Iran part 2

It has been a long 7 weeks since my last post. mainly because of to much fun and not enough internet. The result is going to be a very long post with loads of pictures.  So here we go.

Last time i left you guys off in Tehran where i was about to get my India visa. Luckily there were no problems and i got my visa without any issues so it was on to Sanandaj. I met up with Eghbal. I started suffering from a cold and Eghbal took great care of me. He also showed me the city, took me to the mountain next to Sanandaj and showed me a lake nearby. And he was so kind to give me his yard for me to camp.

After 3 days it was time to move on to Marivan. But it would be raining/snowing there the next day so i decided to make a detour to Saqqez to kill some extra time before getting to Marivan and more importantly Uraman takht. I decided to visit Ziviyeh Castle and Karaftu cave. And what a landscape it was driving through Kurdistan like that gave me the most spectacular views of my trip so far. And better still this was just an appetizer of what lay ahead. Photo's will never do this landscape justice but here is my best shot at it.

Than it was time to make my way to Marivan. it was a nice wintery landscape and a fairly easy drive towards Marivan. When i got to my destination in Marivan Zeribar lake it looked nothing like the pictures i had seen on the internet. It was snowing a tiny bit and the lake shore all around was swamp. So i settled for a less than glamorous campsite and called it a day.

The next day would be another spectacular day. It was the drive from Marivan to Paveh along the Iraqi border it would take me past uraman takht two. Just over a 100 km in length it took me a solid 9 hours to drive it. Again no pictures will ever do it justice and certainly not my phone camera. The only way to really appreciate the landscape is to drive it yourself.

I decided to finish the day just on the other side of Paveh and picked a campsite with a spectacular view. By the end of the day i could hear that my brake pad had been worn out so the next morning i replaced it.

Then it was on to Kermanshah to visit the wall of Bisotun. I had seen video's of people making wingsuit jumps there but when i got to there the whole wall was slightly positive only giving  me opportunity to do a static line jump from the very top. I decided it was not worth it so i moved on to ilam. The first part of the Ilam province wasn't that spectacular compared to the drive the day before but i did find the Canyon of Razianeh on my way to Darreh Sahahr. I decided to camp there and use my climbing gear to decent into it the next morning.

After that i continued my way to Shushtar that took me past Dezful and loads more beautiful landscape including an old bridge.

In Dezful i visited the water museum. It wasn't much of a museum. Just some old stuff in the middle of the river but nice enough to see anyways. It was only a little drive more to Shushtar after that. And i managed to snap some sunset pictures along the way. By the time i reached Shushtar it was completely dark. On google maps i found an island in the river in the middle of the city and it turned out te be a nice camp spot.

Before i got to sleep i got a knock on the door. It was 2 soldiers trying to tell me that i could not camp there because it was to dangerous. After a few thee's were shared and pictures taken the safety situation improved dramatically and i could stay.

The next morning was my first taste of summer again as temperatures where mid 20s. i visited the ancient historical hydraulic system of Shushtar. Where the dutch used wind power for their mills the people of Shushtar were using water power.

Then lay a grueling 600km ahead towards esfahan. The landscape was nice and i cant believe i only took one picture. By the time i got to esfahan it was night and i decided to just camp out in an alley. The next morning i visited Naqsh-e Jahan Square. It was a friday morning (sunday for the iranians) and where you can normally walk on the heads of people it was nice and quite when i got there.

When i got back to my car disaster struck. My coffee machine had fallen off the kitchen top the previous day and now i found out the switch was broken so i couldn't make any coffee. I took it apart and an hour later it was making coffee again.

Next mission was getting another visa extension as my visa was about to expire. I wanted to make sure i was going to get there early morning the next day so i decided it was best to find a hostel. And get a early sleep before going there. Well things didn't really work out that way. I met a Australian backpacker there who was also i need of an extension. He had come from iraq hitchhiking through kurdistan there. By the evening we were hunting for falafel together. ending up in a car with a crazy guy from kerman bringing us to some falafel joint on the other side of town. A lot of fun was had but i wasn't at the forign affairs office before 9 the next morning. To my surprise it wasn't nearly as busy or as chaotic as the one in Tehran. Where is the chief in Tehran was a grumpy guy who spoke no english the one in esfahan was friendly and spoke good english and more importantly he cared way more for football than for anything else that was going on there. So getting another 30 days was a piece of cake.

