(Daniel) I woke up early this morning, which was good, as lately I have been sleeping later and later!  After a cup of tea with the night porter I emptied out the truck, ready to take it to a car wash later for major disinfection.

When I returned Rowan and Gabby had woken up, and the three of us walked across the road to The Marco Polo for breakfast.  At breakfast I met a group of Tehranis, one of whom now lives in Oxford, and we had a nice chat about the country and politics, an understandably popular subject with Iranians.  It turns out that they had experienced a similar desert trip the day before also, having driven to Garme, and then broken down in their Range Rover, which funnily enough I did see outside the police station whilst we were limping back from our adventure!

After this I returned to the Hotel, and met Bobek, we arranged to go to the carwash after lunch and then to call the mechanic to see if the trailer was ready.  Over lunch Rowan, Gabby and I discussed the route for India, as it seems that we will have to drive from one side to the other, possibly doubling back several times, and then we have the dilemma of where to ship from, and then where to fly from.  His was a long conversation, but basically ended in the same way as they usually do, we will try and get it all in, and see what happens on the ground!  Nepal was in the balance, but we have opted to keep it for now.

After lunch I went to pick up Bobek, and we drove through town together to a car wash.  The labour for these is not cheap in Iran, and I am generally paying around 6-7 dollars, this is expensive compared to 1-2 euros in most other countries after Austria!  The wash took about and hour and a half, and Bobek and I took the opportunity to discuss his future plans.  A couple of days before we had mentioned the possibility of him joining us until Thailand, but he does not have a passport, and would need to sort this out first, then join us in Pakistan, or India.  He really does want to come, but I fear that the paperwork will be too much to overcome, especially in this country, and in light of the fact that he has tried to claim asylum in another country before.  I hope that he does fix this problem and join us, as Bobek has proved himself to be an amazing person, worthy of anyone's efforts to help him, he gives his all for anyone, and is very easy to spend time with.  All of us agreed that it would be great if he could join us, and if anyone out there can help him, especially in this tricky time for Iran, please let me know.

After our chat, I gave Bobek a present of the silver necklace which I bought in Thailand some years ago, and never wear, at least it is worth something, and may help him in a tight spot one day, if not then it is a nice memento, and certainly looks better on him than on me!  We then called the mechanic, who had finished the trailer, so we drove back out to his workshop, and after some adjustment the work was complete.  The parts which I had bought the day before including two spares had come to $8, the repair work, which had probably been a couple of hours came to $7, any garages in the UK reading this, take note at what real value for money is!

We returned then to The Silk Road, and had dinner, it was Italian night, and everyone was talking about this Italian chef, the food was mediocre at best, and afterwards it emerged that the chef actually came from a village near Yazd!  After dinner, Bobek took us for a walk in the alleys, and ended up in a beautiful tea house that used to be a baths, we sat down and had cardamom and cinnamon Darjeeling tea.  It was a nice end to our time in Yazd, and we walked home more than a little sad at the prospect of not seeing our friend Bobek again.

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