Roadblocked

On the way from Ani to Dogubayazit we took a road along the Armenian border. This road appears to be closed at night as the area attracts many smugglers. Along this road you will find many roadblocks, set up by the military, to check the passing cars. Everytime we appeared with ‘hippie’ our campervan we were waived through with a smile. Halfway we saw two militairy men stopping a truck and when we drove around the truck we were stopped by one of them. Bummer, by the looks of the mess we had created we hoped not to be searched as this would take hours. We opened the window and put up our biggest smile.

‘Where are you going’

‘Dogubuyazit and then to Iran’

‘Okay’

The guy with his awful big looking gun nodded to his friend who appeared from behind the truck. Now what….? The first guy opened the backdoor of the camper and stepped inside. Okay, here we go… searchtime! But instead of searching he stuffed our mess aside and sat down with a big smile. Elles jumped out to help the second guy who trying to get a seat as well and was nearly crushing her toiletries with his big muddy army shoes.

Dogubuyazit.. okay, they said again. All we were looking at were their impressive guns. We drove off and continued our trip. We didn’t say much. Every now and then we looked to the back and saw two smiles. I guess they had a story to tell as well. About ten kilomtres later we got to a second roadblock and were stopped again. Michel, who was enjoying the situation, saluted to the soldier who wasn’t impressed and asked for our passports straight away. Then he saw our passengers who laughed and jumped out of the van. With a straight face our passports were checked. We were thanked by our passengers and continued our travels!