Walking on water

...ok so it's frozen 10m deep but still, pretty cool eh!?

So after the dogsledding I slept from 6pm until 9.30am the next morning. It was a good and hefty sleep and much needed as this Russian cold is vicious! I still felt rather weak to be honest, but dosed myself up with as many drugs as I could find so we could go for a hike. Given the blizzardy weather (and illness) it wasn't the massive yomp we were hoping for but it was enjoyable nonetheless. We set off with our picnic on our (George's) back, skidded down the road (literally - it was sheet ice most of the way) and then just carried on walking... onto the lake!! There was a relatively thin layer of snow on top of the solid ice and even a scaredy cat like me wasn't even vaguely frightened of falling through (there were lorries driving on it in places!). We walked pretty slowly as I wasn't very full of energy - but also because there was lots of fun stuff to see and play with - including weird frozen waves and cool bubbles frozen in the ice. Soon after setting off I was pretty ravenous so we had to stop for a lunch-snack.

After our walk Mel was pretty pooped and had a nap.  I went with the rest of the group for a Russian sauna.  This doesn't involve pouring vodka onto hot stones instead of water as I'd expected.  The sauna was attached to another hostel in the village and our group had the run of it.  It was pretty standard a small sweaty room with about 8 tourists in it sweating heavily.  The unique elements were rolling in the snow between blasts (taking care to keep a good grip on your towel) and being lashed by our honcho with pine branches in the sauna.  Apparently both of these things help to open up your pores and make you generally a glowing being.  I think Russians just like to whip tourists.

In the evening the full group met for a tasty dinner at our hostel.  I was hoping they would ship in some colourful locals to entertain us but the closest we got was a concert by Yanni (http://www.yanni.com/index.aspx) on loop on the TV in the dining room.  OK so he's a Greek ex-swimmer who's become a world music superstar but his tache amused me greatly.  Our honcho Costa was quite into him though so I had to watch my words.