Dust Rain with a completely unexpected ending

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Geo: 35.6962, 51.4229

Off we go up the motorway…. I tried to go a little slower then the others however that just meant I caused a blockage and got honked a lot. (keep in mind it's a 3 lane motorway turned into a 5.5 lane motorway)

So going slow is no good then speed up to match them… all was good and flowed nicely. I would stay in the slow lane and everyone was happy… however this also had its issues. Once a car had gone past and noticed our car it would slow down to have a look in the rear view mirror and thus they were not watching what was happening in front..really scary stuff… the scary part was everything was happening at 100~120kms per hour. And at that speed you need fast reflexes…

Lisa was trying to have a sleep in the vehicle when someone in the fast lane decided they wanted to stop to buy some fruit… F..CK… very very close so close i thought we would just smash right into them…. However… apparently a near miss does not count so on we went.

The plan was to stop short of Tehran and stay in the hills in a hotel for a fresh early morning attack… The reality of what happened goes a little like this….

Gee those clouds are looking scary…. Yeah I say….. oh its getting windy…. Yep…. Have a look at that dust storm coming… holly crap… the afternoon sun was obliterated. We could not see 100mtrs in front and the police had closed the road up the mountains where the hotel is located…. Random redirection straight into a tunnel… GPS not working… where is this tunnel going… pop out into a real shit fight as now it had started to rain and the dust turned to mud…. It was dark we had nowhere to stay the traffic was manic as people returned from their holidays…

I pulled over and we had a candid chat and decided to just sleep in the car right there on the street….. I got out to have a cigarette in the rain…. Turned around to see if I could find a spot for Lisa safe pee as showing her head is a crime far less peeing in public…. Basically I was standing at the top of a steep driveway which had trees and looked inviting so I walked down and without a second thought knocked on the door… I heard a voice of a man saying something in Farsi to which I replied….. Please help I cant speak Farsi I am an Australian and my wife and I need some help… the door opened and an older gentleman was standing there… I asked do you speak English and he replied a little…. I was beyond desperate… and I repeated what I had already said and then asked if I could park my car near the house and camp the night…. His wife joined him and she had more English… and they said we could come down… I was beyond ecstatic… word cannot explain the relief.. I ran back to the car and said to Lisa..hang on I have pulled a rabbit out of a hat… down the drive we went and we were greeted with open arms.. By this time it was totally trajic outside, a dust storm brown out combined with torrential rain and the ladys voice ringing out. You are welcome in my house. We were shown to the bathroom to freshen up whilst they put tea on. The power went out short after and the candles were quickly brought out we went inside and were seated down with the family… served tea then told we must stay with them sleep in the house…. Unbelievable… Long story short we were fed dinner, then had a shower, then some more food. They had called their children from the other side of town to join us as they all spoke English…. By this time there was a fair group of us sitting around in the dark exchanging thoughts. What a night to remember… the moral here is they might be mad on the road but Iranians are absolutely kind, generous and welcoming people. This family will stay in our hearts for a very long time.

Awoke….and…. it was not a dream. There we were in a house of people we did not know… got up and went into the kitchen to find everyone waiting for us to have our breakfast.

Feed and ready to go..expressed our gratitude for having us and.. thenback on the road. Today the sun was shining and the holidays were finished so things felt better.

We managed to find and get our Uzbekistan visas without too much hassles. Miracle really, we then were too late for the Turkmenistan embassy so found a hotel for the night. This is no mean feat as hotel in Farsi does not look like hotel in English so we are not really clear what one looks like. The following morning we drove back into Tehran lodged our Turkmenistan Visa Application, got rejected at the Chinese embassy again as we did not have a letter of no objection from the Australian Embassy. Seriously… off to the Australian embassy and got the letter. More than a little over the Tehran traffic by now we decide to try again in Kirgizstan. The Chinese Embassy is never very user friendly opening for two hours in the morning on three days of the week only. Coming back tomorrow is never an option.

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Photos

Tehran Traffic
On a three lane motorway we counted 7 vehicles across. Tricky for us

Yeah we are in Iran
The lady in the middle, Shole was so helpful, without her we might not have got this far

Driveway
Darren ventured down this driveway to ask for help. That is exactly what we were given. Words fail us to describe their willingness to take in two smelly strangers

You are welcome in our home
Not much English but this was the one thing that came out