After arriving late at night in the dark we awake to a stunning view of mountains and the lake. There has been a light coating of snow while we slept as well, it seems to be following us with no signs of letting up, another issue being all the dogs from the previous night have stayed and we now have 7 sitting outside our tent, normally not an issue, except we a re worried about fleas for the cat. But they may have still got a little pet.
A quick coffee down (no longer with amarula ☹) we head south, today will be our first attempt at getting diesel, In Iran, each vehicle sold receives a card for government subsidized fuel, and because petrol is the most common fuel used, you can easily get it at any station as they all have cards. Where as diesel, which at the time was 1.5c per liter, is heavily controlled to stop illegal smuggling to other countries.
We arrive at the first town, and have to try the second fuel station, where we basically just pull up and wait for a diesel powered vehicle to roll up, the key here is to look cute. Lol. Asareh obviously does all the talking, and I shake hands and luckily one bus driver starts helping us, he convinces the next 2 trucks through to give us diesel. We get 20L and 30L from the drivers, and when its time to pay they refuse payment. They are over the moon a westerner is in there country seeing how the people truly are.
With enough diesel in our tank for the next bit of trip we try to leave but the man who helped us, now wants to take us home for lunch, we agree, but we supply many chickens for them to keep for future meals as payment/gift. We get an amazing meal, in a friendly house hold and have a good conversation.
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- Mahabad
This ate up a solid 3 hours so then we did have to finally say we had to go. Pulling away its almost like the whole village has shown up to watch. We continue south heading to Mahabad to do a small restock. Its already getting late, so we grab a small snack and quickly motor on for another 15kms and find a place to pull up along the river. Its not the best camp, but there is a large open area for pina, who is absolutely sick of the leash, He is still young and on this trip we found we had issues keeping him super close to camp. But this issue is now resolved. We enjoy a fake beer before going to bed. It’s another cold night and that heater is keeping us in a 20c comfort zone. Even to hot at some points. Of course a small round of backgammon is played.
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- Good enough for 1 night
