(Daniel) This morning I got up early and walked to a sweet shop near the hotel. I bought a big box of assorted sweets and then walked back to the place where the car was parked. The gates were locked but an old man walking past helped me to get some attention. The man from yesterday came out and accepted my gift of the sweets. I noticed that the acceptance was somewhat begrudging, and wondered what the problem could be. He then walked around to the trailer and asked me what the UN logo on the top of the fridge container meant. I was on the spot, and told a lie saying that it was ex-military and cheaper to buy, he seemed to accept the explanation. But it was obvious that he and his neighbours had been looking very hard at the vehicle while we were away.
After this difficult question, he had many more, about the vehicle, and the equipment, what we were doing in Iran, and what we thought of the place. My new grasp of Farsi numbers helped me to explain some of the facts about our journey and the vehicle. For instance by writing the fuel economy and range etc in the dust that covered the truck, the map which is on the front also came in very useful to explain our route. After our chat, his attitude had changed and he was all handshakes and good luck wishes. This made me feel much better, but I made a note to do something about the UN logo on the trailer. His son Mohammed came with me, to show me the short cut back to the hotel through the lanes, and find a parking space. On the way we talked about the town and Iran, it was very interesting, and I realised that Iranian people are very friendly indeed.
When I returned to the hotel, Rowan and Gabby were awake, and we walked out to find some breakfast. Being Friday most places were closed. We discussed the idea of driving out to reach the Assassins castle, a ruin of around 90 castles not far from the city. However, this didn’t appeal to everyone, so instead we decided to go back to the Hotel and check out, opting to head further into Iran when the roads were quiet.
As we drove, the landscapes we passed changed from forests and fields, to mountainous deserts, and then the mountains got further apart, until we found ourselves driving in huge expanses of gravel and sand, the first taste of what is to come. En-route, we stopped at a fuel station that was quiet and paid some backshish to fill up all 7 of our Jerry cans. The guy was more than happy and filled up the cans for us. He rushed me to hide them away in case anyone came. In my hurry to get them onto the roof, I slipped and one came open, spilling gallons of Diesel all over me and the truck, it also went into the rear door which Rowan had left open.
The onward journey was very smelly, and although no-one said anything it was extremely unpleasant for us all. The only saving grace was that we now have 140litres of emergency reserve fuel on top of our 170 litres that the Wolfs two fuel tanks can hold. Before I hear from anyone about weight etc. The weight is distributed all around the vehicle, with most of the fuel either in the trailer, or the fuel lockers on the sides of the Wolf. In a country where fuel costs 1.5 cent a litre, I don’t think that we will have an issue with economy! The reason that we have this extra fuel apart from emergencies, is to get through the Belugistan desert in one piece, and it is a great comfort having it on board.
We arrived in Esfahan after dark, and luckily drove straight to the hotel district. Once again, the traffic had turned to chaos, as we pushed and waived our way through to the street where the Ariel hotel was located. When we arrived we couldn’t find the place, and ended up walking around, only to eventually find it closed, now out of business. We walked to three other hotels in the area, all of which were overpriced and really poor quality. Getting frustrated we talked about checking into the cheapest one, and starting again tomorrow. While talking, we came across a newly refurbished hotel that looked way out of our price range, we looked in and decided to just find out how much the rooms were.
When we walked in it was obvious that this was not a backpacker joint, and the very smart receptionist behind the desk greeted us with a pretty funny look! We asked about the price of rooms, and jokingly asked him to include the super extra special discount. OK he said, our singles are $45, but with the super extra discount this comes to $25, the doubles are $65, but applying the same discount, we can do it for $33. This was slightly more than our budget, but the place looked great, so we took a look, and decided to stay. We checked in and I went to get the Wolf. Luckily as I returned there were two spaces free right outside the door of the Hotel. I parked there, right under my window, and we removed all of the bags and did a full lockdown of all cabinets etc. After locking up the bags in the room, we thanked the receptionist, (Dariush) and walked out to find dinner, this ended up being some fast food from a place across the road. Iran is currently going through a fast food craze, and young people flock to pizza and burger joints everyday. The food was pretty terrible, but filled a hole. We didn’t finish, but went back to the hotel to sleep.
On the way upstairs I tipped the nightporter $3 and asked him to keep a watchful eye on the truck. He was more than obliging, and after this couldn’t do enough to please me. After a really good shower to wash the Diesel off my feet and out of my hair, I had a great nights sleep.
Distance driven – 410 miles