Desert Roads

by Daan · Published October 15, 2018 · Updated October 15, 2018

This next story I started writing in Yazd. We passed Tehran about two weeks ago and the south seems a lot more relaxed. People seem a lot less obnoxious, polite even, no crowd of kids around the trucks. I don’t see so much big black flags or “blackshirts” here (black is the color of the Prophet).
We’re parked in some amusement park and although it seems like any other amusement park with bright lights and wonderful attractions, the soundsystem is screaming religious hymns instead of pounding grooves.

Arriving here by the road south from Tehran and just like desert roads from movies these are also perfectly straight with spectacular views. Abandoned buildings litter the landscape, some recent, some ancient. Every few kilometers a truck with one or two guys working on it, farmers selling the produce of the region which seems to be some kind of onions, although I wonder if anything grows in this desert and how far these people traveled to do their selling. Gas stations enough, only not all will sell us diesel. Diesel is subsidized and only for commercial trucks. The drivers have a card which gets them their supply of 200 liters per day. But with a joke, or waving with money, something can usually be arranged, although it takes time. We even found an illegal dealer in a small town. We had to follow him to some back alley and for a minute it looked like we’d either get mugged or diesel. Luckily it was the last. A tractor with a shovel attachment in which an oil drum stood showed up. Luckily we all have a bit of experience with back alley diesel acquisition…

Yazd is nice and really feel likes a desert town, although I haven’t been to a desert before, this is what I imagine it feels like. We went looking for a camping place to the east of the town but we ended up driving through a post apocalyptic wasteland so instead we opted for the amusement park. Here we celebrated my birthday which, all things considering, was very nice! We spend an evening together, drinking, eating and telling stories. It was a nice surprise the gang cooked up with a beautiful piece of art as a present, an Unmade Original if I’m not mistaking. I think there are better places to celebrate your birthday, but not much better people to spend it with. Thanks gang!

Sometimes we drive in the night which turns the road with it’s surroundings into a spooky blur, every now and then lighted by beams from our truck. At these moments our cockpit seems extra cozy, and invites to reminiscences of experiences past.
We spend a lot of time in the cabin of our truck. So far a total of more than 5 days or 120 hours to be precise, in which we traveled a little over 5800 kilometers. If you see the figures like that, the elapsed time doesn’t seem much. And it goes by fast I admit. It seems just last week we spend the first night of our voyage next to a lake in Germany with our friends Bjefke and Wessel. Already we’ve seen so many beautiful views. From the mountains in the alps to the industrial hart of Italy. Picturesque Greek villages and the enchanting cave houses of Cappadocia. The jungles of northern Iran and now the deserts of the south. And still it feels like we’ve only just started. If you look at our departure date maybe this is true. We left the 15th of July which means we are now just 3 months underway and have already had so many encounters and experiences. I think we are lucky to have the chance to follow this road of our dreams.