While waiting for the bus we met a young Australian, Stuart who was also heading in to the same place in Toudeshk (there was really only one place to stay in the small desert town) and we got the bus together. A couple of hours later we were met by Mohammad who took us round the town looking for another tourist reported to be there. We all ended up at his house for some lunch and tea before deciding what to do.
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| From Toudeshk, Iran |
Djalma and I walked to a nearby hilltop to watch the sunset, it was incredibly beautiful, the town was nearby to other small towns and villages but in between there was nothing but the desert. Stuart and Mohammad met us at the top, Mohammad setting fire to the small dry bushes for light, a bit of a weird one him.
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| From Toudeshk, Iran |
The next day was packed, we all took the little city tour and listened to Mohammad's interminable droning, the guy really wasn't cut out to be a tour guide and his delivery of what were actually quite interesting bits of information, left me cold.
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| From Toudeshk, Iran |
After the tour Djalma and I walked up a different hill, Djalma complaining that we should've gone to another because ours wasn't big enough, actually it turned out to be just the right scale, any bigger and we would've been late for lunch.
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| From Toudeshk, Iran |
The climb up was a bit crumbly in places with plenty of loose rocks and stones to make the going happily difficult for my boy, I stopped further down from him to enjoy the already incredible views while he carried on to the furthest and of course, highest peak.
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| From Toudeshk, Iran |
Finished we clambered back down and called Mohammad to come and pick us up, after lunch and more tea we all got in his little car and headed out to the moving sand dunes for another stunning sunset.
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| From Toudeshk, Iran |
It took a good hour or so to get there, a place not many people have heard of, and we passed plenty more desert and miles and miles of electricity pylons along the way. While Mohammad went to talk to some friends of his, his nephew, Stuart, Djalma and I climbed up the nearest dune to sit on the top and watch the sky change colour.
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| From Toudeshk, Iran |
We could see for miles around from our vantage point and plenty of other people were climbing other dunes or making their way up ours. While we sat at the top a group of friends offered Djalma and Stuart some tea, typical Iranian hospitality not to mention habit – I think it's fair to say that if you see an Iranian there's sure to be tea or a picnics somewhere close by (even by busy roads), it's a lovely national obsession. After the sun had well and truly set we ran down the dune and got back in the car only to pull up before leaving the site to be invited for more tea and some cake. We huddled round an open fire with the friendly strangers, some of whom spoke very good English and drank tea and ate cake before heading back home again.
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| From Toudeshk, Iran |
After dinner we fell into bed and watched Crossroads (the one with the Karate kid not Britney Spears) and fell asleep in our gas scented room. We left the next day after breakfast having sorted out the payment issues which was quite an embarrassing fiasco, and happily left hitching lifts all the way to Yazd musing about our odd host.
Our last lift was with a truck driver who was very disappointed when he couldn't buy us anything and dropped us off right in the middle of town next to our hotel, a lovely guy who couldn't speak a word of English.
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