Day 1
You’ll be met at the airport by your guide and get assistance with the baggage claim. Individual transfer (by minivan/minibus) to the center of Irkutsk. Enjoy breakfast in the restaurant.
After breakfast we set off for Lake Baikal! We’re going to the Maloye More Strait (it is about 250 km away from Irkutsk, time spent travelling is 4 hours). The cruise ship will wait for you there. Let’s start our Baikal journey! The Maloye More is a strait separating Olkhon Island from the land.
Today you’ll walk along the coasts of Olkhon Island, see Ogoy Island where the Buddhist Suburga (the Enlightenment Stupa) is situated. You’ll see famous Burkhan Cape – the hallmark of Lake Baikal. In the evening the motorboat will stop over in one of the sandy bays of Olkhon Island. If you wish so, the ship’s cook will prepare shish-kebab on the shore. A campfire and a starry night are the best ending of the first day of the cruise!
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Day 2
Early in the morning the captain will navigate the ship further to the north – to Zavorotnaya Bay (time spent travelling is 10 hours, estimated time of arrival is 16:00). There is excellent fishing for Baikal grayling in Zavorotnaya Bay! What is more, the bay itself is absolutely picturesque, a narrow rocky spit separates it from Baikal, and the coast is covered with thick Siberian dwarf pine forest. Zavorotnaya Bay is famous for the micro quartzite deposit – the high toughness material used for mirror-like polishing the metal, but since 1993 micro quartzite mining has been stopped here. You can take a walk to the open-cut; it will take you about 2 hours to get there.
In the evening you can try Russian banya directly on the Baikal shore.
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Day 3
Early in the morning the captain will navigate the ship further to the north – to Kotelnikovsky Cape (time spent travelling is 9 hours, estimated time of arrival is 15:00). Kotelnikovsky Cape is famous for its hot springs (the temperature of the water reaches 81 ° C. In the swimming pools it is blended with the Baikal water, and the temperature of this mixture reaches 35 °C).
This is a real oasis of civilization in the pristine wilderness of Baikal. The mineral content of the springs makes it possible to bathe without limitation!
If you wish so, you can take a walk, accompanied by the guide, to the picturesque Kurkula mountain river gorge and fish for Baikal grayling and Baikal whitefish.
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Day 4
Passage to Ludar Cape (time spent travelling is 3 hours).
Ludar, a small mountain stepping down to Baikal, is a real museum of antiquities! Its name comes from Evenki word for “to cut into”.
There is a cave where the fired clay pottery chipping used by qurykans (the people inhabiting the Baikal shores long before Buryat people came here) has been found. Not far from the cave, the New Stone Age encampment, which is, according to the scientists, some 6000 years old, has been discovered. But the most interesting sight at Ludar Cape is stone defended settlements. They are located on the cape’s summit and were discovered back in 1901. According to local legendry, the defended settlements are what remained of an ancient Mongolian fortress. You can see two petroglyphs on the rock under one of these defended settlements. One of them was drawn with sienna in the Bronze Age; the other belongs to the Qurykans epoch.
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Day 5
Early passage to one of the most beautiful Baikal bays – Aya Bay (the name comes from Buryat word for “beautiful”), which cuts into the land for 4 km, and its beaches are full of wonderful sand (time spent travelling is 6 hours, estimated time of arrival is 12:00).
Aya Bay is the starting point for the 8 km long tourist route leading to the mountain lake Frolikha, famous for its cleanness and beauty. This is one of the wildest places on the northern Baikal. Frolikha was formed in the Ice Age and little has changed there since then. It is still surrounded by the mountains and pristine taiga forest. The beauty of Lake Frolikha is out-of-the-ordinary!
You’ll get a chance to walk along the trail and have a ride across the lake to the waterfall on an inflatable catamaran and have lunch on a picturesque shore. In the evening you’ll return to Aya Bay.
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Day 6
Passage to Khakusy (30 minutes) – a natural resort on the north-east coast. This is a powerful thermal spring discharging from the rock in the thick pine forest which is in 10-minute walk from the Baikal shore. The water is similar to the North Caucasian springs in content; it is sodium hydrocarbonate-sulfate, the water temperature reaches +42+46°C. There is a wooden swimming pool making it possible for people to bathe and a well to take drinking water.
The nature in Khakusy is exceptionally picturesque – sandy beaches are edged by the mountains; rapid rivers, whose shores are covered with light taiga forests, flow into the nooks.
In the evening you’ll return to Aya Bay for an overnight stop.
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Day 7
Early in the morning the captain will navigate the ship further to the south up to Davsha village (120 km, estimated time of arrival is 16:00). The route going along the Eastern coast of the lake is really gorgeous –the branches of the highest mountain ridge of Baikal region and endless taiga forest edge Baikal from the east. “Davshe” is an Evenki word for “meadows”, “wide open space”. The National Park’s Nature Museum and the Central check point of Barguzinsky Nature Reserve established in 1916 to protect the habitat of the Barguzin sable are located here.
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Day 8
Early crossing to Chivirkuysky Bay (time spent travelling is 6 hours, estimated time of arrival is 12:00).
Chivirkuysky Bay is the second largest bay on Baikal and one of the warmest ones (the water temperature reaches +24°C).
Chivirkuysky Bay waters are abundant with coves whose shores are covered with taiga forests and the bay’s bed is thickly covered with waterweed. In good weather one can see every single grass-blade and shoals of fish moving in the vegetation at the bottom. On the bay’s western coast, in Zmeinaya Bay, there is a natural thermal spring, whose water temperature reaches +40 °C.
Swimming in the springs and warm nooks of the bay, taking guided walks along the coast, fishing from the boat for whitefish, grayling, perch and pike.
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Day 9
In the morning there is water crossing to the Ushkan Islands (1 hour).
There is the biggest rookery place of Baikal seals on the Ushkan Islands. Up to several hundreds of Baikal seals can laze in the sun on the coastal stones at the same time!
You’ll take a walk up the hiking trail accompanied by the guide and watch Baikal seals (nerpas) in their natural habitat.
Then there is the next water crossing to the Maloye More Strait (90 km, 8 hours). In the late afternoon you’ll arrive at the starting point of the cruise and stop over in one of the picturesque bays.
In the evening you’ll get a chance to walk along the coast accompanied by your guide; if you wish so, you can try Siberian banya or spend some time by the campfire.
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Day 10
Today you’ll disembark from the motorboat and return to Irkutsk. On your way to Irkutsk you’ll make a stop at the ethnographic park where you’ll be met according to the national traditions and you’ll be offered Buryat and Mongolian cuisine dishes for lunch. In Irkutsk you’ll be accommodated at a comfortable hotel in the city center. If you wish so, you can go on a guided car sightseeing tour around the capital of Eastern Siberia.
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Day 11
Enjoy breakfast in the hotel restaurant.
Hotel – airport transfer.
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