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EXERCISE “FLYING SPANNER”
Contributed by: Leonard SYMONDS (54A)
IRAN
Bandar Abbas (Bandar-e ‘Abās)
A school of porpoises accompanied us for much
of the time and by leaning over the side we could look right down into the
depths observing the prodigious marine life. Just after 1100 hrs the
coastline of Iran
hove into sight with Bandar Abbas (Bandar-e ‘Abās) right on the bow. Our
first call was at the ‘old’ docks for customs and immigration. The leaders go
ashore here carrying the group passports, visas and the vehicle carnets.
Something we didn’t have, which took some fast footwork to put right was
Persian Translation of our documents (the Grenadiers translations went
through twice – nobody seemed to notice).
Following
the formalities the Chief Customs Officer retained our Carnet and issued a
permit authorising the crane driver at the ‘new’ docks to disembark the vehicle.
These new docks are five miles Westward, very modern but quite deserted.
After waking up the crane driver and handing him our permit our Landrover was
swung ashore by a large mobile crane. A motorcycle policeman then arrived to
take us back to the old docks for final formalities. Alas the customs staff
had all gone home and would not be returning until the next day. For a while
it looked as though we were going to have to spend the night camping in the
customs compound, then we had a stroke of luck (one of many), the Port Health
Officer was in his office, spoke better English than us having worked in
London for many years and agreed to telephone his good friend the chief
customs man at home and explain our plight. The customs chief returned, assessed
charges at 778 Riyals (£3.17.9d) which he said could not be paid until the
port re-opened tomorrow. After delicate negotiations he accepted the money
himself and returned our carnet.
Two of Iran’s finest
At last
we were free to go. The AA route says ‘follow the signs for Airport and
Kirman’ (Kermān) but in fact there are no signs apart from Arabic ones
until you are some distance East on the coast road where the signs are for
‘Sirjan’. The road is good with no sign of any ’narrow ledges between chasm
and mountain – best done in daylight’ (AA). We experienced some difficulty
approaching Kirman trying to join the Isfahan
road. ‘Baghin’ is the turning point about 18 miles before Kerman. There is a lighted Café – if you
are also in the dark by then – on the right hand side of the road and a
narrow track leading off to the left. No signpost and an appalling surface.
This was the road to Robat. After a while the surface became corrugated
gravel (an effect of the constant desert wind) which threatened to do
terrible damage to our suspension. To make matters worse a strong following
wind caused the huge dust cloud we were creating to catch us up so that we
could not see. We discovered that at 65 mph the SWB Landrover would glide
over the corrugations and leave the dust cloud behind. In this mode steering
was a problem (i.e. there was none) with wide drifting on bends, very hard on
the drivers who became nervous wrecks not to mention the passengers who were
petrified. We were to discover later that ‘Messpots’ LWB Landrover could not
reach a gliding speed on these corrugations and eventually had to stop at
‘the sign of the hanging inner tube’ for chassis welding, having started to
break up. We never caught sight of them, travelling in our own dust cloud as
we were!
On Route
(above and below) Steve Langridge and
Mike Estridge (photographs: Len Symonds)
Steve Langridge and Len Symonds
(photograph: Mike Estridge)
Mike Estridge and Len Symonds
(photograph: Steve Langridge)
View through the Land Rover windscreen
Len Symonds
Yazd (Yazd-e
Khvāst)
Steve Langridge doing some maintenance
We had
fitted a car compass before leaving Sharjah and ‘swung’ it in the best traditions
of Aircraft Mechanics. It was invaluable as we rarely saw any direction sign
in Iran
that made any sense and there was very little sun to steer by, the sky being
heavily overcast. We set a course for the NW and drove in shifts, day and
night, such was our enthusiasm to get away from the Gulf area and reach
civilisation and metalled roads. Regular stops were made to brew tea, cook
meals and clean up. We chose to park well away from habitations as we found,
to our cost at the beginning, that we would quickly be surrounded and
inundated with requests that we did not understand, probably for sweets and
cigarettes. Anything not welded on or locked took flight. This was no way to
rest. Having given our Landrover the bashing of its life it was time to do a
maintenance stop, for which purpose a group of ruins well off the beaten
track suited our purpose exactly. We had been checking the usual ‘first
parade’ items religiously at each stop but this time we went to town. Nothing
could be found amiss. No wonder this type of vehicle is universally in use in
this part of the world.
Tehrān
Tehrān at 0130 in the rain was a complete contrast to the desert
we had crossed to reach it. The camping site, according to the AA open all
the year round, was boarded up, looted and deserted so we camped outside the
gate. (AA we want our money back!). It was still raining in the morning when
we moved into town (red double decker buses!) to signal our progress from the
Embassy. The Defence Attaché was very pleased to see us and made us welcome.
We drank coffee, posted our letters and completed our admin. Later in the
afternoon we set off for the Turkish border, climbing all the time right up
into the snow line. The road between Zenjan and Tabriz was in very poor condition and had
to be taken very gently.
Len Symonds
Steve Langridge and Mike Estridge
(photograph: Len Symonds)
The
evening of 5th March found us still driving constantly in spite of
the bad road which was making us very tired. Just outside Marand we stopped
and put up the tent intending to take a night’s sleep. Snug inside we washed
and shaved and cooked a meal. Taking a last look outside we found we were
completely surrounded by a large crowd of children. We had made the mistake
of parking too close to the town. A hasty pack up and move on was the only
answer. On to Khoy where the AA advice is to stop and obtain exit visas. That
doesn’t apply now (we definitely want our money back) so off we went on the
wrong road to Maku. The road we took was 4 wheel drive horrendous, eventually
we found the International
Highway, back on route.
Mākū
Reaching
Maku we topped up our tanks with the last of our Iranian money then continued
to the Customs Post which we reached at about 1630. Here we met ‘Rambling Rose’
owned by the Chislehurst firm ‘Asian Transport’. This is a heavy lorry and
trailer which travels regularly to Tehran
and on to goodness knows where. The drivers gave us very good information on
procedures at customs and the road ahead, although they routed around the
Black Sea – we were going over the top (don’t ask us why, it seemed a good
idea at the time).
Mākū to Khoy
Iran-Turkey
Border
Published: 1st January 2007
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Part 5
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