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Type: recreation and perception
Region: Baikal
Level of the tour’s complexity: Is acceptable for any adult without serious physical limits. Children under 10 are not allowed. Pedestrian excursions of different levels of complexity (depends on your wishes).
Accommodation: hotel, three meals (a cock), transfer service, ship rent, the guidance, excursions, fees visiting protected areas etc.
Day 1: Departure for Irkutsk with the flight.
Day 2: Arrival in Irkutsk. A short sight-seeing tour round the city. Transfer by a motor transport (about 6 hours with stops) to the island of Olkhon, the largest island of the Pribaikalsky national park.
Two canals, Small Sea and Olkhon’s gate, separate it from the western side of Baikal. It is the last citadel of shamans of Middle Asia. The island of Olkhon used to attract a lot of pilgrims because of its isolated location.
Olkhonisthe geographical, historical and sacramental centre. There are still lots of ancient legends and lore.
Olkhon is the land of the Baikal ghosts. Judging by the legends, the chief khan Khan-Guta-Baba was sent to the earth by the supreme gods. He came down from the sky. His son Shubunkua lives here in the image ofthe white-headed eagle. There is high undiscovered sense in the architecture of the rocky sides and marble rocks covered with bright mosses. The sights of Kurumchin are full of ancient settlements (sanctuaries), semi-destroyed places, and of grown steppe herbs.
We arrive in the settlement of Khuzhir.
Sleeping accommodation at a private hotel (comfortable wooden houses of the local inhabitants).
Day 3: Excursions round the settlement of Khuzhir. A visit to the regional museum and Shaman stone where according to the ancient legendhe supreme shaman, the island’s master, lived. The Shaman Stone has become the lake’s visiting card long ago: no calendar devoted to Baikal without its image. A local guide will tell you surprisingly interesting legends of the Buryats and the history of an island explored by the Russian people. There are lots of natural landscapes around Baikal. Even by their form they remind the Baikal’s outline. It’s a real paradise for photographers and wild nature amateurs. The island strikes with the beauty of its unique nature: mysterious steppes of Tazheran look like the steppes of the Northern Mongolia; mosaic caprices and silhouettes of steep rocks of the Coast ridge covered with virgin taiga; affable beds of small, but heavy rivers with the canyon-like chains, noisy and roaring waterfalls, clear air encouraging the spirit and lone sand bays of warm water. All that for sure is going to leave a print in the soul of those who is fond of nature. Some architectural ensembles of the stone settlements and places of living of the ancient people are surviving in the island. The Olkhon taiga is not similar to our forests of the middle region. There are nosecular giants supporting the sky here. The living forest quickly buries its dead and the severe climate bears only the tightly wretched thicket. But there is such a bright green under your feet that you won’t see anywhere else. The summer is pretty short here, that’s why everything sprouts, blossoms and matures swiftly at the same time. You can pick up wild strawberries the amount of which is uncountable, and also to make yourself a little bunch of lilies of the valley.
Sleeping accommodation is the same as the day before.
Day 4: Transfer to the tract of Uzur. On the route we are going to stop for a 2-3 hour walk round sandy dunes (3 km). The tops of the living pines just come up from these dunes. Tent camp sleeping accommodation.
Day 5: A pedestrian walk to the cape of Khoboy – about 12 km along the path across the Baikal’s picturesque bays. The cape of Khoboy is the island’s most northern point that gives an opportunity to see the both sides of Baikal. Return to Uzur, tent camp sleeping accommodation.
Day 6: Sailing by a small ship type “Yaroslavets” to the reserve of Baikal and Lena. On the route you can admire the magnificent rocks and cliffs on the cost of Baikal. The height level of flora is very well seen here: mountainous tundra and alpine meadows, cedar elfin woods, cedar and cedar and fir forests. We arrive in the cape of Pokoiny – the waterside centre of the preserve area and stay overnight in the tent camp.
Day 7: A reserve area of Baikal and Lena is a 12 km passage along the picturesque track towards the Pokoinitsky pass (height is about 1500 above sea level). When the weather in good, the Holy Cape is seen on the opposite side of Baikal. On the route you can see some cedars at the age of 500 years. You will go down the tundra zone of the preserve area to the cease of the great Siberian river Lena, and you will also see absolutely gorgeous waterfalls. Sleeping accommodation on the lake’s side in the reserve area cordon (3 people in a tent)
Day 8: If the weather is good we shall go to the cape of Rity, a unique part of the preserve, a holy place for the Buriats. Only local men are allowed to enter the area. You will learn the green forest where hasn’t been any fires for more than 300 years; the old dead volcanoes and local stories about UFO are connected with these places. Transfer by ship to the Barguzinsky reserve. Pedestrian walks along the coast of Baikal to the cease of the river Shumilikha. On the sandy beach you can see bear’s footmarks and watch the rare birds entered in the Red Book: fish-hawk and erne. You are going to taste local dishes cooked of grayling and pike. Bathing in Baikal. Tent camp sleeping accommodation and in the cordon of the reserve (a small wooden house stores up to 6 people, outdoor conveniences).
