Overlanders & car update

There are a few places where overlanders who travel from Europe to Asia meet. The rest of the time they swarm out over the countries and then meet later on in what we call funnels. Dogubuyazit, near the only bordercrossing with Iran is one of those funnels and an excellent place to meet other travellers (which we haven’t seen much).

Dogubuyazit is famous for its beautiful ishak palace and its campsite underneath. And thats where we met two other crazy dutchies who just came back from India, driving in ‘betsie’ their mercedes bus. We sat down, prepared a wokmeal for them (a welcome change after all the kebabs in Iran) and listened to their stories. The best advice is always from a traveller who has been to the place you are going. We got lots of tips on where to stay etc.One thing is for sure. We have some tough times ahead of us (road and tolerance wise). We also met two frenchies in a landrover who were on their way to Pakistan. A lovely couple with a continuous smile on their faces.

Update on the car:

We have passed the 10.000 kilometres!!!

So far ‘hippie’ has done her job excellent. The only problems we had were with a none working oiltemperature meter but had that fixed in Greece with a new one. We also had an electricity problem due to driving at high speed through a waterhole. That was easily fixed as well. The last few days the rotor of the fan that cools the engine makes a bit of a winging noice. After enquiring we heard that it is harmless and it might be a leaf from a tree or so. We have had no difficulty driving over passes of around 2500 meter. The real test will come with the heat of the desert in easter Iran, the extremely bad roads in Pakistand and after that the heights of the Himalayas.