Turkey & Iran

Thursday March 21st
Another very cold night. On the road at 5.45 – dawn came up very quickly.

We noticed that most Bulgarians are fair-skinned and European-looking, but some had darker skins – particularly the peasants.

Crossed frontier into Turkey between Svilengrad and Edirne at 7.00 a.m. Drove into Istanbul about 12.30 midday. Parked Dormobile and looked over Blue Mosque which was most impressive – then walked to Topkapi Museum, which was full of fascinating exhibits. Drove Dormobile to G.P.O. and posted letters home – asked for letters at Poste Restante – none. Asked to have them redirected to Quetta. Spent altogether 3½–4 hours in Istanbul. Drove to Ferry and caught one immediately – crossed Bosphorus – lovely and sunny and warm.

On other side (now in Asia) drove on for 60 miles or so – had supper at garage. Driving in Istanbul was hair-raising and hysterically funny – apparently no rules of the road, and all pedestrians potential suicides. Are staying at garage for the night.

Speedometer Reading: 2737    Mileage: 281

Notes
Throughout Turkey we have had to go back to the cheap grade petrol, as it is all that is obtainable. Difficult to say whether it affects mileage on the flat, but it is no help in the mountainous countryside. Pinked badly all through Turkey, and over-running again – also labouring on the slightest incline. The local petrol is by far the most efficient – Mobil, B.P. and Shell are hopeless.

We have probably maligned the above mentioned brands of petrol, as we have since been told that they more than likely adulterate it, in order to boost sales of local petrol.

Friday March 22nd
Very cold night, though it had seemed warmer in the early evening. No one moved us along so we stayed put in the garage precincts on the edge of the main road. Very noisy night.

On road at 5.25. Checked water and filled up oil from our own supplies at breakfast stop 120 miles further on. Porridge and bacon and eggs as usual for breakfast. Filled up both water tanks at so-called drinking tap – most Turks appear to consider the water unfit for drinking and drink bottled water, so we are now using chlorodyne tablets in the water, and taking Enterovioform tablets as a safeguard.

Were stopped 10 minutes 60 miles west of Ankara – road blockage due to rock fall. Tremendous climb up into the snow again – Talked to Turk at road blockage who spoke English. He gave us a packet of Turkish cigarettes.

The last two days have been warm and sunny (except very high up) but mornings, evenings and nights are bitterly cold. Held up again 20 miles from Ankara for 45 minutes – target practice. Peter sold 40 Dunhill cigarettes for 8 Lira to a Turk, in sign language. Good advertising and we can do with the money.

On to Ankara – no signposts – on outskirts of town passed a man on English motor-bike and chatted to him as the traffic moved slowly along. He was heading for Karachi. We hope to see him on the road again. Finally got through Ankara after losing our way once. Have diverged from the AA route from Ankara to Erzurum, and are taking what appears to be a more direct route through the centre of Turkey, instead of travelling up North and down again. Turned off main road 20 miles before Yosgat and slept down side road – Irish stew and beans for supper. Peter says there are probably bears around, which has scared me.

Speedometer Reading: 3085    Mileage: 348

Saturday 23rd March
Woke up colder than ever – ice on inside of windscreen – on road at 5.15. Broad daylight by 6.00 a.m. Have noticed over last 24 hours that front left tyre is losing pressure slightly faster than the others – hope we haven’t got a slow puncture. More snow on hillside – think we must have been very high up last night.

Central Turkey very mountainous and barren, but spectacular scenery going over the mountains, travelling, we reckon, at anything from 3/12000 feet up. Road very rough to begin with, but improved. Deteriorated again later. Bought sweeping brush in Yildizeli village. Our diversion has turned out to be a fairly perilous mountain road – steep hair-pin bends and slopes, but wonderful scenery.

