On our way to Pakistan

Tired and a little sick in Naeen

Though it hasn’t all be wonderful overhere. Like the food. Yuri got food poisoning on our last night in Isfahan. Resulting in staying another night. But then it really was time to go. And now we find ourselves again in an oasis. The desert landscape that we drove through seems endless. The sanddunes and Rocky Mountains never ending. And while Yuri tried to sleep in the back of the van I tried to stay awake while singing the longs out of my body. An expression that probably doesn’t mean anything in English but sounds right. 

We were in Naeen last night and it was a fabulous time. Very short but memorable as well. We met a young man who showed us around. From the ancient city walls to the pistachio gardens and from the biggest water reservoir to the old bazar. We also got to enter a shrine with more mirrors than I’ve ever seen in my life, so much for vanity. And we ended with a saffron camel milk ice cream of €1.5 each. Way to expensive but very tasty nonetheless. However great the city, our night sleep was taken to the test with youngsters showing off on motorbikes, children betting on how long they could stay awake, screaming, and cars turning up and leaving for no apparent reason. We were parked near the mosque at the dead end of a street. Well, those Iranians don’t only create the creative lane but they also create lanes at dead end streets. I’ve got no idea how, but however I often marvel the things they create in ancient Persia, this isn’t one of them.

On the road again..

So with just a few minutes (that’s how we feel today) of sleep we hit the road in the direction of Tabaz. We did visit an underground weaver before leaving. A very nice and cool place where men loom beautiful carpets. But our enegerylevel was low and it was hard to have a conversation so we left the loomer to work and continued our trip.

 I had so much energy that I skipped the gas station and drove 75km’s on a somewhat empty tank. While normally I panic a bit when this happens this time I just continued driving a steady 80km/h. We made it though. 

And after refuelling Alexine, I felt I had refuelled myself a bit as well. Yuri still coping with the food poisoning aftermath wasn’t so lucky. Though he was lucky to listen to me singing with James Hetfield (Metallica) and Sharon den Adel (Within Temptation). My mood at the moment. 

After three hours of yawning and singing – still can’t manage them at the same time though, we arrived at the oasis. Palmtrees surrounded by sandy coloured mountains and a qanat where we parked Alexine and went for a foot bath. To be eaten up by fish the moment our feet touched the water. A habit we are growing to be font of. 

Just now a lone jackal past us, looking interested in his snack for tonight. But that means it won’t be silence tonight as well, though I prefer the sound of jackal to those motorcycles. Tomorrow we will move to another oasis and then it’s two days of endless roads and hopefully a quick border crossing cause we are heading to Pakistan!! 

Ciao for now. 

Love, Milene & Yuri

ps. unfortunately for us the next days we started feeling worse. The only thing we could do was sleep and drink water. But we had to move to the border so as tired as we were and as horrible as we felt we had to continue. While Yuri regained his appetite at some point I was still living on water alone for a week. The heat became unbearable. We made it though.

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