27 and 28 May – Yazd to Mirjaveh (Iran)

A local village with a pigeon cot in the backround

Leaving at 0800 hours we headed towards the Iranian/Pakistan border on route 71 and 84W but with a bush camp on the night of the 27 May. We camped near Tahrood Village (near Bam) after driving around trying to find somewhere to camp. During the day we were told that we had just travelled 11,000 miles since the start of the trip. The road system in the area was quite good with a fair amount of dual carriageway and countless police check points increasing in intensity as we came closer to the border to nearly one every half an hour of travelling.

A local village

Local shops

Modern buildings

The black Iranian desert

The mountains around us

With water plants will grow in the most in-hospitable of places

On the 28th we stopped in Zahedan, supposed to be a lawless and dangerous place, but we had no problem there. Finding food for a lunch was difficult as we could not find a cafe. Most of the group just bought crisps and fruit with drinks. The driver drove us round for ages looking for diesel fuel as the price was quite high being close to the border though black market fuel was available at an exorbitant price. I saw one truck driver part fill the truck tank then fill a five gallon plastic drum kept in the cab before topping off the truck tank. That’s five gallons of diesel for him to sell on the black market.

A mosque in passing

Trucks queing for fuel

Black market fuel outside a filling station

The Iranian guide, Muhammed, left us at a road junction prior to the last police post before the Iran/Pakistan border. His parting comment was that because of the conflict between him and our illustrious leader he wanted to leave in Esfahan but decided to stay with us as he thought that we, the rest of the group, would be the loser as he was able to tell us a lot about his country. We were told that we could expect to camp at the police border post or possibly a secure police compound in the nearby town, Mirjaveh. The police refused permission for us to camp on the side of the road or in any compound in the town. Eventually we were allowed to camp in the grounds of a ‘police run’ hotel, whatever that meant. Things now became very strange and strained as prior to our arrival at the hotel our illustrious leader mentioned that she had been there last year, everyone camped but that during the night someone tried to get into the female tents. They then had to double up, sleep in the truck and go to the toilet in pairs. Our ladies were not too happy with this but were told that they had to sleep in the truck and the men in tents. The place was hot enough as it was without having to sleep in a sealed truck. The driver was told to sleep in the truck as well unless he wanted to pay for a room himself. This I find most weird as we rely on the driver (there is only one) and he need his sleep, and a good sleep, not in a stinking hot cab, to be capable to drive sometime long hours the following day. That was not the end though!

Our illustrious leader said that there were two rooms available if anyone wanted to pay for them, then remarked that she and her item, (James who is one of the passengers) were taking one room, walked off and left everyone else to sort themselves out. She would be safe behind a locked door, the girls and other women on the truck could do whatever they liked. The duty of care finally showed its ugly head and came out in the open that evening!

My palatial sleeping abode

To really brighten us up the tents were set up under the minaret of the next door mosque/school and the mullah sang to us at 2100 hours before repeating himself at 0415 hours the following morning. I did manage to have a shower in the dark that evening, under a garden hose!