Iran (August 5th, 2011)
We woke up at 5:30AM to leave Kahta by 6:00AM and make it to the 7:00AM ferry. The place that looked so desolated last night was full of live and a small ferry was floating on the bank of the road. We boarded the ferry and soon we were the topic of conversation of everyone on board. People gathered around the car and we tried to convey what we were trying to do. I’m not sure if they ever really understood us, but it was still a fun ride. A couple of little kids asked us to take pictures of them and huge smiles appeared when we agreed.
Crossing the body of water we confirmed what we had read on our guidebook – this used to be a road that had been flooded. Every now and then you could see road signs sticking out of the water.
Our goal for the day was to cross the Iran border. On the way we struggled with the Turkish roads which were heavily under construction. Despite the breathtaking scenery of southeastern Anatolia, we were constantly frustrated as few kilometers often turned into long hours of driving.
Right before arriving to the Iran border we made a bet. Enrique said it would take us 45 minutes to cross it, I said an hour, and Andres said 2 hours. The process for crossing with a car wasn’t entirely straightforward but we figured it out. Andres had to drive the car through the border after getting stamped out of Turkey. Enrique and myself had to walk across the border and meet Andres on the other side.
Crossing the border took about 5 minutes for Enrique and myself and another 46 for Andres, since quite a lot of paperwork is required to be shown and the car had to be inspected by a guard.
And then something wonderful happened. Everything we had read about Iran said that it was important to leave all stereotypes behind and enter the country with an open mind. Literature claimed Iranians are amongst the most friendly and welcoming people in the world. At the border we entertained curious locals and friendly guards with many questions about our trip into Iran as the looked at the car, our maps, and guidebooks with utmost detail and wonder. Friendliness is an understatement.
The people we’ve met so far are incredibly hospitable. They love that we’re visiting Iran. We were given phone numbers to reach out in case of emergencies, we were asked for Facebook accounts to stay in touch, and we even had a guy drive in front of us to guide us to the nearest gas station and buy gas for us (in Iran, foreigners must obtain a permit to buy gas and the rate for it is about four times as expensive as for the locals – we didn’t have that card yet but needed gas badly, which the guy who led the way described as “cheaper than water”).
And then, we took an impressive highway that connects Tabriz with Tehran. With smooth asphalt, 6 lanes, indications in Farsi and English, welcoming and patient toll booth attendants, and good lighting – it came as true bliss after the heavily under construction Turkish road nightmare we had endured that morning.
We made it to our destination after over 1200 kilometers and 16 hours of driving. It was definitely a long day, but definitely necessary in order to play catchup with time.
We spent the night in Zanjan.
The Car
We’ve had a couple of failures with the car that I hadn’t had time to post. Here they come:
Hydraulic Steering System Failure
Sometimes when we steer too hard (usually while maneuvering in a tight space at slow speeds – think parking or u-turning), our hydraulic steering system fails which means the steering wheel gets pretty hard to move. It’s safe to continue driving like this, but stopping and starting the engine seems to fix the problem. This is a recurrent issue and has happened sporadically throughout the trip.
Fuse Blowout
A couple of days ago (I believe it was between Romania and Bulgaria), we had a small electrical meltdown. To our cigarette lighter we hooked up a 12V splitter. To one 12V supply we connected our mapless GPS unit which provides us with distances covered in kilometers (the car, being English, uses the terribly inconvenient measuring unit called “miles”), altitude in meters, GPS coordinates, average driving speed, and many other metrics that have proven to be terribly useful while navigating. To the other 12V supply, we hooked up a DC to AC inverter so we could charge up our electronics while on the road (mainly batteries for our cameras and sometimes cellphones). The problem is that the hole for the cigarette lighter is way bigger than anything we’ve tried to hook into it, so our splitter is using combination of duct and masking tape to stay in place, but it invariably becomes loose. The spikes in current that occur from quick disconnections and connections blew up a fuse in the car’s electrical system, then a fuse in the splitter, then one in the inverter, and finally another fuse in the car’s electrical system. We re-ingenered things in the road and it’s been more stable now.
Engine light
We also had the engine light come up once more, this time without the temperature gauge dropping to zero. We decided to continue driving since we’d seen so many faults with the electrical system and the light went off by itself. It hasn’t turned on in the last couple of days.
Driver’s Door
No idea how this happened, but while we were in the Cappadocia, the driver’s door just wouldn’t close. A lot of fiddling with the locks and the door got it working again. The problem reoccurred that same day once more but it has gone away ever since.
Media
We’ve struggled really hard finding fast internet connections lately, which prohibits us from uploading videos or pictures. We’ll continue monitoring the situation and will surely upload some stuff when/if we can.