Every man dies, not every man really lives... Wild Child
24-10-2007
Iran in a few words: desert, motorbikes, dust, hot, hospitality, perfect roads..
Haai everybody,
get in front of your screen, relax, let this story flow through and enjoy your imagination........
So, around half july we ended somewhere in Semnan, just before this enormous Dasht-e-Kavir desert. Temperatures were going above 40 and reaching 45 a bit later, mmmhhh....... Don`t go to 50 please, because some things are melting already.......
We hit a road leading to Mo`alleman, the last small town before everything becomes flat and very sandy, and drove through some very nice mountains and hills in the most different colours you can think off. The way I hoped it to be, but the story wasn`t lasting.... a big roadsign, MILITARY AREA was standing there in the middle of nowhere???? Nothing to see and we drove on a bit , but finally after about 20 km we had to turn back, definately now, no way through.... damn... these guys have the nicest stretch of desert to shoot their toys.... So, back to semnan before the night. After about some 100 km more east the next day, another road leading to Mo`alleman, and this time it was a good one, no hassle, just a road going nowhere and much sandy playground to make a big sandcastle..... It`s incredible, that even in the desert the roads are perfect...and so we made it beyond the last town and dived into the great barren plains of dasht-e-kavir.The horizon looks like never ending and sometimes fades away because of the heat. We camped about 10 km away from the road, really in the middle of nowhere, and slept the night outside on the ground, with the stars on tv.........
We awoke and again realised that this is a special place, magical hot desert. Some watermelon for breakfast and before it got too hot we went for a drive. There is really no end to see here and it`s best to follow the tracks back, eat some dust and go to the road we came from. So we continued the way down and around noon we met a whole bunch of camels while we had dinner. A nice sight outhere, makes it all complete. After about a few hundred km we came to a little oasis and had a good rest under a palmtree in this dusty desert town. How do these people survive here, it`s so hot and barren .........strong race.. We continued to Na`in, the first somewhat civilized town and got into a hotel. Hehe, the 2nd one on the hole trip from belgium to here.Some guy from a shop showed us around in his town and explained a bit the watersupply-system and this is how it works: Very big and deep pits they can walk into are connected to several km of narrow canals collecting the water. Above is a natural cooling system with badgirs, high windtowers collecting the slightest windbreeze and cooling the water beneath it. It`s a weird site because the all the towns are full of these high badgirs. Thanks for the guiding and tomorrow we continue to the most attractive town of Iran, Esfahan.
After about 200 km we entered the city and came to a parking, right in the middle of the centre and this is a great spot to camp. Only 2$ for 24 hours of parking. It`s a deal!! We got a good base now to explore and the next day we did a whole trip in Esfahan, visiting several palaces set around green gardens and pools, the very nice Imam square with the nicest mosques till now, tiled with mosaic paterns making it all very colourfull and a bazaar to get lost into. A maze of narrow streets, with lots of craftsmen at work and everybody looses the way here...... After spending about 3 days wondering around in Esfahan we packed the jeep and went west, because we had a great attraction lying there, called Choqa Zanbil which we didn`t want to miss. The s-curved road took us over hundreds of mountains and into old villages such as Izeh, where a local took us to some ancient sites in the mountains, full of rock carved images dating back some thousand years. No tourist ever comes here!!! After dinner at his place we continued the day after, passed Masjed-e-soleiman to Shustar. In between it is full of little oil companies, each with a big flame and the mountains are filled with pipelines. But we were being watched all the time by security people.....hehe.... In shustar there are some famous watermills in town and it`s here that we were invited again for dinner and warned about people stealing cars here like they smoke a sigaret.... so we were very carefull after this. The man invited us into his house, where the airco was running fulltime because quess what, outside the temperatures were rising above 50 and we even had 54 degrees while driving the car with all windows down........ do you feel the sweat flowing on your back already??? We were happy to have 35 during the night..... Thanks for the meal, and we drove out of town to reach Choqa zanbil in the evening. And yess, this is a great place.
