(Daniel) I woke up very early this morning, fully charged for a day of driving to the border, and excited at what lay ahead, we had a quick wash in the terrible toilets and then got straight back on the road towards Lake Van.  The Lake was absolutely amazing, around 125 km across with a mountain range on the other side, it looked like a painting from a fantasy story.  We stopped several times to admire the scenery.  After getting to the end of the lake, we pushed on to to the border through some of the most amazing scenery any of us have ever seen.  We had to stop at one point as the sun set over a frozen lake with snow at the shore.  It was an alien landscape, incredibly cold, but so beautiful.  Rowan went crazy taking photos, I have attached a few of them here.

Once we had exhausted ourselves and started to freeze, we pushed on via several army checkpoints, manned by teenagers who wanted to shake hands, and make jokes, to Dogbayazit, an ugly town with an uglier name!  As we approached the town we could see two huge volcanoes towering above it through the clouds, as the darkness was drawing in it made it hard to see them, but I knew that this place would be impressive in the morning, despite its frontier town feel, and dirty streets.

All of this side of Turkey is covered in Army posts, and soldiers seem to make up most of the population of this border town.  We found a very average hotel, I think that it was called the Teyrani Hotel, but couldn't read the sign for the letters which were missing!  The rooms were brown and beige nightmares, with sheets that itched for more reasons than I care to remember, the only saving grace was the shower that was not unlike standing underneath Niagara falls, and at full blast flooded the bathroom, and started out into the room itself! 

After a shower, we walked out to the town, and located a headscarf for gabby, as she will have to wear this at all times in Iran, then we found a restaurant that displayed sheep heads in the window, and stopped here for dinner.  The food was excellent, and the restaurant owner very friendly.  Whilst sitting a man came and spoke to us, he had travelled through the Belugistan desert, and warned us to be extremely careful with crossing it.  I could see the effect that this had on Rowan and Gabby, who certainly didn't sign up for trouble. I thanked him for his advice, and we then left.

Distance driven - 380 miles

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