There's More..... Welcome Iran!

Day 36 - Van, Turkey.

So I leave picturesque Mardin behind and start the long haul north to the border. The landscape changes from the sunbaked plain bordering Syria to the high volcanic dormant or not mountains that border Lake Van. The temperature gets colder and soon enough I see snow of the mountain peaks. This is real Kurdistan, not that the turkish would call it that but some of the locals do. I visit a ruined castle, pass gorges and waterfalls the vegetation starts to green up compared to the south but showing a the autumn colours coming through. Lake Van is huge more like a sea really. Its so tricky to circumnavigate the trains here get loaded on to boats to cross to the other side. I don't have that luxury and want to be in the city of Van a good couple of hours before dark so I push on. I notice the intensity of army bases increasing the majority just have light armoured vehicles and many seem to be training grounds. Eventually i arrive at Van about 4pm find a hotel that rather drab communist look and head out for something to eat. Finding a kebab house where I sit in front of the coals that the chef cooks the meat on. This is not for tourists this could be compared to a bar in the UK. It was good but after I was still looking for something. I wanted a night out, a beer, some music, some people dancing, some fun (western style). I asked at the hotel and they said yes there are two bars but both are closed... it was only 8pm!! They could serve alcohol, they said at there american bar. Sounded great till I saw it, a small darkened area at the back of the TV room with some grim couches - empty. I had a beer on my own, feeling a little down and out, frustrated, wondering how anyone had a good time in this town.

Day 37 - Turkish side of border with Iran.

I woke and went to the ruin of the Castle at Van. Now I have to say Turkey seems to have a lot of ruins and they are ruins. Most of them look like a open sided quarry where someone has stacked some of the stones up to give the impression of a wall and occasional perhaps post fitted an arch to make the place more authentic. Now I don't mean to sound like an ungrateful ignorant fool and i probably do, but I feel someone needs to start to look after some of these sites. Make some path ways, put some signage up perhaps even a dreaded souvenir shop. It seems a lot of these places are just falling apart and anyone be it man or goat can clamber over the top, turning those mounds of boulders that are ancient walls into beds of ancient boulders. Yeah so I was still in a bit of a bad mood, but I soon cheered up when I left Van and hit my first army checkpoint. They pulled me over, asked to see my passport and asked me where I was going, what my job was?? (I was hardly likely to say spy if i was!)then after some advice about not riding at night they let me carry on. The weather got colder but this wasn't a problem as I had my thermals on. The roads got higher and the landscape more inhospitable. I was now travelling a stretch of road very close to the Iran border passing small subsistence villages. I came to another road block, this had a queue of traffic but the officers beckoned me to the front. Now this was a block, they had a base one side with a tank pointing its barrel at the road and on the other fortifications. The officer asked to see the passport where I was going etc etc. He asked me about photography, it seems I had been spotted taking pictures of the landscape. After showing him my holiday snaps, he didn't seem to concerned. Then he beckoned over another junior office who was carrying a tea pot, he looked confused, the senior officer said something to him and he pulled an awkward face of concentration and said something like.. 'three pazyat in these hills, so watch your step.' Now the second part of the sentence was so well delivered I can only believe it was mimicked from a movie. Not sure what Pazyat were and not really sure I wanted to find out, I pressed on quick. There were many army bases on the way and these were full of tanks and artillery. They looked like they were ready for world war three. I found a campsite not far from one and met a very nice Spanish couple who were over landing in there Toyota. As it got dark there was a glorious sunset with a rainbow. A perfect sign off for Turkey, I was ready for Iran.

Day 38 - Tabriz, Iran.

The Turkish border control, police, and customs officers signed me out and directed me to a large ominous metal gate with a few other pedestrians lurking next to it. I started to screech and scrap as it slowly slid open. Then a man dressed in a karki uniform came over and said 'Welcome to Iran!'