We parked beside the quards with a vieuw onto the site. It`s like a big brick piramid set into the desert and the hole project is several square kilometers wide. A short visit in the morning, when it was still durable because of the heat and went to another site like this and a good museum about the history of it. It`s there that I took a refreshing bath in one off the fountains at the museum, hehe, they were looking strange.... It didn`t take long too before I was dry and we rolled down to the Perzian Gulf, a bit before Bandar Deylam and ended up at a factory where the caretaker invited us to sleep in his cabbin with airco and he slept outside. The hospitality of these people is incredible.......... thankx again !!! The morning after we visited Bandar deylam at the perzian Gulf and went for a walk on the beach, but not without hassle. The religious police saw us and soon were complaining about our clothes and weren`t friendly at all. Fools.... I ignored them and they drove away, like they usually do. They don`t have authority at all, hehe.. The harbour was a nice sight, full of wooden boats waiting for the current to lift them up , so they can go fishing in the night while the rest is waiting at sea to flow into the harbour. We shopped some supplies and drove a bit out of town to search a deserted spot beside the gulf. No hassle here for sure. But while I drove on the beach, my jeep got stuck in wet sand, even 4 wheel drive didn`t help anymore... damn and I didn`t know when the current was coming. Slowly he sunck to his bottom and now I was happy to have all this extra material with me to start digging us out. But nothing worked really and I think it was about 2 hours later that at one time, it was my last chance, there was some movement and slowly we drove out of this scary situation towards the solid sand. Man, I was happy then... and we installed us here, much safer and far away from any current. A dip into the sea was now very welcome and we were a bit surprised about the very hot water. It`s like a big hot spring... No religious police to see so no clothes to wear also, hehe miracle in Iran. We stayed here another full day at the beach, relaxing, swimming and reading the day away. We left relaxed and headed direction shiraz the day after, another attrative city. On the map there were signs about Margoon waterfalls and this we would first go to. Byebye Perzian Gulf and after a flat piece of road we came into a canyonlike landscape, really amazing scenery. Enjoying it, we cruised through and took a narrow road towards Sepidan. On the way a fresh dip in a wild river refreshed us once again. But the road soon changed into a very dusty piste between the mountains and this would last for about 50 km. Finding the way was quessing. On a plateau, inhabited by numerous nomads we camped the night away and were invited the morning after for thee. They live really basic here and were so happy to see us. Living from sheep and goats they try to keep life alive. We tasted their way of living a bit and continued to Margoon, once we left the piste and a short walk into sepidan, we drove their, another 50 km further and were surprised about the amount of people there. Ohjee, it`s thursday, thats the reason why. Thursday means sunday for them...... The waterfalls themselves are breathtaking and the surroundings great to explore. we got back passed sepidan and camped next to a farm. Again very friendly people and they gave us a whole bucket of fresh made yoghurt, a whole bucket????? man, we were eating yoghurt all day long...... tooo much..... After this detour to margoon we ended up in Shiraz, another jewel of Iran and one of the oldest cities here. Because carla`s birthday is tomorrow we searched a good hotel. But it was very difficult to find one with a parking where my jeep would fit into. They all drive these flat Paykans so only one choice left, the Sadra Hotel. But it was nice to be there. We celebrated carla`s birthday by eating out at several restaurants and enjoying a day in shiraz. Bye the way, she was very happy with her surprise I bought some time ago in turkey....... Shiraz is the place to visit gardens with palaces and many more exiting places. One thing is just frustrating : the price for us was 10 times the price for an iranian tourist??? Heyhey, I can read your numbers and every time it is like that, we let them know and usually they understand the difference and let us in at the normal price. But sometimes we have to be very hard. I`m not a walking one million dollar bill????? We spent together 3 days and left for Persepolis after. Also one of the must-see sites of Iran. An ancient city were kings came to celebrate new year in old times. The site remained in some parts perfectly preserved and you get a good glimpse of how it used to be over there in old ages. We camped on the parking between some other overlanders and the night was very noisy, many young people come here to picknick and joyride their car. Dizzy we woke up and visited a nearbye site with 4 rockcut tombes raising about 30 meters high on a steep mountainhill, a nice site. On the road again and slowly moving towars Yazd, but tiredness overtook us and we found a spot in the desert, a fairytale landscape and relaxed the day away. This was a good idea and we woke up refreshed and got to Yazd the day after, again driving through several 100 km of plain desert. Yazd?? A wonderfull created town where the old city takes you back some hundreds of years. Fully made out of mudbrick, it is a great place to wonder around and get lost into the winding lanes. We slept the night in the silk road hotel and this is one of the best places we stayed yet, completey restored like it used to be. Even the restaurants are good, cheap and very romantic places to spend the evening after a few km of sightseeing Yazd. It`s here that we met so many travellers going all kinds of directions, each with their own idea of Iran. Another night on the parking of the hotel and we drove to the silent towers, just out of town. It`s an old burial place where they used to leave the dead people in a sitting position, and after the vultures had picked them clean, the bones were left behind. A priest would sit their and watch the vultures eat and see which eye they first took and according to this, the soul would face a good future or otherwise a grim one. In accordance with Zoroastrian beliefs. We slept the night at the cemetary and drove to Keram, our current place. Here the situation is changing a bit and people are different. We are planning now to not hurry to the border with Pakistan, but just enjoy the rest of Iran.
