Sunday 2^nd November

Well the rain eventually did stop and the morning was spent in packing and checking on the various exchange rates we should get. Got the address of a Pakistani chap we shall call on. About 1.00 they let us have our passports back together with 100 riyals each (not quite what my day’s work brings in but still). Drove on, after customs and passport checks over the Payitaq Pass (mountains covered with fresh snow but not the road thank God) along good but dull roads.

All the men look sullen and wear trilbies – Kermanshah was reached about 5.00 and we set off to look for VW agent to check front suspension (wobbling by now) and rear torsion bar. Splendid crowd of "mechanics" who had no spares and not, I suspect, too many ideas, but they gave us tea and hit the front wheels with spanners and said “okay go to Tehran”. I wanted to get a bit further so in pouring rain and darkness we drove on.

The windscreen wipers started to slip on their spindle (I only had a small screwdriver – the VW one having broken in Rome) and this meant stopping to tighten screws every 10 miles, so very wet we arrived at Kangarar to search for a cheap hotel! (By sign language as Iran was the first country so far where few people speak any English).

The manager of the VW had said very proudly to A “The sky is blue and the sea is calm” and pointing to a boy “she is not my sister”-- but we got by. Found a great place where all the coaches stop. The café/hotel charged 30 riyals each for bed in small room with three beds – I made it quite clear that we wanted no one else in our room and so for 40 riyals each for Pepsi, chicken, rice, bread and tea (total cost for beds, dinner and morning tea $2.5).