want to disturb the serenity of this island

The bus dropped us at Nikita guesthouse. We walked to Sharman rock, a very spiritual place for shamanism.

A Sharman performed a ritual.

Carla, Yulia and I hiked around the island.

In reality, I walked around the island for at least an hour carrying this heavy load like a bag lady with a Christmas tree behind my back with so many colorful things sticking out.

Evening 1: Camp at the beach near Sharman rock

Rick washing vegetables to prepare dinner

Rick cooking the beans for dinner

Carla and Yulia got some smoked fish, and we are all eating them.

Rick taking water for our daily chores: brushing teeth and washing hands.

Our water system at Lake Baikal. Very simple yet effective invention. This saves you a lot of time having to walk to the lake every time you need water.

Someone was driving an ATV and passed by our camp.

More Olkhon photos from day 1

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Day 2: Tour to Cape Khoboi

We took a tour organized by Nikita guesthouse to Cape Khobol. It was a good tour. The driver stopped at various places and told the stories behind the places. He only spoke Russian, but we had Julia who translated everything for us.

Our first stop was at a former gulag during communism where they imprisoned political exiles here. It wasn’t so bad being a prisoner in such gorgeous nature.

The water is quite cold, but I guess Russians are tough.

We stopped again at a place where you can do  horse-riding.

We arrived the rock formation called the Window

We had fish soup for lunch.

Driving back to Khuzhir. Roberto and Rick returned with the minivan to the village as they needed to catch a train from Irkutsk to continue their Trans-Siberian journey, heading westward. Rick, Roberto, and Carla started from Mongolia, so after Irkutsk, they’ll continue their journey in Russia. I started from the European Russia so after Irkutsk, I’ll make my way south to Mongolia.

Our minivan broke down on the way, and our driver is trying to fix it.

Carla, Julia and I got off the minivan about half-way to the village and found our way to Julia’s private beach, a camp spot she and her mom stayed last week.

I still have so much crap on me after offloading more than half of my stuff at the village.

Evening 2: Finding Julia’s ‘private’ beach

Julia refused to tell me the location of this remote place so I can blab about it on my blog. She feared it would be popular with tourists, thus in the future her family wouldn’t have their own private place anymore. Sorry, you will have to find this place by yourself.

We pitched our tent here and had this view to ourselves.

There was still some light, so we charged our phones from Carla’s a solar panel and our made-shift “charging station.”

We did a small hike to the nearest peak. Yulia was familiar with the area as you can see. She climbed to the top with ease.

We arrived at the peak.

Catching the sunset

More Olkhon photos from day 2

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Day 3: Hiking back to Khuzhir

We started hiking back to Khuzhir. The first leg took about 5-6 hours.

We stopped to have lunch.

Evening 3: Camp at the beach facing the Crocodile and Lion rocks.

We chose a very bad part, near the end where the water was dirty and the grass was full of cow manure. Carla wanted to move camp, but Julia was so tired from the hike and I didn’t really care so we voted to stay where we were.

The girls were having their morning ritual.

More Olkhon photos from day 3

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Day 4: Unexpected invitation to a Russian summer camp

Our camp spot was full of cow manure because it was next to the main path for vehicles, bicycles and of course animals. Look how ugly the scene around our camp. That was an iron bar you see in the photos.

Sometimes the road to delight was paved with cow shit. Because we chose to stay here instead of moving to a cleaner pasture, we met a group of teenagers who drove their bike down the path and hung out near our tent while waiting for another group of people canoeing on the lake. Two teenagers started to talk with us, asking a lot of questions about where we came from. I noticed that young Russians were fascinated by the West, especially the US. We told them that we were moving camp, and they invited us to their camp site, a summer program for youth from all over Russia.

They group exchanged their bikes and canoes, and two other boys escorted us back to the camp. So a bunch of teenagers invited strangers to the camp without even considering if their teachers and parents would agree to it. I was truly surprised as I didn’t expect this much hospitality from Russians, not least teenagers. This would not happen in Western society or even an Eastern European country like the Czech Republic. These days, young people are wired to technology, gadgets, social media; they lack complete interests in people.

Two boys escorted us to the camp.

Of course, we were invited to dinner.

While the girls were doing girly stuff like cutting and cooking, boys were doing boy work, stacking up woods to prepare the fire.

After dinner, we joined the teens for a football match.

We walk to the football field.

Team Sparta Siberia vs. Rubin Russia

Football can’t beat the sunset. We abandoned the football match to watch the sunset.

Evening: 4: Russian summer camp

We spent the night at the camp, had dinner, and listened to music.

We set our tent near the summer camp

More photos of the summer camp

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Day 5: Leaving Khuzhir

This young gentleman who first met us and invited us to the camp had a crush on Julia. He followed her all day and did every for her.

I had lunch at Nikita homestead, a favorite hangout for tourists and backpackers. This is the one place you need to book well in advance especially in the summer. But if you don’t stay there, you can always come, hang out with other travelers.

In the afternoon, I boarded the ferry crossing to the other side of the lake to Ust-Barguzin.

Are you planning your Trans-Siberian trip soon or interested in knowing more about it? Check out my article on “How to plan and travel the Trans-Siberian Railway.“