17 and 18 May – Babak Castle, a bush camp then to Masuleh (Iran)

Dan, Vicki, Laura, Jay and myself left the camp site at 0600 hours to climb up to Babak Castle. Babak was considered to be a cross between King Arthur, Robin Hood and Yassar Arafat (that’s what the book says!) as he harried the anti-Shite regime from 815 to 837 AD. He built the castle which was impregnable to all, and by trying to walk up there this was easy to imagine.

The castle on the hill

The castle can be seen on the top of the peak with the picture having been taken from the camping ground. When we arrived at a waterfall we found it to be a dead end and had to turn back. We found a trail and went a long way up the mountain only to find that we should have been the other side of the river. We were not the only ones to make the same mistake either! We climbed until 0900 hours then decided to return to the truck as we thought there was not enough time left to get to the castle and return to the truck on time.

This was as close as we managed to get

The waterfall on the way



Flowers on the mounntain

Vicky and Laura all dressed for climbing

Vicky and Laura

While waiting for the others to return there was a huge hail storm which soaked them and hurt us when the hail hit our heads. We finally left the camp site at 1230 hours.


The town down the valley



                                     A view from the road

On the truck, and generally, sweets and snacks are shared round. One of the sweet wrappers had been made with recycled paper. The outer wrapper is as expected with the name of the produce but the inner wrapper may be from an electrical switch or anything not remotely connected with the product. Iran must be known for the variety of biscuits available as every little bakers shop has more than 30 different plain types of biscuit without the sticky sweet sort. The macaroons are the best, especially when freshly made and they cost about 50p for 20 pieces. In the small local shops the baker is quite happy to hand out as many as one wants to sample before buying.

A farm unit with advertising on the walls

We  travelled on routes 14E and 22E and stopped somewhere between Ahar and Ardabil to make camp on the top of a mountain. A beautiful view but we paid for it about 2100 hours when a full blown storm hit us tearing loose the rain canopy on the side of the truck (but doing no damage as everyone grabbed some part or other) flattening one tent and freezing the food. I think we all went to our tents to lay down in them so that with the extra weight they did not blow away and then listened to the storm for most of the night. In the morning it seemed as if the storm was a figment of the imagination as it was a cool beautiful morning.

Sunset

A view from the top of the mountain, still snow to be seen.

Leaving at 0700 hours we travelled on routes 22E to Masuleh. The drive from the top of the mountain had beautiful scenery and it took 45 minutes before we reached the valley bottom. As today was a local holiday there were plenty of people having a picnic on the side of the road. We had been told that Iran was the picnic capital of the world. Judging by what was seen this was more than correct. There were miles and miles of rice fields and miles of kiwi fruit orchards, something I did not expect. There were also more bee hives than I have ever seen before as well with blocks of them with more than two hundred hives. This means there were plenty of honey for sale at the side of the road.

Road side views

Growing kiwi fruit

While driving through Astara the truck was in a collision with a local car with the result that the police were involved though there was very little damage done to the car and none to the truck. We waited for nearly an hour before driving off and being left on a beach while our driver and Iranian guide went back to the police station to sort thing out. The beach was actually the Caspian Sea, and it was dirty! I sat under a tree where it was quite cool and two Iranian children came to practise their English on me then later invited me to have lunch with their family. I accepted and had freshly grilled fish and rice. The fish was gorgeous! Most schools teach English and the young boy who spoke to me mostly said that he learnt his English extra to the normal schooling. Talking to the young boy and our guide it seems that English is important here and is generally taught to the children, another contradiction to what I expected.

Emily at the beach (Caspian Sea)

I mentioned before that on crossing the border the amount of rubbish on the side of the road reduced dramatically. This has now increased dramatically as the countryside is covered in litter. I looks as though when people have a picnic they leave all their rubbish behind, and the towns are no better either.

Our accommodation in Masuleh consisted of two bedrooms (with two beds each) attached to a common kitchen and lounge area. There were a number of pull out single and double sofas and some that did not pull out with the result that some slept on beds, some on a sofa and some on the floor. I had a non-pull out sofa. One bloke slept in a cupboard! This is a budget trip but things are being taken too far especially when we are told prior to arriva l by our illustrious leader that the experience will be fantastic as we will be staying with local families and it will be a joy to behold. Fat chance!

I did find a baker who was busy making bread and queued up with the Iranian people to buy it straight out of the oven. With some sliced meat, jam and butter from the local market that was my evening meal, one rarely enjoyed so much since leaving London. 

And so to bed.