Ran very short of money at one point and on approaching small town, asked for Bank. A very helpful man found us the Banker (Banks all shut – Saturday p.m., and tomorrow Sunday, all of which we had forgotten) – the Bank was opened for us and we changed a £5 note for some Lira – very lucky. On offering our helper a drink of Roses Lime juice, he thought we were offering the entire bottle which he grabbed exclaiming “Visky, Visky”, at which point we departed hastily – he seemed too well-dressed to tip, and did not smoke, so we could think of no other way to thank him.

Drove a few miles outside village, and decided not to risk another long climb into the mountains, in case it got dark before we dropped down again. We reckon we are fairly high up here, even in the Valley.

We drove into a petrol station (one pump) for petrol at 4.45, and as the man seemed pleasant we asked, in sign language if we could park there for the night. He agreed and as it was so early we have had our first spring-clean – the garage chap got us water, and while I cleaned the inside, Peter did the windscreen, windows etc. In the village, we bought two plastic jerry cans and filled them with petrol – so with our original spare gallon, we now have three spare gallons. We have miles of mountain passes to do yet, and a long stretch in Persia with no available petrol, we are told, for 275 miles.

Being my Wedding Anniversary, we had a celebration dinner – soup and sherry, followed by chicken (tinned) with mushroom sauce and potato, accompanied by half a bottle of Rosé d’Anjou. Good – except that the chicken was like cotton wool. The garage man thinks we are mad.

The whole Dormobile has been covered in dust for the last 24 hours – everything dry and dusty. Found it has even come up the waste pipe into the sink – couldn’t understand why the sink was full of dirt last night. We now realise it has been blown up the waste pipe which hangs down below the van.

The garage man and his pals have been intrigued by the Dormobile and our cleaning activities – everyone is interested in it, and all most friendly in this Eastern side of Turkey. All country folk. The Banker, yesterday, gave us 20 Turkish cigarettes. We’ve used the others to offer people who help us, and as tips for garage hands. Saves us precious currency, all of which we need for petrol.

After we had finished supper, the garage man came over to the van and asked us – in sign language – if we would like to go over to their back room where they had a red-hot stove burning (peat?). Peter took over our Nescafe, dried milk, sugar, cups etc., and with the aid of their kettle we made cups of coffee all round – passing round our Turkish cigarettes. They had a radio on, playing Turkish music, so Peter fetched his Tape Recorder and gave them a sample of English pop music – don’t think they reckoned much to it. He then recorded them speaking into it and played it back to them. There were about 6 of them, some from the garage opposite. One chap took Peter outside and sang a song into the tape recorder which was then played back in the room – he was obviously very pleased with his performance and we all clapped madly, and we couldn’t stop him singing and listening to it being played back.

Everyone most hospitable and friendly. Back to van and bed. Most successful day yet.

Speedometer Reading: 3356    Mileage: 270

Sunday March 24th
Woke up frozen to death – worst cold yet. We are still in the heart of the mountains – all windows inside the van were iced up, and windscreen solid with ice. So cold in bed got up at 4.15 and set off at 4.45 after usual cup of coffee. Dawn already breaking at 4.30 – broad daylight at 5.30 – only we do not really know the correct time. Windy precipitous road to Erzincan, then good stretch through mountains to Erzurum (6,800ft up). Very sunny by day, with clear blue skies and thick sparkling snow. Fantastic climb after Erzurum – probably up to 14,000ft. It is perishingly cold. Banks of deep snow everywhere. Camera not working properly – may have spoilt some good shots. Over the highest pass, but still very high – now parked for the night at another petrol station – wonder if we shall survive. We have been parked here 1½ hours and already the windows are iced up inside. Had supper, and were so frozen went into garage to warm up. Stayed there some time and were given Turkish tea to drink and a glass of powerful stuff to drink, called Raki (pronounced Rukker) – tasted of aniseed and nearly blew our heads off, but warmed us up as it went down.

Two men manning garage, and the party livened up. One man produced a rifle and a sawn-off shot-gun and showed us 2 fox pelts he had shot. He offered to take Peter out shooting for foxes at 10.00 p.m., so off they went into the deep frozen snow into about 20 degrees or more of frost. (Peter still communicating with them in sign language.) They were soon back as there were no foxes around – pity.

