Today was a relatively short day, but a wild day. We start by packing up from Ilam and heading south, crazy right? Not only did we head south, but we even bought new pillows! Absolutely wild… Just kidding, Now the best part of heading south from Ilam is you go through a town called jafarabad, Like the guy from Aladdin.. the bad guy. Here they make soft serve ice cream from fresh full cream milk, mind blowing good, we get ice cream driving into town, and grab a second cone on exit!!
Todays short drive takes us to Chenar Bashi where we cut off the main highway and start heading into the mountains, my goal is to get as far back as possible, and possible somehow cut the last 1km through the pass where there is no road to get me back to the highway without the back track, as we travel there are small trails all over and we figure it will be doable, although I figure it may be a winch required situation and the plan is I will get up extra early and go for a quick hike up to judge if it passable. The topo map shows its steep but doable.
We stop in at a local family to introduce ourselves and state that we will be camping way back in the mountains just incase they have shepherds out there it wont cause us any grief. Well It actually may have caused us extra grief.
We pull up at the absolute end of the road, and setup for a relaxing night, I have been sussing the climb out, it looks doable and I am excited. So we continue our nightly activities, aka me following the cat around as he explores and of course standing on a large rock and posing, because why not?
Disclaimer: Iran is a safe country, I understand the next part wont sound safe, but we have no idea why these guys really had a problem with us, but you have to remember there are a few theories from the locals and family we spoke to, basically, it could have been teenagers just fucking with us, older guys pissed a westerner is with an Iran woman, as they would have no idea we are married, or the final reason could have simply been that in that area there is a shit ton of treasure left from the persian empire, and I could have been seen as a treasure hunter with our fancy setup. Either way, we left and it was done with.
The prior night we had air shots fired near the camp and knew how far they were and understood the sound since it was a celebration night, so tonight we had a good idea on range as we were there, as the sun set we had a fire and were chilling around the fire, we had bought these instant noodles to try for a lazy meal, which is rare, but we were in the mood for it, then BANG! An air shot maybe 50 meters away, we ignore it as the shepherds may be chasing away wolves or other predators, so we continue eating without worry.
BANG! A second shot the same distance away, but it’s been about 5 minutes so we figure same issue. I still continue to eat my noodles.
Maybe 4 minutes now later, and much closer, maybe 30 meters, BANG a third air shot, okay, ill get up now, we decide the goal is to pack up out camping gear and shut the lights off, this doesn’t even last 2 minutes.
BANGGGG!! This shot is behind the big rock we parked next to, Asareh starts yelling in Kurdish we are leaving and they stop with the shots are we finish our stressful pack up. With lights blazing we head out of the valley with pace and by pace, I mean we are pretty sure we dusted the small village out on our way through, there was no way I was stopping till we hit the highway. But before we see the motorbike and assume it must be the gun owners, but we continue driving the 5kms back to the small village. Back out on the main road we find a safe spot to camp for the night with out issues. A bit stressful, but we will never know the reason.