That evening we went for a walk around Esfahan going back to that square and walking along the dry river. It is breath taking to realize that the river has been dry since 2010. Some water cycles laying abandoned on the river bed were a sad reminder of it.

The next day it was time to move on to Varzaneh. On the way there i stopped at a fuel station to fill up. In iran you need a diesel card to be able to buy diesel. in the northern parts of iran the gas station has one for free sale. (double price) but in the south you have to ask truckdrivers for their card. So i met this truckdriver and he didn't accept my money for the 40 liters of diesel i got and he insisted on me coming to his home a few kilometers down the road. So i gave in and followed this guy to his home. But as soon as we got on the road my windshield started to get wet and it wasn't raining. It turned out he forgot to put the cap back on his tank so i got another 20 liters of diesel extra but this time on my windshield instead of in my tank.

His house is one of those houses with a garage on the ground floor and the living space on the first floor. And this guy had made himself an elevator to get to the first floor. This death trap takes twice as long as the stairs but apparently that was a sacrifice well worth to save the energy of walking the stairs for one floor.

When i wanted to leave he told me that i had to come to his family 40 km back for yalda celebration. I tried explaining that i already had plans. that i wanted to go see the volcano mountain and the wetlands. He didn't accept me leaving so he thought it was best to invite himself along for the rest of my day. It left me wishing i never said yes to getting a thee at his place but anyways off we went to the volcano mountain and wetlands.

After leaving the wetlands i was driving the truckdriver back to his home. Every chance he got he asked me to stop and use my phone for google translate. He would invite me in a thousand different ways to join his family for the yalda celebration. but i simply wasn't in the mood to drive 40km back to the middle of nowhere to be surrounded by loads of people with none of them being able to make a conversation in english. So every time he was typing on my phone i quickly drove another little bit to his house. He was making it all such a painfully awkward ordeal by not accepting the fact that i wasn't going to join his family. when we finally reached his town he said. I ANGRY. who who buddy. i tried telling him one last time that i had other plans in varzaneh and that i wasn't able to join his family for the yalda celebration.

Finally on my own again i made my way back to varzaneh. I decided to camp close to the negaar hostel and see what is going on. Gabor from Hungary was there and he took me to one of the yalda celebrations in the village of varzaneh.

The next morning i headed for the sand dunes of varzaneh. I tried to do some soaring with my speedwing but i guess neither me or my speedwing is really made for that and the wind blasting sand into everywhere wasn't very helpful either. By the end of the day i drove towards the salt flats but the gates were already shut so i ended up camping right in front of the gates there.

And i made myself a nice paste to Finnish the day off.

I woke up to open gates so the first thing i did after my coffee is some speeding across the massive salt flats.

After that it was off to yazd. It was a nice drive with long straight roads and dessert tracks.

When i got to yazd i found a city that was very very dry. Old rivers had been turned in to streets. Anyways my first mission was getting rid of the salt that was covering my car. After that i went to find another hostel. I found one of which the owner was a paraglider. When i got there it turned out that the owner had died 2 days before. everyone was a bit sad but still very hospitable and i was invited to come for dinner as well.

The next day i went for a walk around the old town. I visited bazaar and the Friday mosque.

I ended the day with having a dinner together with 2 frenchies and a Hungarian guy i met that day. The next day i set my gps for Shiraz and as per usual taking the long way. I thought i would see some flamingo's at the vast Bakhtegan Lake but again due to dams built upstream it had turned into another big salt flat devastating all the wildlife it once hosted. The pictures i saw on the internet were from a decade ago.

After seeing the Bakhtegan Lake i continued to maharlu pink lake where i camped on the adjacent salt flat.

The next day i drove the final little stretch to Shiraz. on the way i saw a zamyad transporting whole lenghts of rebar iron, a KFC delivery scooter and my subwoofer that was hanging on by tywraps finally died on me for good aswell. So first thing was to replace the subwoofer.

I used the rest of the day to walk around the old city. I visited the dry khoshk river, the karim khan citadel, the vakil bazaar, the vakil bath, artificial waterfall and the quran gate.