It was so unbearably cold in the van, that we debated as to whether we should drive on through the night to keep warmer, and to keep the van from getting iced up. So far we have had no trouble in starting the engine each morning, in spite of the cold, and our early starts are in self-defence. Once the engine is warmed up, the heater is extremely efficient, and we soon warm up. Our paraffin heater is of little use in this extreme cold. In the end we put our sleeping bags down on the floor of the outer room of the garage where there was a coke stove burning, and slept, after a fashion, for a short period, till the fire went out. The floor was made of concrete and was very dusty, and we were not sorry to get up and on our way.

All the country people have been amazingly friendly and hospitable, and Peter gets on terribly well with them, and somehow manages to carry on a conversation with them, although we have no common language. They have, however, taught us quite a lot of Turkish words, and we have taught them some English ones.

Speedometer Reading: 3676    Mileage: 321

Monday March 25th
Woke at 3.30 and found fire had gone out – very cold, so collected up belongings. Dormobile windows iced up, icicles hanging from the roof, and we could not have our usual coffee as the water in our 4 gallon plastic containers had frozen solid. Set off on the road at 4.45, leaving a note for our friends saying “Teșekur”, which we had learned was Turkish for “Thank you”, and a packet of cigarettes, which seemed a poor return for all their kindness, but all we could think up.

We had a gradual descent (thank goodness) of 100 miles to the Turkish/Iranian border, which we reached about 8.00 a.m. Somewhat held up there, as they weren’t really open for business – and were highly inefficient anyway.

Peter was topping up the radiator while I did the last of the formalities, when the official who was dealing with me suddenly turned round and kicked a fairly harmless individual twice on his backside, shook him vigorously and then gave him a last kick on the shin, before resuming stamping my passport! The most astounding thing I have ever witnessed. We got through Customs eventually, and are running along a wide plain – well below snow level at last thank goodness – heading for Tabriz. I think we have a lot of high ground again in Persia, but pray it will not be anything like Turkey.

We had a wonderful view of Mount Ararat just to the north of us, just before we crossed the frontier. There are snow covered mountains all round us – we just hope we do not have to climb them. My camera has packed up, due, I think, to having been hurled round the van with all our other possessions, and I think 2 reels are wasted.

We are now nice and warm as we are lower down, and the sun gets very hot by day. During our lunch stop we played back two songs which one of our Turkish friends had recorded for us on the Tape Recorder last night – both very tuneless but good for a laugh, but I don’t think they’ll reach the top ten. We have also been memorising some of the Turkish words we learnt – they might come in useful on the way back. Now in Persia, it seems that camels are used mostly as beasts of burden, instead of the donkeys we saw throughout Turkey.

At the frontier we talked to a very well educated Pakistani, travelling to England with his wife and family. He had previously worked in England, had motored to Pakistan for a holiday, worn his car out on the journey, and was returning to England – part of the way by bus, and then by train from Istanbul. As he was waiting for his bus, and we were waiting for Customs to deal with us, we made coffee for everyone in the Dormobile. The water was beginning to thaw out, but there was still a lot of ice rattling about in the tanks. He gave us the name and address of his family in Lahore, and suggested that we might pay them a visit on our way through.

Drove on to Tabriz, and as Tehran is too far to go today, and we do not want to be caught in the hills again for the night, we are stopping here. Peter seems to be brewing a cold, so instead of sleeping in the van, we have parked it in a garage, and have booked a room in a very cheap hotel – no showers or baths, unfortunately, and only a row of basins, in the passage, so we shall not get a wash. Actually the whole place is filthy, and we shall probably catch something much worse than colds, but we’ve only had about 4 hours sleep a night for the last 4 or 5 nights, and we need a good sleep.

