(Daniel) We woke at 6am this morning, to get the long drive to Kermon underway early. Today would mark our entry into Baluchistan, which we have been told is the most risky stage of the expedition. The showers in the campsite were not very warm, so it didn’t take long to get out of there and on the road. Just before we left, we met a couple of rally drivers who had arrived for a rally which was taking place here today. Saumon, if you are reading this, Iran does have motorsports!
It didn’t take us long to get on the main road to Kermon, we stopped for supplies, and pretty soon we were flying along on single lane carriageways again, back up into the mountains, overlooking a huge lake, and then down into desert on the other side. One of the things that has been happening on these desert roads, is that the small road runner birds keep flying infornt of the Wolf as we drive. This leads to a noticeable pop when you hit the poor things, and then a tiny thud, thud, thud, when we stop as they fall off. The Wolf has multiple marks on the front, with a round dusty mark, with a red brown triangle going in one direction, and a yellow brown triangle going in the other. Pretty morbid, and I do feel sorry for the birds.
We pushed on along the 750kms route. Not wanting to stop, even if there was somewhere to, which there wasn’t. Rowan made sandwiches as we drove, and after about 500km Gabby took over, she drove a couple of hundred more km into the outskirts of Kermon and I then took us in to the town. The place had a very frontier feel to it, spread out with room for improvement. We found the hotel which Gabby had earmarked, and checked in after some fierce negotiating. KNowing that we may lose contact for a while, we found an internet café to send our messages of love etc. Tomorrow we would embark on what we expect to be the most dangerous few days of the expedition, the Belugistan desert.
When we returned to the hotel a couple of Germans had checked in, they were returning from overlanding through India and Pakistan, and got chatting to Rowan who was amazed to hear that they had struggled to make 200km per day in the two countries. After seeing their vehicle, a VW camper with 13 inch wheels and slim road tyres, I wasn’t too surprised. Surely on potholed roads this vehicle would have to be averaging a brisk walking pace, no wonder they struggled with mileage. Inside though, I secretly hoped that we would not be in a similar situation a few days from now. These are the first other overlanders that we have seen on the journey so far.
No doubt tonight we will sleep through more nightmares, our minds trying to make sense of the constant change that comes on a trip like this.
Distance driven 745kms