London to Kathmandu overland - 1995

In 1995 I set off with 20 friends from university (UEA Norwich) for what turned out to be a real adventure. Our aim was to drive from the UK to Nepal, via Eastern Europe, Turkey, Syria, Iran, Pakistan, India then Nepal. This is a classic route and has been travelled in both directions since the people started travelling hundreds of years ago.

Overall the trip took 4 months - with approximately 50% of all days spent driving with just short breaks for lunch. We prepared our own food - and mainly camped - either in the wild (deserts, mountains, beaches, jungles etc) or outside local restaurants (where we could).  (Read about how the food was organised)

…the 2nd half of the route - from Turkey to Nepal…

Excerpts from my diary… 
The night before crossing from Turkey to Iran we were camped in a former restaurant, not far from the border area, next to the remains of the Ishak Pasa Palace.

The evening was made memorable by the display of the latest riot shotguns and handguns, the largest of which we had, against our better judgement, helped the PKK smuggle past a Turkish army checkpoint earlier in the day (The PKK are the local Kurdish people fighting for independence). We now knew were were in an area of the world where the gun rules - and as we weren’t carrying any (for obvious reasons!) - we needed to pay attention to those who were.

The next day we crossed into Iran. Following complex paperwork (and the odd bribe) we, late in the day, started driving East. We knew that camping too close to the border could bring trouble - so we drove a couple of hundred kilometres through the desert until we considered it safe. Our standard evening protocol on these occassions was to find camp once it had gone dark (and leave before the sun rose) - and on this occassion we found a hollow in the desert - with one of us walking ahead with a torch - while we drove the truck along behind. By this time we had been travelling for a couple of months and our systems were well practiced - tents were going up, journals were being written, the meal was being cooked - when suddenly we were surounded by gunfire. Not just any gunfire - but solid semi-automatic gunfire with bullets landing all around (or perhaps over our heads - I am not trained in this kind of thing!) After what seemed like an eternity, 11 gun toting Iranians came out of the darkness - and proceeded to approach us aggressively. Our men were split from the women - and I was one of the few men who was lined up - kneeling on the ground - with my hands above my head. With guns and knives at our throats, and our arms forced to be raised above our heads, they shouted and shouted - and the only words I could understand was “whiskey” and “dollars”. Generally not a good sign. This kept on for a while - and luckily we didn’t have any whiskey with us (it wasn’t permitted in Iran). Later a 4×4 vehicle arrived with additional Iranians - perhaps police we thought. We were then subsequently arrested and taken to an army camp. The following day the plot thickened when two of our team (the older ones) were interrogated by the Iranian secret police - and we found ourselves being held on spying charges… well we were driving covertly in a UK military truck… so perhaps it was to be expected!

…the truck, a Bedford, stuck in the sand in an Iranian desert…

Lots more stories and photos - perhaps one day I will get time to write them up in full!