Day 26: Gorgan to Rasht (Iran)

We leave early fearing the roadblocks we had been warned about because to avoid of the President’s visit. I am thinking of suggesting we should make a roadblock of our own with our vintage cars…

Anyway, all time and passage controls have been eliminated and we are free to make our way in our own time The morning route takes us towards the Caspian sea, the main resort for the wealthy of Teheran. We drive past many cheap Florida look alike high rise developments alternating with secluded beachfront villas.

Soon after reaching the town of Tonekabon, just after midday, it starts raining. It is the first time since the beginning of our rally so we can’t not really complain. We discover, however that our single windshield wiper has stopped working so we lookfor a place to stop to fix it to allow us to put up the roof. As it is almost lunchtime we also look around for a place to eat some Caspian fish. Following the suggestion of a well dressed couple we end in a unpretentious but very good restaurant. As we later discover, it is one of the favourite hangouts of wealthy Teheran families which continue arriving as we are eating a delicious meal of fried Caspian fish and kebab. We are the only foreigners in the restaurant and, clearly, the object of everyone’s attention. Most smile and wave hello and some even have the “audacity” of approaching us to ask us where we were from, what we were doing in town and where we were travelling next. They were all quite surprised when we told them our story and many discretely go out of the restaurant to look at our car. One man sits at our table and asks us how we manage without wine and then goes on to tell us that he has plenty at home which he gets through some special channels. He adds that if we have time he can have also help us get caviar from some people he knows at the local fish market. We thank him but politely decline telling him we have to reach our next destination by that evening. When we set off it has stopped raining. We hope the weather will hold. We have repaired our single windshield wiper but do not know how long it will last. It begins to rain again and soon our wiper ceases to function. Soon it starts pouring. At that point we have no choice but to fold down the windshield and put on visors onto our helmets. At least we manage to see something.

We pass through several resort towns. Traffic is heavy but despite the rain, people are out in the street to cheer us on. At a junction we are stopped by the police. Perhaps we have been driving too fast in town. Not so. We are given flowers as a sign of welcome to their town. We are both amazed. As it gets dark late it is still raining heavily and the driving becomes even more difficult and unpleasant. The road is very dark, the cars coming from the opposite direction keep their high beams always on. This lights up the little droplets of water on my screen and I am completely blinded. I have to slow down considerably and focus on the white line on the side of the road to keep the car in the right direction. When the rain finally diminishes a little I take off my visor preferring some drops in my eyes to being blinded by each car driving in the opposite direction. We also have to drive an extra 40Km as the Organisation has changed the hotel at the last minute to allow us all to stay together in one place.

We are still about 30Km from our final destination when I suddenly feel the car wobble in the rear and the typical sound of a flat tyre. Damn! I move the car slowly to the nearest lamp post and, still under the rain we get to work. Soon a number of local teen agers come over to offer to help. We tell them we are ok but they stay on and use their flashlights to warn the oncoming traffic of our presence.

After about a quarter of an hour we are done and after thanking the boys we set off for the las few kilometres. It was our first real flat since the beginning of the rally and we had a working spare. We are definitely the exception. Others have had anything up to 20 flats or blow-outs, often several in a day, which clearly caused them to have to change tubes, taking much longer than we ever did. Yes, we did break down in the rain but we got back on the road in no time. I think we can consider ourselves lucky.

After finally arriving at the hotel we are assigned a room in a bungalow which we are escorted to and reach after walking with luggage under the rain for… a mile!!! Not a good end of the day. And no wine at dinner… luckily we meet some of the other crews who are cheerful enough to put both of us back in a positive state of mind, John and Nelly Bishop in particular.

One more day in this dump of a country and we are out.