Decided, as we were parted from the van anyway, to go out for some food. We had exchanged Persian Tumans for £ notes with our Pakistani friend at the border, which suited everyone very well, as there was no Bank at the frontier, and no means of obtaining Persian currency. We both wanted Kebabs as we had seen them being cooked by the side of the road, but it was too cold to eat them outside, so we asked for a restaurant where we could get them. After a lot of difficulties, a man appeared who could speak English – he took us to a shop-house, where we had a plate of rice (he had food with us too), kebabs and chapatti – also very white butter which we learnt was made from sheep’s milk. He turned out to be in the Air Force and was on leave from Tehran.

Advanced watches 1½ hours. Back to hotel and had a long night’s sleep. Hotel pretty awful, but only 10/- for both of us – so can’t expect much. Slept for hours and hours and hours. Our food was expensive but good.

Speedometer Reading: 3962    Mileage: 286

Tuesday March 26th
Both feel much refreshed after good night’s sleep. On the road at 7.15 (late for us). Nothing appears to be missing from the van, but we think someone has syphoned some petrol from the tank. Heading for Tehran – took wrong road as they are improving the existing road which is very bad. Eventually got on the right track. After 30 miles or so, we got on to a wonderful stretch of tarred road, and increased speed.

Appalling lack of petrol stations in Iran. Ran tank dry, and filled up with two of our spare gallons. About 8 miles further on, Peter remembered he had left the petrol tank cap on the roof – we turned back to where we had filled up, and hunted for it, but no luck. Filled tank up about 16 miles further on and have made improvised cap out of tin foil and string.

Bacon is now finished, so is the milk (lasted a week). Bread, now very dry, which we also brought with us, is almost finished too. We reached Qazvin just before 6.00 p.m. (about 93 miles from Tehran) – bought petrol, and the man tried to diddle us on the price (all figures here are in Arabic, not Roman) but Peter was too clever for him, and to his annoyance, worked out the correct price.

We are sleeping in a service station backyard. Nice and secure. Proprietor very kind and gave us Persian tea which is delicious, and is not charging us for sleeping in his garage. Like all Persians we have come across he wants to buy cameras, radios, tape recorders etc – v. odd. He has supplied us with a new cap for our petrol tank. We have been very lucky tonight.

Speedometer Reading: 4302    Mileage: 339

Wednesday March 27th
Had a good night’s sleep in our lock-up garage. Gave night-watchman 2 Tuman (about 2/6d) don’t think he was over pleased, but he hadn’t done anything for us.

Got into Tehran about 9.00 a.m., and had ghastly time – traffic and driving appalling and everyone as rude and unhelpful as they could be. Went first to British Embassy (helpful) and were told we should report to Pakistan Embassy for road pass into Pakistan. Left van at B. Embassy, and walked miles to Pakistan Embassy, where we were told we had to fill in 7 forms (all identical) each, and produce 2 photographs. We can deal with this also at Zahedan (near border) but why did the Pakistan Embassy in London not inform us of this when we applied for a visa before leaving, which they told us we did not need? We took our 14 forms and looked for quick passport photograph shop but no luck – shops closed for lunch. Bought eggs and oranges. I also bought a cheap Instamatic Camera (£3 approx) to use until mine can be mended. Fed up with Tehran – everyone nasty.

Took wrong road out of Tehran, (no signposts) and had to turn back into the town to find the right road. Really very warm today, but howling gale. Collapsed by the side of the road, cross and tired, for cold drinks and fruit. Posted letters home in Tehran, but there was nothing for us at the Poste Restante. We are well ahead of schedule. Having left Tehran (thankfully) about 3.00 p.m. we reached Saveh (89 miles from Tehran) and asked the Police if we could park the van in the Police Station grounds, sleeping in it, to which they agreed, and seem friendly. We are once again without a petrol tank cap, as I removed it on the Police Lamp-post when backing in! Back to tinfoil again.

