Cham - Pasargadae - Persepolis

Late at night on Tuesday, January 28, 2020, we are visited in the dormitory of the Silk Road Hotel. A Pakistani checks in with his companion and robs us of some sleep. Accordingly, getting up a few hours later is difficult. After breakfast in the cozy hotel garden, I take a stroll in Yazd with the Dicken before we continue south with Txell, Koohyar, Patricia and François and their two children Candela and Elio. We stop at a small park just outside Yazd, where Patricia and François provide their children with food and I cook Rango's sheep lung, which he had refused to eat raw in the morning. I buy a little something nearby and am then invited by the family to a soup. Then we continue to Cham, a small and attractive mud village. Just nearby is another Tower of Silence. At its foot, we set up camp and are later provided with firewood and Arak (moonshine) by a local. The young man uses our presence as a welcome change, as there is not much going on here. So the evening flies by. The fire and the schnapps keep us warm and Iranian music sets a good mood. There are also a few joints going around.

The next morning, no one is in a hurry, we start again quite late. This time I ride with Txell and Koohyar in the T4. The next planned destination is Pasargadae. On the way, we stop in a small town, I replenish my food supplies and treat myself to an espresso. A short time later, we stop again for a small lunch, rice and sheep kebabs taste delicious. It is already dark when we arrive at the remains of the first capital of the Persian Empire under the Achaemenids. There is some snow, after all, we are again at an altitude of almost 2000 m in the Zagros Mountains. The historical site is already closed, so we content ourselves with a view over the fence of the stone tomb of Cyrus II.

The next morning (Thursday, January 30, 2020) after breakfast, I take a walk around the facility with Rango, but I decide not to enter. After all, today we are going to Persepolis, where there are plenty of ancient stones to admire. That's enough for one day. After everyone is ready to depart, we hit the road again. It is early afternoon when we find a parking lot and relax in the sun for a while. Txell agrees to keep an eye on Rango while the rest of us go to see the stones. Considering that the city was built about 2500 years ago, the whole thing is quite impressive. Unlike the construction of the pyramids, the workers here were probably not slaves but employees with reasonable pay. The partially very detailed information has only survived because many of the clay tablets used for organization and administration and written in cuneiform unintentionally burned and thus became durable. Alexander the Great did a thorough job of plundering and looting, which is why he still has a bad reputation in the area today. Understandable. After hours of amazement, it's time for a cup of coffee, which coincides with the sunset today. Then we head to Shiraz in the evening. On the way, Koohyar receives a call, and police checkpoints are expected. It's time to get rid of the remaining Arak, as the authorities here don't have a sense of humor about alcohol. The marijuana the man still has with him probably wouldn't be a big problem. From my European perspective, it sounds pretty crazy and I don't feel particularly comfortable. But: different countries, different customs. A short time later, we reach an uncontrolled guarded parking lot at Azadi Park in Shiraz, where we can set up our camp for a small fee. After a joint dinner, it's time to hit the hay. There is a lot of experiences to process through sleep once again.