Istanbul, Turkey. 26th July.
We have a stop here for three days and the weather is foul. It is cold, windy, and terribly wet.
Tomorrow is our last day and we leave for Ankara on the 28th. We are camped in the institute grounds
just east of the Bosporus under the cover of some pine trees.
I was driver in Istanbul for the Bosporus crossing to the Institute of Technology at Scutari where
we are staying and driving here is really something! Horses and carts are everywhere as well as
dozens of taxis and minibuses and local service buses. Even on the modern motorway between the city
and here, horses and carts appear in the fast lane, coming the other way! In the city there are no
rules, no courtesies, no discipline; it is every man for himself and hand on horn all the time.
Eight of us took the ferry back across the Bosporus this morning to visit the Istanbul bazaar. Pedlars
there drag at your clothes and you have to watch your pockets. We were literally hauled into two suede
clothing factories where we tried on the most fabulous suede and sheepskin coats, jackets, and waist
coats. Some coats, made of suede on the outside, sheepskin on the inside, which cost £50 in Britain are
available here for £8 and probably for less further east.
We then went on to the Blue Mosque, soaked to the skin. Carpeted in Persian rugs and crowned by four
tiled domes and six minarets, the mosque was, to say the least, impressive. We also looked round the
famous St. Sophia mosque and the Topkapi, which is the richest museum in the world. Back
Tabriz, Persia. 2nd August.
Another 1500 miles since I last wrote. First stop after Istanbul was Persembe, which we reached at 7 pm
in inky darkness. This early darkness makes pitching tents and cooking rather difficult. What's more, it
was lashing rain, and the university facilities were inadequate "as usual". We left at 4.30 am and covered
400 miles over two mountain passes, one at 6600 ft and the other at 8000 ft. I took the coach over the
6600 ft pass on a road of rubble and dust and when we reached the bottom, the paint was actually burning
off the wheels. Back
The Turks are generally very rough and noisy. We actually went into Erzerum in the evening, but their
behaviour, especially towards the girls, was so disgusting that we left immediately. From the Black Sea
to the Turkish/Iran border is the worst stretch for children throwing stones. It seems we were very lucky
to suffer only one small dent. We saw Leicester collect a large rock on its roof on a hairpin bend,
Cambridge have lost two side windows completely, some coaches have dents right through the metal, and
York lost a wing on a boulder rolled in their path. Practically all coaches except Edinburgh have other
dents and scratches.
Yesterday we drove 291 miles to Tabriz over arid mountains and wide hazy plains. Dust entering through
the floor filled the boot. As I was driving we passed close to Mount Ararat where Noah is said to have
landed. It stands out in a plain like a large black jelly with long streaks of cream (snow) dripping down
its sides, while its peak is capped by its own private cloud.
The sky is cloudless again today, the temperature touching one hundred degrees Fahrenheit, but we are
becoming acclimatised. There is very little vegetation here except the apricot grove in which we are camped,
so dust settles thickly on plates, food, bedding and everything. Back
TEHRAN, 4th August
Trust my luck, it was my turn to drive through Tehran. Never have I experienced such driving! It took one
and a half hours to get through the city on three lane dual carriageway. We travelled in the centre lane
which was cramped with fast moving cars dodging from lane to lane, stopping, doing U turns and skiffing us
by as little as two inches. One coach hit two cars, and one broke a car window, but again we got through
unscathed. All this was in the dark.
We are camped in a sports arena with the tents on soft grass and the coaches on a running track. Electric
lights hang on wires all round so we have one at the door of the tent. There are three open air pools, open
air showers, a shop, post office and hospital and we have a drinking water tap and a dustbin right at the
door. The Iranians are really doing us proud.
We are practising our Scottish choir and dancing like mad and I am singing and playing the mandolin, in the
quiet parts of "Cum Ba ya". I haven't even had a rehearsal with this 300 strong choir yet and we appear
before the Iranian premier tonight! Back
TEHRAN - SHAH PESAND
It's Saturday again, which means we have been away for a month now. I'm writing in the coach because we are
in the middle of a four day run to Kabul and get up early and camp late, leaving no other time for writing.
We are going into Afghanistan despite the cholera epidemic which may hold us up coming back since the border
between there and Iran has been closed to westward traffic until September, 13th. There is always the
alternative southern route, but we'll wait and see.
We were sorry to leave Tehran. It is a wonderful city and has a most impressive university. Our concerts went
well and the people were all very kind. We left Tehran at 5 am and took the northern route around the Elburz
Mountains instead of the southern route as planned, and this took us close along the edge of the Caspian
Sea. It was very humid there with low cloud on the jungle clad mountains and steel blue sky over the sea.
We took a side road down to the sea but at that point we were opposite a very large lagoon and about 100
yards of deep blue mud had to be negotiated before the sea was reached. Even then the lagoon was only a
couple of feet deep. The Caspian plain i.e. the old and much larger sea bed allowed a view of several
hundred miles, into Russian Kazakstan.
We were stopped by police at one point and forced to wait until all the coaches were together before going
in close convoy behind a police escort. This apparently was a demonstration of kindness and an official
farewell from Tehran, but unfortunately it slowed our progress considerably since we crawled for thirty miles
through dust in blazing sunshine. It was, indeed, an impressive sight but I found the driving a bit hard.
We camped finally at Shah Pesand which is no more than a village, actually. However, the army had been hard
at it marking out plots and erecting electric lights. They gave us each a flex and light in our tents. We
were sensible enough not to use ours. Other tents were alive with the natives of this tropical environment.
Few insects were smaller than one inch. There were huge beetles, crickets, locusts, moths and frogs. Poor
old Tony, who hates insects at the best of times, was faced by a mantis in the loo! The night air was loud
with the sound of crickets and frogs. Back
CURIOSITY
From Greece eastwards we have been increasingly aggravated by the bare faced curiosity of the natives,
definitely at its worst in Turkey. One does get used to it but the girls have to be very careful. Several
times police have come to clear the street when crowds have gathered while we shop. Even when we have a
bog-stop buses and lorries pull up to spectate. The other day I had dozens of children screaming with
delight when I turned the windscreen washers on them. They then altered the washers while I wasn't looking
and I sprayed a policeman right down his shirt front! He, too, howled with laughter, thank goodness!
A BAD DAY
The road from Shah Pesand was really bad. We covered 170 miles on sheer dirt-track and dust at an average
of 25 mph. Everything was falling off the racks and 4 gallons of paraffin ruined some food in the boot.
We also got an airlock in the fuel feed and ground to halt, but our mechanics had us back on the road
within half an hour. Rickki hit a mule loaded with hay but fortunately it was quite unhurt. It was a bad
day in all but we finished up camping in the Royal Park in Mashhad, just on a track beneath the stars.
We have a few invalids now i.e. four suffering from heat exhaustion or dehydration as well as various
degrees of the trots.
Don is at the wheel just now and I am preparing to take over in a few minutes. Back
IRAN
The villages in Iran are made of mud and look for all the world like ruins. The buildings, crude cuboid
affairs, blend with their dry and dusty environment in the heat of the sun, but at night they can be seen
illuminated by huge green fluorescent lights, and it is not unusual to find a well kept volley ball court
inside the village walls.
BEAUTIES
We have been very impressed by the beauty of the Iranian women and children. Many of the women wear veils,
but one still sees the eyes, which are particularly lovely. Our girls usually wear trousers under their
dresses when we are in towns, but this seems to make them even more of a spectacle to the Iranians. Some
of them however, have adopted the native dresses and veils. Back