What was more, we were soon pulling up netted omul (the local equivalent to trout) by the dozen. "All hungry?" shouted Sergei, cutting open a fish and sprinkling it with salt and pepper I anticipated a fry-up. Wrong! Sergei now threw the fish outside the tent, onto the ice We would eat it raw - frozen solid - with vodka. The Russians called it raskalotka; I called it Siberian ice-cream It was pure bounty, granted by the beneficence of the lake "For raskalotka, the colder the better," cackled Sergei.

His schoolboy eyes refocused on the net, and, with a lump in my throat, I felt that I had glimpsed the true meaning of human resilience. Siberia, even in a winter like this one, would always survive with little heroes like these. The FactsGetting thereJeremy Atiyah flew from Britain to Moscow as a guest of Austrian Airlines (0845 6010948; ). Irkutsk is linked by both the Trans-Siberian railway (88 hours) and direct flights (four hours) to Moscow.

Return flights from Moscow to Irkutsk with Aeroflot (020-7491 1764; ) cost about £120 each way, if booked in the UK, less if booked in Russia. Return air fares from the UK right through to Irkutsk via Moscow usually cost between £450 and £500. Olkhon Island is about 350km (200 miles), and a five-hour drive, north of the city of Irkutsk. There is no regular transport but lifts can be arranged easily to and from the island.