J86 – 3/13/2006

It was a hellish day.  On the agenda: very heavy traffic and more than enough dust and pollution.

Serge felt a bit better than yesterday and was lucky to start out in the sunshine.  The light was superb.  At about 8 kilometers from the start he crossed the city of Sufian in order to reach Tabriz at kilometer 38.  The road was flat at an altitude of 1400 meters but the traffic got heavier and there was a continuous line of trucks.  Approaching Tabriz the atmosphere got heavy and the city was blanketed in a yellow cloud.  It was difficult to breath and we had dry mouths.  According to Medhi, there are 1.5 million inhabitants in this city, which stretches as far as the eye can see, all the way to a distant mountain.  Serge went around Tabriz, as did the trucks.  He was heading due east and hills reappeared. He reached an altitude of 1807 meters at the end of the stage. “I’m tired but I don’t feel as weak as I did on Saturday and Sunday.”  Serge even asked for meat kebabs which are sold in the small, ambulatory restaurants for the truckers.  As everyone knows, when you have a good appetite, everything is OK, even if Serge now weighs only 55 kg.  We are going to have to ensure that his weight stabilizes and does not go lower.

The team is fine; Georges even preferred to sleep on the ground on a mat, rather than on the comfortable mattress of the camper.  He’s a real young man our doyen!  Joël and René took turns with the feeding, they made videos, took photos, spoke with passersby or people who stopped, even if conversation wasn’t easy.  We did our best to make ourselves understood.  

The next big city is Zanjan, in about 300 km.