I ended the day with meeting up with Soheil who i met on couch surfing. He was with a Spanish girl also from couch surfing who is studying Farsi in Iran. It was fun exchanging stories over dinner. The next day i went to Persepolis. It felt more like a obligation to go there than anything else but it was actually quite nice to see the site. It's sheer size is nothing less than jaw dropping. I met some guys from Tehran there who took me to the house of a Shirazi friend of theirs. Looking through my photo's now i regret not taking enough. Here is what i took from Persepolis anyways.

After that i went to ramin's hostel in qalat. On the way i came past the persian gulf complex. A pretty massive shopping center with a abandoned hotel construction site behind it. I was to scared to jump it on my own so after a walk around i continued my way.

I was greeted with some shirazi wine at ramin's place and the next day he guided me through the surrounding nature of qalat.

After saying my goodbyes to ramin it was time to continue to margoon waterfall. This was a good 1000 meter higher elevation and quite cold.

By nightfall i made it to Tang-e Boragh. A beautiful little waterfall in the middle of no where. By morning i explored the area. To my surprise it had a lot of abandoned tourist facilities around. But no one was there anymore. So all this beauty was mine and mine alone. As soon as the sun peeked into the gorge i went for a swim.

Then it was on to Tange-e bostanak or as google calls it "the lost paradise". I took me over a fair share of unpaved country roads in beautiful landscapes.  When i got there i was met with a few locals/tour guides on mopeds. They were insisting on taking me. After telling them hundreds of times that i could walk they explained me that there is more than one road. In the end i gave in and went with them making the classic mistake of not negotiating the price before hand. Seeing the area was a bit disappointing considering where i just came from but still very beautiful by any standards.

After these guys tricked me out of my last cash i found no money exchanges in Yasuj on google maps so to be sure i returned to Shiraz to get some more dollars exchanged into rials. By the time i was in Shiraz and had my money exchanged it was pretty late and i thought to quickly throw one of these microwave meals in the microwave. And i got a good case of food poisoning with it for free. I quickly drove to the one campsite i know in Shiraz and spend the rest of the evening shitting and puking my guts out.

The next day i felt a bit better. Got a good breakfast down and hit the road again towards the Persian gulf. It would take me past the last bit of wintery conditions i would see in a while and by the end of the day i found massive empty beaches by the town of Bandar-e Kangan where i camped for the night and celebrated new years even by my own.

The first day of 2019 i spend driving towards Bandar Charak. I read on the internet that i could catch a ferry towards Kish from there. But when i finally got to some shadey office where they sold tickets they looked at my car and the only thing they said after was problem problem. I finally called my friend from Tehran to help me out a bit. A good two hours later and the story was that i needed special permission to get anything bigger than a normal car on to Kish island. When i came to terms with the fact that i wasn't going to see Kish my friend called me again and said the guy from the ferry called and told that i should go to Bandar Aftab and see MR. Karimi. From there on it was all smooth sailing. A few million rials and loads of paperwork seemed to do the job and i was on the landingcraft towards Kish island an hour later.

After arriving at Kish island i tried driving off the port but they didn't let me out and i couldn't understand why for an hour before they finally took me to the immigration police of Kish. Here i was asked at witch hotel i was staying. Normally i would have answered that my car is my hotel but this had backfired in the past so i asked for help with finding a hotel instead. The officer was still suspicious of me and stressed time and time again that i should really go to a hotel and not sleep in my car. After swearing i would take a hotel i finally left the port. When i looked on google maps the cheapest hotel on offer was 25 euro a night. No way in hell i was going to pay that amount of money for a hotel room so a good hour later i was back on a beach doing the exact opposite of what i just promised this police officer.

The next day i went to get my laundry done and took a haircut on the way as well. Than i did a drive around the island to see whats up and visited a few things like the Greek ship. 

I ended the day camping in the same place as the day before. In the morning i woke up convinced i was going to let the retiree in myself out and spend the whole day on the beach swimming, lying in the sun and wasting my time away. But i soon got bored of that. I guess you need to be at least 60 years old for that and have a big fat beer belly. Since i have neither i pretty much suck at the retiree life. On google i found that kish has some kind of underground city that sparked my interest so i went to check it out and although not very big it was kind of cool to see.

