They argued that it’s perfectly normal to have a rest after such a hard work and that they have a right for it. Frozen nose took their side by snorting loudly. Then the Mrs. Strong Will took word and had its say. She did a great job explaining to the muscles that this is what they had been trained for, because of this they’d spent the previous year running and working out every day. Mrs. Will didn’t forget to highlight that the muscles should obey as they owe it to Pavel and Vasek - only thanks to them they haven’t turned to fat yet :-) It was a powerful speech she gave and so the muscles agreed at last that they will stick by Pavel’s and Vasek’s side till the end. In return, they were promised 48 hours of pure resting after the northern side of the lake is reached - that’s how long we will spend on train going back to Irkutsk.
Then we needed to discuss carefully what we’re going to do in the next few days. As there’re so many things to do and we’ll be very busy, we better put it down so we don’t forget anything. It goes like this:
Wednesday - Get up! Pack the tent and stuff and then walk North for some 10 hours (till the sunset), pull your sleds behind you. Set up the tent.
Thursday - Get up!! Pack the tent and stuff and then walk North for some 10 hours (till the sunset), pull your sleds behind you. Set up the tent.
Friday - Get up!!! Pack the tent and stuff and then walk North for some 10 hours (till the sunset), pull your sleds behind you. Set up the tent.
Saturday - Get u... I guess, you got the idea :-)
After the meeting, we packed our things and set out for another day. We walked along the Olchon’s shore heading towards its easternmost headland. We didn’t plan to do any sightseeing there so we didn’t try to get any closer to the shore. Even if we did, we probably wouldn’t be able to for it was such a mess along the shore! Huge piles of ice laid all over. Only after some 50 m (ft) inward there was a surface which enabled walking. What a beautiful scenery it was - the huge glass-like blocks of ice glittering in the noon sun! Like Japanese tourists we both pulled out our cameras and video cameras at once and recorded it all for you. We wanted to eat one of our afternoon snacks in a better way than we usually do - so we chose a flat block of ice and use it as a table using the sleds as comfy sofas. We didn’t even had time to pour the tea when we heard a set of very loud rumbles. It went on for 2 minutes and we saw the ice moving with us standing on it - it was not shaking, it was moving... Then suddenly it was all quite and peaceful again and we wondered whether it actually happened. Well, apparently it did happen as we found ourselves several inches away from the spot we were standing before it started! It’s probably how Olchon says its goodbye - from now on, we’ll be only moving further and further away from it.
Soon we could wee the snow covered hills of the Holy Nose Island on the right side. The terrain got very difficult by this time and we moved on only very slowly. We walked from fields of deep snow to fields of rubbled ice and toroses. My sled got stuck as I was walking through the mess and as I tried to pull it out, one of the clasps which hold the bag in my sled cracked - at least I have something to do in the evening (we have many extra clasps with us but I’ll have to sew it to the belt...bumper!) The suns was setting on the horizon as we set up our tent. We left the Olchon Island behind us but we can still see its coastline - after a very long time we see again a tiny shining window of a lonely hut on the shore. We don’t have the lake just for ourselves tonight...
Vasek