So, the next story will be from Pakistan. Wish us luck on the hardest part of the travel. Driving from the border at Taftan to Quetta, a rough track. Hope you all enjoyed it and let us know your story also.
We have seen Turkey upside down, inside out and discovered all it's beauty................
Hellooooowwww,
we meet again today, some are waitıng for this and others just enjoy the way it goes.
So, a few weeks ago we were in Antalya for a short visit, but the town isn't as nice as we thought, so let's get the .... out of here.
Back on the road to explore thıs big country. Many people told us about Cappadocie and that was the next target to head for. On the way up we passed by Termessos, some ancient Roman village on top of a mountain with a spectacular vieuw from the theater. A must see for dreamers.... In the night we were visited by some wild piggs and mmmmhhhh do i smell bacon around???....hehe
Back on track and a short visit to a cave, inhabited for more than 25000 years made us feel like neanderthalers again and İ explaıned Carla how they got married then. Just pick one out and head for a dark corner...... no further details.....
Back in my flinstones-jeep and let's drive a bit...... to a big lake. Nice spot to relax and the morning after we stepped the gas and made it to Eskil, a place not so far away from the biggest salt lake on the planet, Tuz Golu, above Konya city.
We tried to find it but where the ....is this lake now. Only dust and a vieuw going nowhere, but the surroundings where great. A nice sundown made it all complete and the morning after i got stuck in the mud.... So there is some kind of water after all???? hehe Digging our way out we left and got to Aksaray city to fınd a good map of cappadocie. Turkey and maps???? You'll see when you get here.... İn the backdrop i saw this great mountain, and hehey nothing could stop me anymore. We drove to the closest town and then a bit up the hill we slept. Hmmmm sleep? Not really, heavy winds and a storm came later, forcing us to get inside the jeep before my rooftent was almost blown away..... But the morning after, great sky and let's get up this big dude. A heavy path, it wasn't really a path, but we made it after struggeling over loose rocks and steep steep climbs all the way to 3268m. once on top we realised that the ''path'' we took was the hardest way up but we came down the normal way... hehe . So we spent the night again at the start of the Hasan Dagi, and head out for magnifıcient Cappadocia. First we visited Ihlara valley, a rivervalley full of churches carved out of the rockside. A nice site and a good walk that day after Hasan Dagi.... Hole houses are carved out of the rock, man, this must have taken ages to do????
Further away the world famous underground cities were waiting for us. We took our headlamp and explored a few of these. Can you imagine whole cities being underground with everything you can think of. Churches, rooms, hamams,dark halls going for hundreds of meters and ending in rooms again. A nice place to explore and fantacise around every corner. Somewhere between these towns we were again invited for thee at the locals. They all are very friendly and Cay or thee is the national favorite. On the road again i heard a strange noise at my front wheels after driving in a few very deep pitts in the road. Yeah, these roads can sometimes be very bad and dusty. Mmhh, after searching for hours it was just a little piece of metal from the chassis making this heavy noise and oeffff, nothing bad......
I gave my dear jeep some new oil to roll and you could see the smile on his face, saying let's roll my friend....
So with a new start we came to these magnificient hills and towns lying between them which give cappadocia it's name. Waaaaawwww, it's incredible and we feel like walking straight into a cartoon. Mushrooms chaped hills, houses built into them, colours pink,red and white being mixed into a wonderfull surrounding...... It's hard to explain it, but imagine the flinstones and a bunch of dwarfs living together in fairy chimneys.......
We spent a few days walking around and really enjoyed this place.
On our way out we passed by a caravanserai, an old trading place, and i booked for a night of ' Derwish dancers'. So we came by later in the evening and in this very nice old castle we had a great evening looking at these dancers. They get into some kind of spiritual trance by songs and then they keep on turning and turning and turning until the people looking at them get delirious of it. i felt like falling down and flying up all the time, hehey, no we didn't take any kind of druggs.....
