May 3rd: After an early breakfast at 6h45am we were ready for our trip to Shiraz. 750km ahead of us. Leaving Kerman that early gives you the opportunity to drive on nearly empty streets especially on a Friday. You will read later that this can be really different…
We decided to make a small little detour to visit the world heritage of Maymand. To state it already now: this is an absolute must have seen on such a trip. The drive there is an exciting mountain tour through a very scenic landscape. Maymand is on an altitude of 2220m. The streets to get there are good and well maintained. The only obstacle you might have are slow moving trucks trying to overtake each other. Here you just need to stay patient and as Martin was driving that part of this trip not a huge challenge at all😂.
After 3h and only 150km we reached In the middle of the mountains Maymand. Maymand is more than 2000 years old and is an old „city“ consisting out of hundreds of caves that people had built into the mountains to live there. You can easily access those caves to see and feel a bit how people lived 2000 years ago. We found out that it would be even possible to stay over in the caves for a night…. this might be a real adventure from all angles. There are also some guides around to give you more detailed input and a museums officer …. of course they all ask for money. From our point of you you can do it without them as you have everything explained on signs in proper English.
After a walk through and some nice photos we went off direction Shiraz. We changed the driver and Martin could now start to take some nice pictures with his camera from inside the car of the surrounding. The drive to Shiraz is approximately 600km from Maymand and we planned to stops in between twice: in Nazyr to see on of the oldest mosques in the world and after in Savestran to see an old palace. The streets got worse by the minute and we were glad to have a Landrover 😊.
On our way to Nazyr we had an other go through a mountain area. This time narrow streets with a lot of trucks that had sometimes a max speed of 15 km/h. To pass them was a challenging and exciting exercise, but to be honest also good fun😃. Another important subject to mention is if you make the trip like we did it make sure you watch how much fuel is left as in that area filling stations are very seldom. 😊 and if you plan lunch next or close by the road and you plan to warm up your last bit of ChilliConcarne be aware of the Moskitos…. they bite … ask Martin🤣.
We reached Nazyr after 2.5h . We drove direction city center to find the Mosque… this is not an easy task as you can not read a sign if you are not able to read in Fasi. Just when we saw the mosque we were stopped by our famous friends: the police. First we thought because of speeding (could well have been as Matthias was driving😂) but we believe the police man was just curious when he saw the car. He asked for a credit card … very strange… and we gave him the golden registration card of Dubai… he was very happy. To avoid further hassle we asked him where we could get fuel he tried to explain and off we went. We missed out on the mosque … a pitty.
After a short while we reached Savestran … same Story: how to find a place if there are no signs and nobody speaks your language or English ? We gave up and drove direct to Shiraz. Short before Shiraz we passed a Salt lake . It seems to be one of THE weekend destinations of the people in that area. You can go out with a boat and you can even drive with a quad bike on the white and salty beaches. It really looks cool. Eventually we arrived in Shiraz. Traffic there is a bit crazy so it helps if you adapt your driving style in the same way😂.
To find our hotel was an adventure. We had to go through such narrow streets that we sometimes did not know if we will ever reach it. The Hotel is called Nazir ol Mouk . Hard to see from any street but it has a parking lot in the basement. This parking has an exciting entrance to drive in. If you are a scares driver stay outside 😌. The rooms are basic nothing to be excited about. People at reception are friendly and helpful. After checking some maps it is in a central spot. After a quick shower we went immediately for dinner …. you remember the Moskito story so you understand we were hungry. 🤣🤣 we organized a Taxi which dropped us at a restaurant. Watch out Shiraz taxis are not cheap. The dinner was Okish … for tomorrow we will look for an other spot. After organizing a taxi for our way back we decided to have a short walk over the night market close by. A very busy place with all sorts of stuff. We went back into the Hotel and closed the day with a nice cup of tea.
