Editor’s note: Rick McKay, Joe Masonick, and Jack Karolewski have been annual travel companions for more than 50 years to a variety of sites with many goals. This week’s adventure is the seventh in the series.
The sixth part is at thevoice.us/travel-adventures-mountain-peaks-rafting-exciting-europe
By Rick McKay
Adventures began in 1970 for the three intrepid travelers. The most significant trip was an overland trek from Istanbul, Turkey, to India in 1977. Capricorn Tours in London conducted the trip. We went to the salty Dead Sea from Petra in Jordan and rested well that night following our swimming experience.
The following morning, we were supposed to drive east across Jordan and enter into Iraq, but even then, two years before Saddam Hussein took power in 1979, Americans were not welcome. Because four of us held U.S. passports, the entire group was forced to drive back north into Turkey once again and around the northern border of Iraq before descending into Iran. It took the better part of two days.
We arrived at Lake Van in eastern Turkey around dusk, skirted the southern shore of the lake, heading for a small town which our guide had contacted the day before to arrange various sleeping accommodations for our group. We arrived around 9 p.m., our coach dangerously low on fuel and rain beginning to cascade from the sky. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief at our good fortune. However, the adventure was not over yet. The rain intensified. Accompanied by violent thunder and lightning, it caused a power outage. The entire town was thrown into darkness. We stumbled from the coach into the Van Hotel by candle and flashlight, then on to our respective rooms. The following morning we embarked on another full day’s drive, and after a four-hour wait at the Iranian border, finally crossed into this historic land.
Iran was still under the iron grip of the Shah Pahlavi whose regime was supported by the United States. Two years later Islamic militants, under the direction of the exiled Ayatollah Khomeini, would storm the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, take 40 hostages and ultimately drive the Shah from the country.
Looking back, our timing for this trip was fortuitous. We visited the Middle East during a relative period of calm, before all hell broke loose and militant jihadism would sweep over the world. However, looking back, there were signs.
It was very late when we entered Iran and no lodging had been arranged for our group. So around 9 p.m. to 10 p.m., Simon, our driver, pulled the coach about a half-mile off the road on to a barren patch of dry, dusty, land in the middle of nowhere.
We pitched our tents by flashlight and most began to settle in for the night. But another group member and I decided to take a walk before retiring. We went back to the highway and crossed to the other side, just as a single car passed us. Suddenly, its brake lights flashed and it pulled to a stop and started backing up. Alarmed, we began running away from the road and deeper into the darkness where we huddled down to see what would happen. The car stopped where we had crossed, the engine still running. After a few nervous moments, which seemed like ages, our hearts pounding, the car pulled forward again and soon was gone.
Iran, or ancient Persia, which it was once known, was amazing, one of the oldest cultures in the world, dating back to approximately 550 BCE. Its first king was Cyrus the Great, who freed the Jews exiled to Babylon by King Nebuchadnezzar, some 50 years earlier.
From the stunning Islamic architecture which abounds in the city of Isfahan, the famous verdant Persian gardens of Shiraz to the south, to nearby Persepolis, whose magnificent columns, staircases, and detailed friezes date back to the glory days of the empire, it left us in awe! But we had a couple surprises in store for us.
When we went east toward Afghanistan, we stopped in a small village around midday to use the facilities and purchase food and soft drinks. It was clear we were an anomaly, and soon numerous locals gathered in the village center to witness this curiosity. They were smiling and laughing, but soon began to crowd in around the coach. Sensing an ominous intention, our guide, Philip, quickly hustled the last stragglers back on board, and closed the door behind him, while Simon tried to start up the engine.
Within moments we were entirely surrounded and the crowd began to rock the bus from one side to the other. We were shocked and frightened. Nothing similar previously had happened. On the third try, the engine started! Simon shifted the coach into gear and nudged into the group at the front of the bus, while the coach was still being rocked by the fevered hands of the locals on each side. Those standing in front of us grudgingly gave way and parted in front of it, and the coach inched forward. Once clear, Simon accelerated, with the crowd closing in behind us in a rising cloud of dust, still laughing with each other and waving their hands at our departing vehicle. Looking back at the raucous group, we all breathed a sigh of relief, and pondered what they might have intended, and what might have happened had they actually tipped our coach on to its side.
Continued at thevoice.us/afghanistan-allure