Day: March 14, 2006

After a night spent in the comfort of a hotel outside of Tabriz and, most importantly, a luxuriously good bath, here we are again on our dusty and truck filled road.

Serge feels better. What a relief!

The suburbs of Tabriz go on for a long time and lead to a pass at an altitude of 2120 meters, which Serge went over at the 18th kilometer.  After that the road rose and fell between 1643 and 1900 meters.

During a feeding halt, a man asked us if we would like to have the 4-wheel drive washed.  It was done by three people using two Kärchers. Now both it and the trailer are sparkling clean.  We also filled the gas tanks of the vehicles: 1€20 for 70 liters gave us something to think about!  However, we are surprised at how few service stations there are along the road, which is full of trucks that line up to fill their tanks with a liquid that flows so freely in this country.  The explanation comes from the fact that our itinerary is the one followed by the international truckers from Turkey, Bulgaria, Russia and Azerbaijan and there is heavy  trafficking of this precious fuel.  Before arriving at Tabriz, the service stations were asking for coupons delivered by the police.

This evening we camped near a river 600 meters from the road, so as to reduce the decibels which make our ears ring and breath something other than dust. “I ate a lot of dust” were Serge’s first words.

It took Serge just one hour to have his shower, read his messages, eat and zip into bed at 19H05.  He didn’t sleep but he rested.  During that time we finished our meal in front of the fire, eating the chocolates from Aubervilliers (a thought for Serge’s parents).  With table and chairs put away, Joël and René did the dishes and I typed these few words.

See you tomorrow.

PS   I mentioned in an earlier log that there are quite a few French words in the Persian language, without giving a figure.  As a matter of fact, there are about 400, mostly in the fields of medicine and technology but also some every day words like merci, chapeau and salon…..(thank you, hat and sitting room).