After that i went to the east side of the island to get my water tank filled and do some groceries. I visited one of the tourist beaches as well there. but it felt a bit to much like spain. Except for that no one was swimming and signs along the beach prohibiting that. There was boats just off the coast crammed with people in the blazing sun blasting dance music. Apparently the reason those people put themselves through the hardships of getting on those boats like that is that you could get alcohol on those boats. Sometimes its funny to so human behavior from a distance like that.

The next day i had enough of the island and decided to catch the ferry back to bandar aftab and drive to bandar-e pol to catch the ferry to qeshm. Upon leaving the island i saw a bungee jump tower. Scoped it out and it measured 50 meters. Good enough for a jump. After talking to the staff i got the boss on the phone and he told me that i would get permission the next day. I thought it wasn't worth it and left it at that.

I reached Qeshm by nightfall and managed to find a bit of abandoned beach i could camp on and this is what i woke up to in the morning when it was daylight.

I decided to go explore the south east side of the island. Where i found what was left of an old oil rig that was being scrapped there and when i got to the city i found a knockoff ikea in the shopping mall.

There was low tide at sunset and i decided to try and walk across to Naz island. On the island i found a shark and two rays hanging out to dry.

By nightfall i found a nice beach to camp on. And it was really nice until the locals decided it be a good idea to crash their saipa's through the lose beach sand at 3 in the morning. At least that was what it sounded like at the time. These fresh tracks are a testimony to what went on that night.

From there on i went on to explore the west side of the island. There was Chahkooh Canyon, loads of camels everywhere, super nice views in the mountains, shipwrecks on the beach and finally i returned to take a boat tour in Hara mangrove forest.

I decided to sleep on the same beach again that night convinced they wouldn't be crashing their shitty cars through the sand two nights in a row. But i was wrong and this time they were a bit earlier though. So i decided to go have a look myself. As i was walking down the beach using my phone as a flash light i nearly got run over by a pickup truck driving without lights. When i got closer i saw boats near the beach and the pickup truck was carrying fishing nets. Than i understood they were illegally fishing here at low tide. So i went back to my car and after a couple of hours all the noise had gone and i had a good sleep.

The next day i went to stars valley and tried to get my car onto Hengam island after. I already heard from other travelers that you couldn't get your own car onto Hengam i accepted no for an answer quite quickly when i asked around myself. So i took a tourist tour around the island instead. When we got close to the island i saw a landing craft unloading at Hengam island. I asked the guide what that boat was doing to which he responded offloading cars. I looked at him and he replied yeah you can take your car to Hengam island but its so small the your car is useless. ARGHHHHH. but i guess this guy made 16 dollars off of me so fair game to him for not giving away his potential customers to a landing craft. And to be honest the tour around Hengam was quite nice anyways.

The next day i took it easy. Went for a swim in the morning and at sunset i met up with mohsen mansoeri to do a jump from a paraglider. I couldn't jump his one as he was busy with other things so one of his friends took me up. And what a views.

Then it was time for me to leave the island. I camped somewhere in a dull place just before Bandar Abbas and made the passenger ferry to hormuz island the next morning. I didn't realize that it was a friday and thus iranian weekend. The whole island felt like it was packed with tourists. And if there is one thing i come to hate is to be packed together with other tourists. The beauty of the island partially made up for it though and i am still glad i went there.

After a nice day at hormuz i got back at my car. I stayed with a iranian basejumper called mohsen but before i got to his house i managed to smash my watertank into a curb while backing up. No big damage and the repairs could wait until the next day. That evening we jumped an antenna nearby together. The next morning i tied my watertank to an electricity pole and drove forward to undo the damage i did. After that i had to find a welder to get my standby heater exhaust welded back in place again.

Then i set my gps for Chabahar and started driving until i was tiered. I made it as far as Kouhestak were i found another super nice beach to camp.

I was very excited to go visit a mud volcano the next day. I had been envisioning the large asshole sticking out of the ground spewing tons of shit in the air. The reality was a bit less exciting. I arrived to a 30 meter high pile of dried out dirt being a testament of my fantasies having happened here at some point in the past. All i got was a tiny spot of less dry mud on a otherwise very dry pile of mud. The nice drive before that eased the pain a little though.

