Turkey - Page 6

Scott and I hiked out along the highway towards Iran one day. The local paramilitaries, the Jandarmes (who are in charge of controlling this area of tight security), were more than happy to shake our hands, ask where we were from and let us pass and go wherever we wanted in this sensitive border area. Mt. Ararat is in the background.

We hitchiked back to town on a load of boulders.

My last morning in Turkey... sigh... I blew the last of my Lira in the supermarket and caught a minibus to the border. Walked along an seemingly endless line of trucks stopped at the border and waited in a bare concrete "cage" for the Turkish officers to finish lunch, turn off the TV, and process the travellers. Once stamped, I literally had to push my way through a momentarily unlocked steel door to the Iranian side of the "cage" and then wait to be let through again to another building to wait for the Iranian officers to process me. My first experience of Iran was stitting there watching Iranian soap operas (not nearly as scandelous as western ones being as all the women are in full hejab, covered up!), and clips from the Iranian football league. Anyways, back to the picture, here is an unusually clear view of Mt. Ararat, 5166m high. Mt. Ararat is where legend has it that Noah's Ark came to rest, teams and expeditions are still on the mountain regularly to search for it.