Today was set to be a bit of a nothing day as we had to complete the six hour slog back to Irkutsk.  Breakfast was a bit more normal - salty rice pudding and a yoghurt and we were picked up by the minibus at around 9.45.  Our Polish friends were journeying home with us.  As soon as we headed from Khuzir to the ferry back to the mainland it started raining - we were glad that we weren’t out and about on the island at the time.  The journey itself was uneventful and we got back to the hostel in Irkutsk at 4ish.

Irkutsk Market

There were a few other sights in Irkutsk that I had been hoping to see, but unfortunately by the time that we had sorted ourselves out and done some shopping it was too late - the sights were all a little bit out of town.  Our plan had been to eat out, as we wanted to eat a local fish delicary called ‘Omul’ which supposedly tastes like a cross between salmon and trout and can only be caught in Lake Baikal.  Unfortunately, as has been the case for most of our time in Russia, the prices we very high and we just couldn’t be sure that the portions would be any good.  Luckily we had discovered the city’s indoor market and we were therefore able to pick some fresh Omul up which we cooked ourselves - it was pretty good actually. We also picked up some supplies for tomorrow’s epic train journey from Irkutsk to Vladivostok and spent the evening cooking, catching up on the blog and sorting out our bags.  As I said, a  bit of a nothing day.