Iran - actually we just wanted to fill up with gas

We look for gas and diesel. As soon as we arrive at a petrol station (a small converted garage the size of a small car), which we know from our iOverlander app, we find out that there is no LPG for our heating. Not that we need gas right now, but we've got into the habit of looking for gas long before we're only half full. We simply don't want to drive empty and then have to search.

As soon as we sit in the car, we try to elicit new information from our smartphones. A white car pulls up (okay, all cars in Iran are white!), the window opens and Ali speaks to us in German: "Alles klar? What are you looking for?" He quickly clarifies with the guys from the small garage where we can get petrol.

Of course, he now drives in front of us and takes us straight there with his hazard lights flashing. A few kilometres further on, he stops at another small driveway. We would never have guessed there was a petrol station here. We can't read anything either. It's all very mysterious. If only we could read the Persian signs.

As soon as we get to the petrol pump, our tank fills up as if by magic. When we want to pay 15 litres later, we are invited to fill up with gas. Ali pays for us. We try to emphasise two or three more times that we want to pay. But he remains stubborn.

"I'll give you a quick lift to the petrol station, okay?" So we drive on, a few kilometres further on there's a petrol station with trucks (this is important, the petrol stations where there are only cars only have petrol, no diesel). Here the game begins as usual. We look to see where a lorry driver is filling up and ask him if we can buy some diesel from him. This is also new for Ali, he knew nothing about the diesel barrier for foreigners.

Before we continue, we exchange our numbers. Ali knows that we are travelling into the desert. And looking at our tyres and our van, which is not suitable for off-road driving, he says goodbye: "If anything happens, if you get stuck in the sand, if you run out of diesel or starve to death, call me! I'll come and rescue you."

Apart from starvation, which is almost impossible even here in Iran, we could perhaps take him up on his offer. But I'm getting ahead of myself: Nothing like that will happen, because we are superheroes and Felix is doing a great job!

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Merci for "travelling with us

We are thinking about taking another break from travelling in the summer and visiting our families in Germany and Switzerland. One of the ideas is to organise a Lecture about our long journey to the Persian Gulf to prepare. If you would like to, what would interest you the most? We will also tell stories here that don't find a place here on the blog. We're thinking of the Bern and Berlin area - simply because we have family there. But other places are also conceivable. Feel free to write to us.

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