BAIKAL AND BURYATIA. SUMMER.

Route: Ulan-Ude city – Ivolginskyi dacan temple – Tarbagatai village - Slyudyanka town – All-round Baikal railway – Listvyanka village – Maloe sea (Tazheranskaya steppe) – Olhon island – Irkutsk city.
Route type: Excursion, hiking, auto, tourist train.
Distance: 890 km by auto, 90 km by tourist train.
Difficulty: 
Time of the year: May - September
Duration: 9 days/8 nights
Date of the groups you can join: by request. Tour must start on Monday or Thursday due to tourist train timetable.

      This is the most informational tour. Travel starts in the capital of Buryatia – Ulan-Ude city and finishes on the opposite shore of the lake – Olhon Island. Buryatia is beautiful, original and distinctive. 60 percent of Baikal shore is located on its territory. This multi-nation republic is distinguished for tolerance and respect of nations living near each other. The different religions and confessions, such as ancient shamanism, budhism and orthodox including ancient orthodoxy, are adjoining in harmony. The Traditional Buddhist’s Sangha of Russia called Buddhist institute of Dashi Choinhorlin is located in Buryatia.

PROGRAM 1st day: Arriving to Ulan-Ude city. Meeting. Accomodation in the hotel. Travel to Russian Buddhist center - Ivolginskyi Dacan. Lunch on the way (national Buryat cuisine). Visiting old-belief village Tarbagatai. Folk group meet us at Omulyovaya (omul) mountain. Visiting old-belief farmstead. Excursion to the Center of domestic culture and folk museum. Visiting exhibition of folk art trades. Tasting traditional domestic cuisine. Coming back to the hotel. Dinner. Free time.     Optional: visting Buryat National Opera and Ballet Theatre. 2d day:     Breakfast. Visiting Historical museum. Traveling to Verhneberezovskyi Dacan temple and open-air Ethnographic Museum. Lunch (national Buryat cuisine). Traveling to Dharmacenter of Ellorempoche. Traveling to SLyudyanka town. Accomodation in the privite hotel. Dinner.   3d day:     Breakfast. Boarding on the tourist train going along Baikal shore by the old all-round Baikal Railway at 10 o'clock. Train arrives at the station Port Baikal in evening. The motor ship there takes passengers to the Listvyanka village. Accomodation in the privite hotel. Dinner.     !!! This railway is a historical monument and architectonic-landscape reserve where 424 engineering constructions were built in the beginning of XX century on the distance of 84 km. Many tunnels, relieving walls and stone galleries are unique and extremely picturesque. This short section has no equal among other Russian railways by the volume of complexity and cost of work. Only tourist trains with soft armchairs and modern tele- and audiosystem go by the railway. The train has a bar. Guide tells about the history of building of all-round Baikal railway during stops in the most interesting and beautiful places. 4th day:     Breakfast. Walking around Listvyanka. Walking excursion to the source of Angara river and Shaman stone, to the air view spot "Cherskiy stone" (rising by lift). Visiting Baikal limnological museum (aquarium with lakes' inhabitants and nerpas, virtual diving at the Baikal floor). Walking along embnkment. Lunch on the way in a cafe. Visiting the fish and souvenir market near the dock. Dinner in the hotel. Free time.       !!! Listvyanka lies along the shore for several kilometers. So tourists can walk more then 10 kilometers around the village without even noticing it. 5th day:       Early breakfast. Transfer from Listvyanka to tourist camp in one of the gulfs of Maloe Sea. (Distance is 290 km, it takes about 6-7 hours to get where with stops for rest and short walks). Lunch on the way. Tazheranskaya steppe begins nearer to central Baikal. Visiting petroglyphs near buryat village Anga. After arriving to the camping and accommodation you will have short excursion to an ancient settlement of Kuerkans, to a settlement of primitive man and take a look at surrounding bays. You also can swim, fish or climb artificial rocks at free time. Dinner. Evening fire

6th day: 
    Breakfast. Traveling along Tazheranskaya steppe to "Mechta" (Dream) cave. Total distance is 20 km. (Transfer by UAZ auto. Coming back by foot. Excort by car during traveling also possible). After cave we will come down to Baikal to make lunch. Shores in this part of the lake are very high. So we will walk one and a half kilometers to a small quit bay "Arso". After rest coming back to the camp along steppe along the steep and abrupt bank. If group is physically strong, we can climb on top of a cult mountain "Tanhan" (970 m total, climbing 500 m), and come down through the larch forest. We can meet fox, musk-deer or wild goat there. Dinner. Evening fire. Tourist sauna at Baikal shore.

7th day:
    Early breakfast. Then we will come by ferry to Olhon island. Going by minibus to Huzhir village (35 km).
In Huzhir accommodation at the tourist base. Lunch. Walking to holy cape Shamanka. It means White Rock. It is "visiting card" of Baikal. There are famous sandy beaches. There is local regional museum with collection of ancient household goods reflecting life and culture of islanders. Dinner.
    Optional: ride bicycles, horses, or take a steam sauna.
 
8th day:
    Breakfast. Jeep-excursion to the north end of Olhon island (about 60 km). Walking in picturesque places: Sagan-Hushin (Three brothers), Peschanaya bay (where GULAG camp was located); tracking to the end of island Hoboi cape. Lunch in the Uzury village. Omul fish-soup. Coming back to the tourist's base. Dinner
    Optional: walking by motor-boat along little islands of Maloe sea.

9th day:
    Breakfast. Leaving the island and coming back to Irkutsk (300 km, lunch in a roadside cafe on your own). If you will have to wait for the ferry on the way, you can visit Sinners' Mountain. Take a stone with you as the legend tells that every stone left there means leaving some sin. The bigger stone the heavier sin. Arriving to the "Baikal-eco" office.
 
 Cost 2009:

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