Test drive Kia Sportage on Lake Baikal

Shamans, totem poles, rusty barges and a circus tent - the Baikal reality hits the millennial hovering in digital clouds in the stomach. It's hard to catch your breath, it's impossible to forget what you saw

Olkhon is the largest and only inhabited island of Lake Baikal. The fastest way to get there from Irkutsk is by air. It takes only an hour to fly. But you can't load a crossover into a small An-28, so our path leads to a ferry crossing. It is about 130 kilometers to Bayandai and about the same to Sakhyurta.

The road is of quite decent quality at first does not seem scenic. In addition to the steppe expanses and unusual Buryat place names, the driver is entertained only by lingering slides. The revised Kia Sportage's 2-liter petrol engine is not happy about the climbs, however. In top gear, the car does not keep the 90 km per hour set by the cruise control.

The lack of strength is also felt when overtaking on straight lines. It is useless to press the gas into the floor, you can confidently accelerate only by switching to the third. Fortunately, the engine, spun to its maximum speed, does not torment with noise. But the modification with a 2,4 liter engine is noticeably livelier, and even the slight sluggishness of the automatic transmission hardly spoils the overall pleasant impression of a more powerful car.

Sales of the updated Korean crossover in Russia began last summer. The car has improved noise insulation, finalized the suspension, and a 2,4-liter unit with a capacity of 184 horsepower was added to the line of engines. Now, the 2020 model year modifications have received a few more changes.

First, due to low demand, the diesel version was deleted from the price list. Secondly, in the Comfort, Luxe, Prestige and GT Line trim levels they added cruise control with a speed limiter, and in the Premium package they also added a traffic sign recognition system. There is a new Luxe + trim with full LED headlights and a keyless entry system.

This is the main novelty of the lineup, which can be considered optimal in many respects. The fabric upholstery looks decent, the Apple Carplay and Android Auto services present in the infotainment system allow you to fully use the navigator of your own smartphone. The touchscreen 7-inch screen is very convenient for working with maps and a media player. And for the "metallic", including the popular Fusion Orange, you will not have to pay extra.

The Orange Sportage isn't the only highlight in these areas. Closer to the lake, gray-brown colors are replaced by greens and bright yellowness of the autumn taiga. And for the last kilometers, a two-lane winds between rocky hills and the still lush green meadows of the Primorsky ridge. Completing the "alpine" idyllic picture of a herd of plump and incredibly clean cows. The highway eventually hits a newly built asphalt loading dock, but a barrier blocks the passage.

The cars waiting for the ferry line up side by side on a dirt patch, as if trying on what a motorist-traveler will have to deal with on Olkhon. There are no paved roads on the island, and they are unlikely to appear soon. The status of a nature reserve imposes a ban on any construction, even on the construction of a sanitary facility for a private hotel.

In the summer, at the height of the season, waiting for the crossing can take up to three hours. But in the middle of September we jump onto the vessel on the move. Transportation is free. In 20 minutes the cars drive down to the Olkhon coast, and groups of tourists are packed into monotonous gray passenger “UAZs”. The locals have practically no other cars. For the islanders "Loaf" is both an irreplaceable assistant in the household and a means of earning money.

The nature of Olkhon, stretching for more than 100 km, is diverse. The northeast is bristling with rugged taiga. The southwestern edge, close to the crossing, is bald, like the Mongolian steppe. The Baikal wind ruffles clothes and burns the cheeks, but at this time of the year it is not yet gaining its full strength. The palette of colors is not the richest, but at least fill up with air and space. There is as much water as there is sky. Blueness from edge to edge.

For a lightweight chassis, Olkhon primers are another challenge. The clearance of the Kia Sportage in most cases is enough, the electronics help a lot on steep descents, but you can protect yourself from breakdowns of the short-stroke suspension on bumps and strong body swing on a long wave, only moving at a speed of no more than 30 km per hour. But on a flat gravel road Kia rolls comfortably, even if it accelerates under a hundred.

The main village of the island - Khuzhira - has an amazing history. The area near the Shamanka rock has been considered sacred and forbidden for the Buryats since ancient times. Shamans who performed rituals at Cape Burkhan even wrapped felt around the hooves of their horses so that they would not disturb the peace of the local spirits. But for the newly-born Soviet regime, such rituals were alien and hostile. A fish factory and barracks for settlers were built near the sacred place in the 30s of the last century.

At first, volunteers fished in the artels, and a little later - exiled Lithuanians. The latter may have been helped to survive by the pine-covered dunes of the Sarai Bay, so similar to their native Baltic dunes. Be that as it may, after the death of the leader of the peoples, the Lithuanians returned to their homes, and in the 90s, simultaneously with the collapse of the Soviet Union, the plant itself was closed. Literally this winter, the buildings of the former enterprise burned down. From material memories of him, only a rusty barge half-sunk by the pier and several boats pulled ashore and painted with graffiti remained.

The plant was gone, shamans returned to Cape Burkhan with their rituals, but there was no mass exodus of people from Khuzhir. Someone began to catch and sell omul privately. Others began to build guest houses, took up the cabs. Last year, a businessman even decided to open a circus tent in the village. Business, they say, did not go well, but the colorful tent stands. All for the sake of tourists, the number of which has only been growing lately.

Burkhan is a sacred place for shamanists and Buddhists. The Olkhon place of power attracts pilgrims from all over the world, and for the Chinese and Koreans it is considered almost a must-see. Our Sportage, albeit a Kaliningrad assembly, is also Korean, and therefore the Buddha himself ordered him to be near the Shamanka rock.

Olkhonsky District is not only an island. Of the four dozen settlements located on the mainland, not every one is interesting, but it's worth a look at Buguldeika. The village, which appeared at the beginning of the 1983th century at the mouth of the river of the same name, lies between the hills and goes straight to the shore of Lake Baikal. This incredibly beautiful place is known for the strongest winds on the lake. In early August XNUMX, near Cape Krasny Yar, a storm capsized the motor ship "Akademik Shokalsky". Not far from the coast, right in front of witnesses, the ship sank. Neither the ship nor the seven members of its crew have yet been found.

Another unique object is located on the pass over Buguldeika. One of the two Russian deposits of the purest calcite marble was discovered by Soviet geologists in the 70s of the last century and could still feed the entire population of the region. But a few years ago, the development ended.

Due to the mistakes of miners, microcracks formed in the layers of the mineral, making it unsuitable for industrial use. Now the quarry is on conservation, but anyone can walk among the huge white sugar lumps. The pictures of the car here are doubly spectacular, although not everyone dares to drive up to the very edge of one of the snow-white rocks.

A type	Universal	Universal	Universal
Dimensions (length, width, height), mm	4485/1855/1645	4485/1855/1645	4485/1855/1645
Wheelbase, mm	2670	2670	2670
Ground clearance, mm	182	182	182
Cargo space, l	491	491	491
Curb weight, kg	1572	1596	1620
engine's type	Petrol, R4	Petrol, R4	Petrol, R4
Working volume, cubic meters cm	1999	1999	2359
Max. power, l. with. (at rpm)	150 / 6200	150 / 6200	184 / 6000
Max. cool. moment, Nm (at rpm)	192 / 4000	192 / 4000	237 / 4000
Drive type, transmission	Full, 6-st. AKP	Full, 6-st. AKP	Full, 6-st. AKP
Acceleration from 0 to 100 km / h, s	11,1	11,6	9,6
Max. speed km / h	184	180	185
Fuel consumption (mixed cycle), l per 100 km	8,2	8,3	8,7
Price, $.	20 564	22 202	24 298