Day: March 8, 2006

Luckily there are your messages to remind us that today is Woman’s’ Day!  Without knowing it, Serge gave me a lovely gift:  “I ran 80 kilometers for you.”  It’s also because the Iranian border is some 155-160 kilometers from today’s departure point, so the calculations are easy. Serge will probably pass the Iranian border tomorrow evening, or at least he will try.

-10 degrees Celsius with fog, so the entire day was white.

The team split in two: René and Georges, the cousins, take care of feeding Serge, whereas Joël and I went as far as Gürbulak, the Turkish border town.

This evening the stage finished half way between Agri and Dogobuyazit, lost in the mountains, so we camped.  It’s difficult to find water because most of the fountains are frozen.  Luckily we met Memis who keeps a fountain running.  It took us a good half hour to fill the reservoirs of the camper and during that time Memis cleaned the trailor for us.

On their end, Georges and René made sure Serge didn’t get bitten by the dogs, who aren’t easy going in these parts.  They met a few people and one man spoke French.  In spite of that the day was rather dull and depressing, even if the route climbed and dipped between 1600 and 2000 meters.  Serge made steady progress.

Thanks go to René for the photos.