I had been looking through all the old blog posts on Iran these days to add to a list and I didn't find anything about an experience in the desert. Then the idea hit me to write this story down for my blog post. I later found out that I had already mentioned the story briefly in a haibun 10-11 years ago [1]. Like in Mali, I was traveling with my friends Charles and Geneviève [2].
On this journey we found accommodation in a small town called Garmeh [3]. The place is nestled to the date palm gardens. Directly in front of the small town lies the desert without any transition at all. The owner had served in the air force and retired here with his wife to his family home. There were camels (dromedaries) in the yard and a small, lively dog. Shortly after our arrival we had organized a tour into the desert for the next day.
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| Clockwise: Abbas Sa'idi, one of the villages, Neshat, and I, picture by Charles |
We set off in the morning and finally came to an almost deserted oasis for a rest. I had noted the place name Arusan in my travel diary at the time, but now I'm not sure whether we just passed a mountain with the same name. The place has been largely abandoned due to uranium deposits nearby. We met two old men in town. Later a woman and a child also came to see us. They still have goats and sheep in the stables and I also saw a donkey (not me in the mirror!). We rested a bit with tea and talked to the men. Neshat, our tour guide, translated. On the windowsill was a yellowed photo of Shah Reza Pahlevi in his four-star general's uniform. We learned that the wolves harmed the sheep and goats and sometimes killed some. When describing the route, with my very limited knowledge of Farsi [4], I understood without translation that at one point we had to turn left [chap (چث)], neither to the right [raast (راست)] nor straight ahead [mostaghim (مستاقیم)]. We set off, again.
It was midday and we found a shepherds resting place. There was a well there, but we couldn't use it because we would have had to take a rope and a corresponding container with us. You could clearly see the water in the depths. But we had brought water with us. We had lunch. Then Neshat showed us markings on the rocks above our rest area, which the shepherds use to indicate wells and other water sources.
The journey continued through thorn bushes for a while, then the path opened up and there was a huge sand dune in front of us. And we went straight [mostaghim (مستاقیم)] – not to the left [chap (چث)]. Despite my and Charles' concerns, everything went well for a while ... until we got stuck in the sand. It was early afternoon and the sun was still high.
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| Picture by Charles |
Only now we took a closer look at the car. It was a very shabby minibus that had certainly seen better days. The tires barely had any tread left, but they were properly inflated. We dug with a shovel and our bare hands and then put branches under the tires. We pushed with all our might, but we couldn't get the minibus free.
Help could be found in the village, but not the village that we passed about 12-15 km away; the two old men and the donkey could hardly have helped us. The other village was far behind the dune, but the driver's relatives lived there. The decision about where to go had been made quickly. And the decision that I had to go with them had bee made just as quickly. Charles had to take care of the frightened Geneviève [5]; any other decision would have been senseless. I geared up for a longer hike. The three of us went: the driver Abbas Sa'idi, because he had relatives in the village, as well as Neshat, because he was our tour guide and translator, and me, perhaps as an envoy of the group and fo better conscience.
We trudged through the sand. However, it wasn't as bad as in a Hollywood movie, because the sun wasn't burning from above, but was already descending. We had to reach the tar road. At some point tire we found tracks, which quickly disappeared again. Then, about 2 km away, we came across a water tank with 1000s of liters of water; a trough was filled with fresh, clear water. Nobody was in sight. Laundry such as jeans, shirts and scarves fluttered in the gentle desert breeze. I also saw a mirror, probably for shaving. The place exuded immense peace, but we had to move on. Eventually we hit a track leading down from the dune.
It was getting darker and darker, the first stars were coming out; really, night falls quickly in the south. It was also new moon and we only had starlight. The stars and the Milky Way were so beautiful to look at. But it was even better that this light was enough to see the solid road. My two companions wondered whether we should spend the night here. I talked them out of it, even though they had a thornbush had burned down. The night would have been cold. In addition, we could now see the light of a village in the distance, and later we even heard the generator in the silence. I urged to hurry because I feared the generator would be shut down later. But Abbas Sa'idi suffered because he was diabetic.
At first the road went straight east, at some point a car came from the southeast, but it turned north and quickly disappeared. It was the only traffic we saw on the entire hike. How useful a car would have been for us. Suddenly the road turned north and we moved away from the village and dune, then headed east and southeast. Of course, the tarred road circled the dune so that it couldn't be continually covered by sand.
Then we reached a viallage, but it's dark there. It turned out that there just were the stables. You could hear the animals bleating in fright. The place with the light was still 1.5 to 2 kms away. Our hike was just over 30 km and we had been walking briskly for over 7 hours.
I drank water from a faucet on the street by the generator house. I also put water in my bottle. Abbas Sa'idi threw himself in front of the entrance to his relatives' house and groaned: "I'm dying, I'm dying!" Well, he was close, because he had an injury in his crotch and blisters on his feet (inappropriate shoes for a hike). I dad given him an NSAID as a dope on our way. The landlord opened the door and I saw the women disappear behind a door. Then the women came back with headscarves and entertained us. First there was ice water and then tea; then flatbread and cheese. As we ate and drank, plans were made. I noticed that they have a good idea where we were stuck. They also expected wolves. Water was filled into small canisters.
Now a wild ride through the night followed. We circled the sand dune and came to the minibus from the direction in which we should had been going. Some thorn bushes were lit as a source of light – a biblical atmosphere. Some air was let out of the tires. The tires were shoveled free again and then brambles were put under the tires again. With combined effort we pushed the bus and it was released.
What had happened at the minibus in the meantime? Geneviève and Charles were usually better equipped than I was, but they didn't have a lighter with them. However, they had flashlights in their backpacks. It had gotten cold and there were blankets in the bus, but they hadn't found them. I wouldn't have had any qualms about looking for them. They had already rationed water and food heavily because it could have dragged on until the next day. They would have been safe from wolves in the bus. Was there a danger? When you think of desert, you immediately think of dying of thirst. No – there was enough water within a 2-5 km radius. Charles thought they would send helicopters out from the guesthouse to search for us. This reminded me of the movie Natural Born Killers [6], in which the character Wayne Gale (played by Robert Downey Jr.) suspects that helicopters were deployed.
What followed was a not-so-wild ride through the night, first over the dune, then through a stream bed and finally on the tarred road towards Khoor. We arrived at our accommodation at 3:20 a.m., where an incredible meal had been prepared that we ate despite the late hour, just as in stories told well or badly, a shared meal at the end is always a must.
Links and Annotations:
[1] Carpe Diem Kamishibai Haibun Cathedral
https://rheumatologe.blogspot.com/2013/08/carpe-diem-kamishibai-haibun-cathedral.html
[2] Charles and Geneviève are introduced here: Travelogue Mali 2007 – No. 1 Planning and Arriving in Bamako
https://rheumatologe.blogspot.com/2023/11/travelogue-mali-2007-no-1-planning-and.html
[3] 33°31'33"N 55°02'23"E Garmeh گرمه
[4] The Very Basic Guide to Farsi (Persian)
https://rheumatologe.blogspot.com/2018/11/the-very-basic-guide-to-farsi-persian_79.html
[5] In confidence, he showed me pictures of his completely frightened wife. But these pictures are definitely not shown here.
[6] Natural Born Killers is a 1994 film, directed by Oliver Stone, story by Quentin Tarantino. No, I didn't see this movie in Iran but Kill Bill II.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_Born_Killers
PS. In German we distinguish the bleating of sheep (blöken) and goats (meckern), I actually looked it up and couldn't find English equivalents.
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