Passing by Kayseri, big town, we got into this area with much Jandarma control town after town and someone explained us they have problems with the PKK or some kind of extremists. Mmmhh, we drove carefully further and at a bridge over the Euphrat-river we were hold and said to turn back. Shit after this hole way to get here, it was my birthday afterall. So we explained and someone took us into the next town and invited us into his restaurant. Waaaaw we were served like royals and i had the best fish in years. And it was so cheap??? ( 2 big beers, a big salad with hot sauce, bread, freshly grilled fish, watermellon and to finish some thee for together 15 YTL or mmhh 8 euro....... in your face Belgium..... On the way back i asked to sleep at the jandarma place but no no no tooo dangerous. This guy came showing up in a tank, 5 times the size of my jeep and explained to follow him out the village. Hey, I never followed a tank in my life??? Step on the gas.... Bye the bridge we could sleep nearbye another jandarma control and this night wasn't like all the rest. Having all this security around us ??? But after all we really think that all this security is a bit too much, the locals don't have any problem when you ask them and it has been quiet for a long time now. The turkish way of showing off????
We drove up to Mount Emrut, a long drive past many controlls again and ended up at the summit a bit before sundown, the best time to visit. There are these giant heads on top of the mountain making it into a spectacular vieuw. We enjoyed this place and met some friends we saw at the coast a few weeks ago. Time to chat and share stories about Turkey over a couple of beers. There were also french people with a look-a-like jeep who make the same travel as us just till south Iran. Hehey, we are not alone outhere....
All the way down again the day after, we took an old ferry crossing the Tigris-river and went for a swin. The rest we spent driving up north towards Erzurum, where I can pick up my parts i ordered in Antalya for the jeep. Along way with bad roads and abandoned hills and mountains. But so fresh and green, nothing like dried up Cappadocia and the salk lake. Finally after a few 100 km we ended up in Erzurum.But at Mitsubishi they didn't have the parts yet, like I thought it would be.......
So, let's head out for the Georgian Valleys and Kackar mountains north of Erzurum. On the way some old monsteries and churches in old towns, life aslike 100 years ago. Somewhere in the middle is tortum Lake and some very wild and big waterfalls. The temperatures were risıng again, morning being 25, noon 35 and afternoon the needle was above 40.......... hot enough for you???
The surroundings being wild and adventurous we got to Yusufeli, a well known town for Rafting....mmhh... rafting sounds great. The book said : only experienced rafters can go..... but you know the Turks by now, everything is possible... So the next morning we loaded a professional boat on the roof, drove about 15 km upstreams and were launched into the very wild Coruh river for some real adventure. With 5 people we floated down this wild river and sometimes i thought we were going to capsize..... and a few meters further away carla was thrown out of the boat, I quess she wanted to swim..... but we fished her out off the overtaking water and were safe again. Downstream you could see remains of many bridges being collapsed from the heavy current of this river. Hey this was fun....
Being fully reloaded and having the good news of my parts being arrived we are back in Erzurum. Tomorrow I have some work to do... Working???? Yep ....
So, summer must be coming to your homes too, enjoy the time of holidays and get out of town....
turn your steering wheel corner after corner and get delirious .....
Haai my dear friends,
time is running and as i speak we have already made it till Bulgaria, Plovdiv better. Since the last story we went to busy Split and caught a ferry to Brac, an island in front of Croatia. It was marvellous and exiting. Sunshine and plenty of places to camp wild, right next to the shore. It was hot and a good time to get aclimatised for the heat we are going to meet on our trip.
We spent a good 4 days of island-adventure and it was time to get pajero( my jeep) seaborne again.
We made it as far as Mostar and here we got silenced by the many destroyed buildings from the past war , really completely ruined buildings like librairies and schools more then 200 years old. The bridge of mostar is hope for these people and it must stay like that!!! How to describe the sense of this town???? We could sleep next to a house in the fields and the next city was Sarajevo......We entered along snipers alley...... boehoooo
Again the leftovers from many nice buildings , but this town is recovering very fast and it feels like walking around in brussels,relax but with a certain mood. When I came back to the car, somebody had tried to break into it , but we were lucky, some other cars had smashed windows.... But this event gave us some time to think about a better safe parking and hiding everything in the back when entering cities. We ended up for a picknick at a house outside town, and there i could repair my lock. We were friendly invited and quickly food and beer were served. What a hospitality. Even when we went for a walk, we got invited by people along the road and soon our heads filled up with booze and food. What a hospitality.....
The road goes on and we made our way through 10000 bends and bumps in the road to Durmitor national park. But these people know shit about waste handling and just throw everything into rivers and forests. No good hey!!! The weather was less good and we ended up in a countyhouse with friendly people, again serving this some kind of 'rhum', hot stuff... But the next morning was even better. First strong coffee, mixed with this rhum, then a few 2 liter bottles of beer served with smoked beef and porc, finishing with a self-made movie of the nat. Park. we had to say goodbye or .... you know...