Speedometer Reading: 4500    Mileage: 199

Thursday March 28th
The Police last night insisted on taking our Passport particulars – don’t know why. On the road at 5.30, heading for Esfahan. All local petrol here – we get super whenever possible, but it is scarce, so we mostly have to manage on the lower grade which actually is pretty good. Anthony’s chocolate, which he gave us before we left, is now finished. It has been much appreciated, while we’ve been driving along, and was something we had not thought of ourselves.

Got to Esfahan at 11.00 a.m. Bought another petrol cap – didn’t fit very well, but Peter has filed it down. Met American Tourists staying in fabulous Shah Abbas Hotel. They told us where we could buy bread, and let us have a quick wash in their luxurious bathroom. We are both very grubby most of the time.

Left Esfahan at 1.30. Didn’t manage to see much, as we didn’t like to leave the Dormobile unattended. Drove on to Nain – the poor van battling against strong head-wind and slight upward slope – struggling along at 35 m.p.h. We are so laden down with gear that without a wind we find our maximum speed on the flat is about 50 m.p.h. (have been known to do 57 downhill!)

Good road to Nain – from then on ghastly corrugated surface – water slopped all over the floor etc. – awful mess. Fetched up at Police Post (they call it a Gendarmerie here) for night. Sergeant very nice once he’d seen our passports etc. Gave us Iranian tea – like Turkish – very good and most refreshing. 700 miles of Persia still to do, on very bad roads. Bought bread today.

Speedometer Reading: 4849    Mileage: 349

Friday March 29th
On road at 6.00 a.m. Feel quite sure that our walled fortress we were ensconced in last night is a relic of the French Foreign Legion – it had all the appearance of it.

At Yazd, an industrial town where they make carpets, the tarred road ceased and we are now on what is termed a 1st class dust road. It is very warm today, blazing sun, but a howling wind, making a haze of dust everywhere. We have changed into thinner clothes. Peter has tightened up screws throughout the interior of the Dormobile – they have all rattled loose – more and more trouble with the kitchen cabinet doors, one of which has been sticking since the second day away.

We have done a good 200 miles along this ghastly road – corrugated surface with loose gravel and stones – our speed has been cut too, by high wind. Dreadful jolting and rattling. One side of bumper (front) has lost nut – found nut that fitted in our collection, only to find that the bolt had gone. Peter fixing it as well as he can – one side still firm. God help anyone travelling on a 2nd class dust road!! Talked to a boy at a garage who spoke a little English – he asked for matchboxes for his collection, so I swapped a Jersey box for an Iranian one for Anthony’s collection. Now in Kerman – quite large – parked for night in road outside Police Station – not very cosy, but secure. Peter reports bodywork almost adrift from chassis on van – he has again been round all the nuts and bolts.

Speedometer Reading: 5165    Mileage: 316

Saturday March 30th
Rather unsettled night – on our way at 6.00. While we were having breakfast we were passed by an Estate Car with British number plate. The car turned back and we found the occupants were a young New Zealand couple touring the world from England to N. Z. He was a geologist and was making it a working holiday, collecting rocks etc., en route. We gave them a cup of coffee. Later on we met up again with them – they are also heading for Pakistan, and we all had a cold drink together. They travel faster than we do, but we found them again later on winding up a roll of lavatory paper which had fallen out of their boot when the lid opened up suddenly on a particularly violent jolt. We have now joined forces with them on the top of the Afghan Pass, where we shall all sleep the night. They have a tent. We have just had an aperitif with them, and have left them with a glass of Vin Rosé each to have with their dinner! We have been plugging along our dust road all day – very hot weather now – Dormobile full of dust and dirt, and we are filthy and rather tired. This morning we threw away our thick winter clothes and the packet of porridge oats – obviously too hot for porridge from now on, though it was invaluable and warming through the cold weather.

We had been warned that there was no petrol to be had from Bam to Zahedan (260 miles or so), so we had filled our 3 spare 1 gallon tanks. On filling up we found that we had lost so much petrol out of the tanks through leakage due to the eternal jolting that we had not got enough. Luckily the Carters (N. Z.) let us have some.

Speedometer Reading: 5435    Mileage: 268