Some of our party swam in the Lake which is apparently 1400 ft deep and is so blue because of alkalinity. A local saw a sea snake so there was no way I was going to go in.
Van is home to the swimming cats but we didn’t see any except for the very large statue of 2 Van cats as we headed into town.
We set off in convoy but soon realized that we still had a heating problem. As the others went on we borrowed Conrad’s larger jack & went back to the hotel carpark.
As Phil went to work on the radiator (over the rough roads the radiator had jarred against the frame causing a hole), I kept the locals at bay, particularly the young boys who wanted to ask questions.
Having fixed the radiator, with some epoxy plasticine we then set about washing a very dirty Morgan (with hindsight a wasted task!). One of the hotel staff brought out towel pieces and a bucket & surgical gloves. Looking very spotless we then set off for the border.
At the Turkey border, we had first to find the police to stamp our passports. Having read every page in my passport he then wanted to see Phil in person. Passed that stage & through to Iran. A quick manoeuvre to get on the compulsory headscarf and after what seemed like ages, we had our passports back. Not so easy with the Carnet obtained from the RAC in London. The carnet did not have Phil’s middle name so he was over 90 minutes waiting & explaining. Fortunately there were 2 other English speaking Iranians in similar situations so in the end it all got too hard for the authorities and we were on our way.
If we thought the roads in Turkey were bad, they were nothing to what we experienced on our first foray into Iran. Winding, dirt & gravel, single lanes.
It was dark by the time we reached Tabriz . A few kilometres from the city we came across a police check & we were motioned over. The policeman motioned to our headlight. We thought perhaps a blown globe but the light casing itself had fallen out & was hanging by its cables. I was able to pick up the entire casing, light and rim and shine back to Laurette to prove we still had it. Back on again, we drove through the bright lights, all in the colours of Iran, green white & red. Spectacular at night but the traffic was so congested we had no time to admire the views. Arriving at the hotel at 10.30pm we found the restaurant was closed & made do with what we found in the “coffee shop”. Members of our group were downstairs when we arrived and gave us a rousing cheer as they had almost given up hope of us arriving that night. The official Landrover was turned back at the Iran border as it was after closing time when they arrived.
Exchange rate is about 10,000 rials to one US dollar & to confuse matters even more the shopkeepers talk in Tomans (10,000 rials equals 1 Toman).
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