Day 9: A pedestrian walk using the ecopath along the river Shumilikha to the marvellous mountain lake (this route is one of the most vivid for Baikal). Within only one day you can get to know all the natural zones of the Barguzinsky ridge. The sandy and stony beach changes into the cedar bush. The steep slopes of the Baikal coast are covered with mountain taiga (pines, mighty cedars and sweet firs). There are plenty of edible mushrooms and berries. The mountain tops are covered with alpine tundra belts, where you can watch rare animals, black-headed marmots. At the end of the route you will be deafened by the roar of a 40m waterfall. Tent camp sleeping accommodation.
Day 10: A circular pedestrian route to a beautiful mountain lake. On the second half of the day we will go down to the Baikal side. Tent camp sleeping accommodation.
Day 11: A transfer by cutter to the Zabaikalsky national park. Sailing to the famous Ushkanji isles where the largest seal breeding-ground of endemic Baikal is; there are hundreds of the animals get together every summer. You will be amazed by the size of ant hills you’ll see there. Sailing to the peninsula of the Holy Cape. Sleeping accommodation at a floating hotel or a wooden house.
Day 12: Excursions round theZabaikalsky national park. Writers and poets used to call the Zabaikalsky national park “the fairy tale of Chivirkui”, “a pearl in the crown of Baikal”. It’s the most famous attraction which is so close to the lake with its snowy tops of the mountains, fast rivers with their steep banks, alpine tundra and lakes, mysterious Ushkanji isles, seal breeding-grounds and marble rocks. Sandy beaches, dunes, and swamps attract lots of tourists. It’s one of the three largest places for nesting of the Baikal swimming birds. The scientists are surprised with the isthmus flora. Is there any place where cedar elfin woods and cedar pine grow side by side? You can pick up cedar cones on the ground there. Where the alpine cedar elfin wood, steppe stragalus and Popov’s poppy grow on the single glebe? The bird cherry just creeps along the ground. Even an ordinary pine became a bit trailing, and lots of pines and cedars have flag-shaped crowns.
Near the lake of Arangatui you can see a lot woodcocks; bear’s footmarks are often found. There are lots of dace, ide, carp, bass, luce, grayling range in the lake and its bays. You are going to visit the Barmashovy lakes and the lake of Kulichinoe. Eagles-owls used to nest there, and there are also old huge nests of the erne. You can see black-cropped divers there. There is a source of curative mud, so you can take hydrogen sulfide bath. After the bath you can relax on a wonderful sandy beach. A transfer by motor transport to the settlement of Ust-Barguzin. Dinner, bath and sleeping accommodation at the private hotels (good quality houses of the local inhabitants; the owners of these houseswere trained under the bed and breakfast system within the international projects).
Day 13: A transfer by coach to Ulan-Ude, the capital of the Republic of Buryatia (about 5 hours). An excursion to the largest Buddhist temple (Ivolginsky datsan) and the Museum of history of Buryatia. A short sight-seeing excursion round the city. A transfer to Irkutsk by a night train.
Day 14: Early morning arrival in Irkutsk. A trip to the settlement of Listvianka (68 km). You shall visit an architectural and ethnographic complex “Taltsi”. This complex is famous for its unique wooden buildings of the Eastern Siberia (since the 17 century) – from the peasant’s log hut up to the Spassky towerand Kazan chapel of the former Ilym jail. These buildings are made of larch more than 300 years ago without using any nails. You shall also visit a Museum of Baikal (it used to be the Limnological museum) where you will be told about the history of the lake study, its geology, fauna and flora. Free evening. Return to Irkutsk, hotel accommodation (double rooms with conveniences).
Day 15: A transfer to the airport. Departure for Moscow.
The tour price includes air tickets Moscow-Irkutsk-Moscow, transport service on the route, services of an accompanying person, excursion service, cutter travels, and accommodation on the route, guidance, visits to the reserved areas, medical insurance and accident insurance, boarding on the route.
Dates: 19.06, 10.07, 23.07, 07.08, 21.08
There should be minimum 14 peple in a group.
The Moscow program is extra charged (transfer airport-hotel- airport, hotel accommodation 3*** DBL-standard/B & B, excursions round Moscow with a guide – a visit to the Red Square, the Kremlin and its cathedrals, the city sight-seeing tour. |
