India overland - Iran, Kerman to Zahedan

Kerman to Zahedan
We finally hit the road about 12.30 and set off for the 500 km drive across the southern end of the Lut desert. We were heading for an old desert lighthouse that still stands beside the road between Kerman and the city of Bam. These columns at night had a fire on them to help guide the camel trains across the desert. Not used for many years they remain as a reminder that much trade past this way. The long desert crossing by the Bedouin are almost a thing of the past now, border patrols and security have stopped much of the free roaming that was part of the Bedouin life style. Tonight is very hot and the person on ice duty couldn't find ice in Kerman so we have no cold drinks. I was so looking forward to a cold glass of wine that I tried to use the water evaporation trick to cool some wine, it is supposed to work when it is hot and dry and we have both. Wet a towel then spin it around your head until it is cold then quickly wrap up the bottle, wait a few minutes then do it again. Repeat many times and you have cold wine, well it felt cold in that heat and worked that well that towels were being swung around all over camp.	Desert Lighthouse
The city of Bam may not look quite the same today as there was a massive earthquake there in about 2003 that killed many hundreds of people. The city is all but abandoned and although the Arg-e Bam citadel is still in good repair the main city is slowly returning to the earth. It is the largest adobe building in the world. Arg-e Bam has been attributed to Bahman Pour Gashasb, who lived in Iran circa 312 B.C. during Alexander's rule. Up to 180 years ago, people lived in Arg-e Bam. The buildings inside are made of clay, bricks and clay mortar. There is only one entrance. The city was well advanced for its time with the Jame' Mosque, the prayer house, water reservoir, square, school, bath, a site for traditional sports, shrines and a number of ancient houses. Some houses had both inner and outer quarters, ventilation ducts, porches, summer and winter rooms, horse and cattle stables and water wells. Inhabitants made their living through agriculture and weaving. Upset stomachs are now a daily problem, toilet stops are frequent and sometimes urgent. It has been nicknamed "The Spray Painters" , once you have it is your daily duty to spray paint as much of the country as you can manage. People who have had it for awhile can get so excited when they finally have a solid motion that it calls for a celebration. One guy rushed back to the bus one day saying come and look at this, so off they went expecting an animal or insect only to find it was his first proper poo for two weeks.	Mud city at Bam

The road from Bam was mostly unsealed and corrugated which made it slow going, dusty and uncomfortable. The local bus fly by at about 65 miles an hour which I'm told is so fast that they don't get much corrugation effect, unfortunately our buses can't manage that speed downhill with the wind behind them. We have to travel at about 25-30 m.p.h. any faster and you get what is called harmonics, when the bus vibrates in tune with the corrugations so much that you can't control it and people are thrown out of their seats. There are some hills to cross that have some spectacular passes and in this heat give the engines something to think about. Lots of photo stops for brake cooling, the passengers are awake to the braking problems by now and even suggest a stop if they think its about time. All of a sudden we come across a brand new piece of sealed road it doesn't go very far and every kilometer or so we have to get off and go around the bridge that is yet to be built. Late in the afternoon a large camp appears which has something to do with all this road building. It turns out that the Iranian are building the road but tunnelling is being built by an English company and this is there compound. We are invited in and find all the comforts of home, a swimming pool, canteen, green grass and air conditioning. Most of the men are ex Welsh miners and they have a workforce of about 500 Pakistanis. The men can't belive their luck they have real live women in bikinis in their pool and at night the girls are skinny dipping. They must have thought they had died and gone to heaven.	Southern Iran
This is a very inhospitable part of the world, almost sea level but hundreds of kilometers from the sea. The temperature was almost 50c when we were there, the men called it death valley. They had it tough but not as bad as the Pakistani men who lived without any of the luxuries mostly in tents or mud brick dwellings. The next day we were shown around the tunnelling operation that was going on 24 hours a day. I went to the workshops were the equipment was maintained, a large air conditioned shed sealed against the dust and sand, impressive, they offered me a job and the pay was about 20 times more than Norm was paying. A deal is a deal I committed to drive to Kathmandu and I couldn't let the side down. We left after lunch of course and set out for Zahedan on the southern border with Pakistan.	Lut desert
I don't think they see many tourist buses in Zahedan we got quite a reception. Home was to be the small campsite on the edge of town near the airport. The camp was new and had very good facilities, showers, games room and sunshades. It was just as well as it was to become home for the next two weeks. Ian's bus was causing much concern so Fred and I decided to take the sump off and have a look at the bearings. An easy task as the engine is laying on its side giving easy access. My worse fears were realised, the main bearings that hold the crankshaft were worn out. Most of the bigend piston bearing were showing signs of excess wear. I suspect dust had entered the engine, mixed with the oil and between them they had ground the bearings to death. This was to be a problem that affected most of the vehicles until we found a solution but that was in the future.	Welcome to Zahedan
It was decided that Fred and I would stay back with the crippled bus letting the other two continue on. The passengers want to stay with their bus so Fred and I had a fresh crew, Jos wanted to stay so we move her luggage along with ours to our new home. We bid the others farewell the next day and watched as they disappeared into the distance leaving us to our fate. It was very quite when they had gone, we were used to a group of 100, now it was down to 33. This bus was OWX 136 which was to become mine for the next two years. We had inherited the marrieds bus which had all married couples aboard, no problem for me but who was going to sit up with Fred at night? We called a meeting to explain what was going to happen how the delay would be a minimum of 1 week may be two. We had already telexed Norm a list of the parts we needed so it was a matter of waiting till they arrived.
The trip continued	Map of trip so far