(Daniel) I got up this morning eager to get further into Iran, and see if there is more to it than this drab town which we had stopped in.  The truck was still in the car park, and cost $1.20 to extract, the traffic was much quiter in the morning, and so it was an easy drive out to the main road.  We stopped at several garages, butu all of them seemed to be out of diesel. The Sat nav took us onto a huge Autobahn, which we assumed would have a fuel station on, as the Wolf was running a bit low now.  After 2 hours on the road things started to get desperate.  The road was amazing, brand new, and scraped clean of snow and ice.  We had seen just a handful of lorries and one car, which was driving the wrong way down the other side of the road when we saw it.

As the fuel situation got worse and worse, we had to turn off the highway, and head toward a small town that we could see in the distance.  We just made it, and pulled over to find that the place was all but deserted.  A bus pulled over, and we asked about Gazoil.  He motioned to drive further down the road, but the sat nav showed that it would be a good 35km to the next town.  He seemed to be saying something else about 3km, so we pressed on.  Around the corner, about three km further down the road, we came across a tea house with lots of barrels at the front, and decided to stop.  After speaking to the men inside, it emerged that we had stumbled on a black market fuel seller.  We paid him for around 30 litres, obviously we paid too much, as he plied us with tea, and took our photo.  With our new fuel we pressed on to the town 30 km back down the road.  As we approached there was a fuel station with Lorries cueing up outside.

We approached and got into the cue, eventually getting to the front.  I then realised that this cheap fuel was the problem, because it was so cheap, people use it like water, and so it runs out all the time, making it in more demand, and therefore we are fighting with every truck driver and black marketer in Iran to buy it.  I pulled up to the pump, and the attendant told me to go away, with had gestures etc.  the lorry drivers started beeping and cursing, and I got really stressed.  I offered the guy 20,000 to let me fill up, he agreed, and we filled up, covering myself in diesel in the rush to get it all done.  We now knew the answer to the fuel problem, and ate a kebab at the roadside before driving back to the highway, and then on to Qazvin.

Qazvin was a much nicer town, with people getting out of their cars I the traffic to shake my hand and ask where we are all from.  The building's were much nicer, with palaces and mosques, and people seemed more relaxed.  We drove around town and really struggled to find a spot to park, the sun went down and rush hour set in again.  Eventually after trying several car parks, we started to get stressed again, and I pulled up outside a private car park.  Inside a woman spoke English and got her boss to agree to let us park there for the night.  She even gave us a gift of biscuits to welcome us to Iran!

We walked back to the Hotel Iran and checked in, then down to a local restaurant for our first meal

Distance driven - 410 miles

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