Sandtornado!

When driving or travelling in countries like Iran, Adventure always lurks around the corner.

Today we left the fairytale city of Esfahan. Actually we left quite late as we will be on television on Sunday and had to update the website and inform our friends and family. About 25 kilometres outside Esfahan, in the middle of the dessert, we saw a small sand-twister about 1 kilometre east of the car. We stopped the car next to the highway and noticed an even bigger one a bit further down the road. Cool, we thought, and decided to check this one out. We turned of the highway in order to get close to the twister who was, at this stage, blowing a lot of debris in the sky. We parked the car, got out and grabbed the camera. We saw sand, plastic bags and pieces of cart board flying through the air and we were impressed by this breathtaking masterpiece of nature. Then we noticed that the twister started moving in our direction, at first slowly and then faster. Elles ran to the car to close the windows while I, Michel, decided to keep filming. Elles shouted that the twister was coming straight at us and that we had to move the car quickly. We realised that is was time to go. We jumped in the car and drove of with high speed, just missing the sand and debris of the twister. At this time our heartbeat was pushing it limits and adrenaline levels were exceeding the max. It was awesome! We stopped a bit further and saw the last bit of the twister crossing the road. We were excited and kept laughing. What an adventure.

We continued our journey to Yazd, one of the oldest cities in the world, and got there in the evening. We found an excellent place to stay right in the heart of the bazaar. To get our luggage there we had to drive into the old bazaar. This might be one of the oldest bazaars in the world. It was difficult to navigate through the narrow lanes but with some help we found our place. After unpacking the car I, Michel, decided to go park the car in a secured parking lot. Then disaster struck. Trying to get around a very small corner the engine died and did not want to start again. I immediately checked the fuel gauge and that was pointing at half full. I opened the engine compartment but could not see anything as I was standing in a dark alley of the bazaar. When a motorcycle passed by, nearly hitting me, I could see that there was no fuel going to the engine. I was hoping that the fuel tank wasn’t blocked with dirt as this would mean a long stay in Yazd. I decided to put some new fuel in the tank from the jerry cans. I added about 5 litres and tried starting the engine again. Some travellers, who passed by, helped me with pushing the car out of the way into another alley, as I was blocking the road for another car. I felt hopeless and asked a guy to get Elles and a torch. I had a look underneath the car and noticed nothing was wrong with the fuel line. Then I realised we had driven more then 350 kilometres on one tank and it could not be that the tank was half full. It must have been empty so the fuel gauge was broken. I tried starting the engine again and yes….. it started! Elles, who had just arrived, was happy to hear the engine did it again and so was I. We found a car park nearby and were happy to get to our room. This was a bit too much excitement for one day!