After the mud volcano i continued towards Chabahar. As it got darker i decided to try find a camp spot on the west side of the bay. I came across a little town called Konarak. Its got a massive pier sticking almost a kilometer out in to the bay with rows upon rows of classic wooden fishermen's boats. I tried to make a few pictures but as it was windy there was a lot of dust in the air from the dessert that made the sun go down an hour earlier. So after a quick stop i continued to Pozm Tiyab. There i found a nice camp spot on top of a seaside cliff. That was until i got bothered by a drunk guy on a scooter with his two children. It went from uncomfortable to annoying and nearly got violent with him trying to climb in my car through my pop top and snatching my phone from my hands. It was the first shitty situation of my trip. After he finally left i got paranoid at any engine sound and finally decided it was best to drive to a military checkpoint at the entrance of the port. There the guys gave me a safe campsite and showed me some more genuine Iranian hospitality.

The next morning i went back to the cliff where i should have woken up and the view was super nice.

Then it was back to Konarak where i wanted to make some more pictures with daylight.

After that I visited some more beaches along the bay of Chabahar. And i went to a swamp to see if there was any crocodiles there as Chabahar is supposed to be filled with them After i drove as much as i dared i went on foot. But i got creeped out by the dense vegetation and mosquito's. So i figured i better turn around before i find what i am looking for and leaving me running for my life.

I drove through Chabahar next and went on to pink lake. The pictures turned out to be a bit shit but the lake was nice to see with all the locals there gathering salt. 

From the pink lake i continued passed the mighty martian mountains to a little village called Beris with big seaside cliffs and beautiful sea views.

I finally finished the day on the beach at Pasabandar with a sunset swim after a nice last drive along the gulf of oman.

The next day was a very hot day with the most spectacular drive of my trip so far. I started on the beach at Pasabandar. Then the locals told me that the road i wanted to take was a bad idea. I didn't have enough diesel to return all the way to Chabahar if for some reason i couldn't continue on the road so i decided it was best to not risk it and listen to the locals. I drove 50km back the way i came from to take a turn to drive to Kalber. After that i drove to Gurgij where i turned on to a main road again and not much later i could fill my tank with diesel again.

By the time i reached Jakigor i was noticing my right rear tire going flat. So i decided to look at it and might as well replace the shocks while i was at it.

Replacing the shocks didnt make the difference i was hoping for so it must be my springs that are wearing out. Anyways i felt ready to tackle some offroad tracks so i drove to Qasr-e-qand and followed the rivier gorge north heading to Iranshahr. This is by far the best thing i did and most beautiful drive i got to enjoy on my trip so far.

As the sun started to set i found myself a nice campsite on a tiny side track where i spend the night.

All morning the next day i was greeted with kilometer after kilometer of beautiful scenery crossing the river a couple of times and even driving the river it self at places. and also a few sweaty hands moments where i had to watch out of the under carriage of my car. By the end of it i was pretty impressed by the fact that i didn't even need my winch.

Around mid day i finally turned on to paved roads again to make my final way to Iranshahr. I got a hotel there for 1.7 million a night. Way to expensive but i just wanted to escape the heat a bit. do my laundry and get some proper wifi. It turned out that they didn't have wifi so i had to still do everything off my sim card but paying 2 euro for 5 gigabyte is not that bad. At day time i went to explorer Iranshar a bit. 

I had learned the Farsi numbers out of my head and when i saw a bakery i tried to order 4 pastries. so i said 4 and pointed to the pastries. Then i got charged 20.000 Toman. which is about 1.8 euros. I thought i got ripped off but whatever them things better taste good then. But to my surprise she went on to fill a box with 2 kilo's of pastries. Whoops. Oh well it took me only 2 days and skipping dinner to finish them on my own. 

I Also went to the clothing market to buy some local clothing with one of the guys from the hotel. 

When i got back to my car i found my front left tire was flat so i had to repair that before i could move on agian.

Now i am at a local farm in Iranshahr thanks to the help of Ebrahim from couch surfing. As this is the end of my post i will drive off to Taftan now to enter Pakistan. I will roughly spend 2.5 weeks in Pakistan before entering Indian and flying back home from Amritsar to go back to work. I hope you like the new weblog as i had to change from wordpress as they charge to much to host my pictures. When i am back home ill try and get all my stories from wordpress over to this site and tidy this blog a bit as its a bit of a mess now. Take care and stay tuned for the next post in hopefully less then 7 weeks.