A short visit to the park and then we went into the mountains with the jeep and after a few hours we passed 2 meter thick snow and a vieuw like endless. Again invited at a farmhouse in the middle of nowhere, and here we tasted fresh made goatcheese and of course the rhum.. .. ... ..
So, you see, come and taste it..
On the road again, I made a big mistake, probabely because of the booze the last days, and we got to the border with Albania by mistake. Should i do this country???? Why not, we'll be carefull.Hup and into Albania, bad dusty roads and very poor people. The cities remind me off Marocco and the landscape was wunderfull. We had a good 150 km ahead of bad, bumpy roads and in the middle we stopped at a house for sleeping in the garden and later on the evening champagne was served, can you imagine that???? So no more worries...
Albania was over and in front lies Kosovo. We had to buy a seperate insurance of 50 euro's for the car and we made a big deal of it at the border, but nothing to do about it, it's the fool on top of this country to blaim.... moneyman
Into kosovo and lookes like montenegro again, full of industry and wellness.But on the road many army soldiers , tanks and military bases. But a safe feeling.
On to Macedonia, a cheap country for fresh fruit and vegetables, incredible. ex. 1/2 kil fresh strawberries from the field: 0,5 euro.....mhhhhh.....
Driving Through it is hard, roadworks, bad roads and 1001 bends..... pffff but we have made it again to the border with Bulgarije.
We visited Rila Monastery in the mountains, really worth to see and the next day we tried to climb Maljovitza 2729m high and I made it to the top. A good 1500 m rise and with my feet in the snow on top. Today we explore Plovdiv city and the next story will be from sunny Turkey.
The taste of the road is on my mind and we've already had a great experience .. ... The journey started in the ardennes in Belgium and quick we wanted to head for Germany.
There i met an old friend i met in La Palma years ago and the spirit was great. He had a story about sailing around timeless seas and far away countries. The mood for travelling became even more great. We spent a nice night in a old castle on a hill and were turning time a few hundred years back .
Back on the road and past Munchen on to Austria. Once the mountains came closer, a undesireable feeling to climb some came and a day later we started turning the heads to a mountain-top i had been focussing on. We made it till 1945 m but because off thick snow I had to return and leave this enormous top behind. Sometimes its better to be precautious and dont risk too much.
We drove through incredible landscapes and clean rivers. South is the main direction and for the fun we passed one hour in Italie and drove to Slovenie.
This is stepping back 50 years into time and the hills are so green and full of life. Small towns full of farmers and pretty narrow roads for my way to big Pajero, funny sight...
We met some very nice older people were we could spend the night on there peace of land .
Almost immediately they served very nice coffee and the local brewed alcohol, weeeew hot stuff, but a warm feeling when you wake up and 5 min later served . So, slovenian people know hospitality very well.
We are very happy to experience all this and the next country was Croatie. Here we spent our second night on a camping, yeah, we try to go wild camping or at farms as much as possible,saves great money... But the biggest surprise was that it was a naturist campsite, hehe, old naked people running around and staring at us, little dressed people... no comment.....
Yesterday evening, after looking for a peace of ground we ended up at a farm where we got pancakes, yeah, delicious pancakes.......nice people really..... Before we went to Plittvice waterfalls and waaaaaawwww, this is a must see for anybody who comes to Croatie.
But on the way to these, we drove through some forests full of mines, from the war, some years ago and it gave us a sudden feeling of freedom being destroyed for all these people. And when we looked better around you can still see many houses full of holes,because of being shot at, destoyed and abandoned afterwards..... something to think about..... Even when we got coffee from on old lady you could still see tears in her eyes because of loosing much family in this stupid war.
Today is one of our first days of rain and till now we have had sun every day and sometimes even hot....something is wrong with nature, beleave me........but till now it was in our favor..
So, the spirit is good and the road ahead is nice. Next days we go to Split by the sea and take a ferry to one of the islands in front of the coast. Pajero on the boat, hehe.. He has been on a train also, somewhere in Austria by the way, funny way of transport over there.
>Then on to Mostar and its nice bridge and sarajevo for a visit.
I'm starting to construct this weblog and soon the whole story will be visible. Have some patience. For the people who now me: It's great to be back in Belgium and to enjoy this freedom daily. This site will have all my travels inside and outside.
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