Iran - Off to the desert. And a family picnic.

How much can you experience in one day?
Be careful, today could be long.

First we experience how described yesterdayonce again the Iranian hospitality and now, completely relaxed, we finally set off into the desert. The two of us, our desert vehicle (not!) Felix and all our courage.

We buy some vegetables and a few snacks at one of the deserted roundabouts so that we don't starve out there.

The road leads far out of the last village, Google Maps has long since run out of information. But my new favourite app map.cz shows: There is a sandy path. At some point, we stop at the edge of the track and prefer to walk a little further. It's not so easy to push three and a half tonnes out of the sand, so we sound out the situation.

After two kilometres there is some kind of post, police station or entrance to the national park. Who knows? The friendly gentleman wonders: "Where's our car? Nobody can get through here on foot! Yes, good question, where is our Felix?

As we hike along the sandy path, which is very deep in places, we keep coming across cars full of families. We even see one or two medium-sized coaches. Should we dare?

Gerd doesn't want to, I would try. But Gerd usually drives, he knows our Felix much better. I can persuade him, after all, we've never been disappointed by Iranian hospitality. Today, I try to persuade him, we'll take our chances. If only so that the locals have a good story to tell about the incompetent tourists afterwards. It's a deal!

So we speed up - after all, we've learnt never to get stuck in the sand! - along the bumpy, sandy track, we keep getting bogged down and reach the post again. Now we have to pay another million or so, CHF 1.50 for us and our motorhome. But we carry on, another three or four kilometres along this beautiful, now mountainous sandy track. Felix shakes his head, scratches his tyres for a moment and we're already one of the off-road expedition vehicles. Yippee, I'm happy!

We stop at the end of the "road", which is now really visible to us; this is a kind of meeting point. You can buy tea, have a picnic, climb into the desert dunes and hire camels for riding. Quads, Land Rovers and motorbikes are also available for high-speed desert rides. All a little too loud for our ears. We trudge up the dunes on foot, behind the first sand ridge it is quiet, just the desert and us. And: around 20 degrees and sunshine.

I still can't believe that we are now in one of the Iranian deserts. Only marginally, but still: desert. I quickly take off my shoes and quickly regret it. The sand is hot. And now sand in my shoes again: one of my fantastic ideas. Sometimes I get ahead of myself.

Soft music emanates from one of the dunes. A class of girls is sitting in the sand, in the centre one of the young women is playing an instrument whose name we should actually know. Let me describe it like this: she plays on an upturned wok and elicits the most beautiful sounds from the cooking pot. We are allowed to sit down.

After the music, the teacher leads a meditation. We simply join in. We sit in the warm sand, put our hands in our laps, close our eyes and meditate in Farsi. Peace flows through our bodies and we are simply there. A deep sense of gratitude spreads through us and I could sit like this for hours. But every meditation comes to an end at some point.

And as is the case in Iran, the girls want to take selfies with us. We have our photos taken, wander around on several smartphones and our newly learnt English skills are tested. It's so cute how we have to answer the same questions over and over again. At some point, the teacher comes up to us and politely apologises, after all, they rarely have the opportunity to use our English skills.

We slowly leave the dune and stroll to our Felix. Behind the only coach here sits a whole family having a picnic. I think Iran is THE picnic country! They wave to us and indicate with their hands that we should sit down! The huge carpet is spread out and the tea is quickly poured into the cups. We're already sitting there, chatting via Google Translate and laughing more than we have for a long time. We add our fresh melon to the huge picnic and have food for a whole week on our (their) plates.

We sit together for hours, chatting and learning a lot about the family and life in Iran. In return, I ask if we can give the children a football. After all, we have a few Champions League balls in the car. They are beaming, Gerd fetches a ball and gives it to the girls. They quickly kick the ball and play volleyball. The children's beaming faces are simply marvellous.

When it's time to leave and a sandstorm is brewing, we all pack up. Gerd shows the ladies our Felix (whereupon they tell their husbands what they want now!), blows up another ball (when we realise that there are actually two families) and want to say goodbye. The children come to us with the balls and want to give them back to us. "No, this is a present for you!" They can hardly believe it. When they see that it's a ball from a championship (any championship, because they have no idea about European football), their eyes light up and they clutch the balls like treasures.

As we say goodbye, one of the young women gives me a typical Iranian key ring and my dad gives me his prayer chain. I look at him questioningly several times. Really? I should accept this? Yes, it will bring me joy and happiness. Tears well up in my eyes and although physical contact between a man and a woman is frowned upon, I lean into Gerd's arms, sobbing. I must have been completely overwhelmed.

One by one I hug all the women and Dad takes Gerd in his arms. It's really hard to say goodbye. And we leave the family with the promise to visit them in Kashan when we pass through the city again.

Now all that lies ahead of us is the way out of the desert. I would have liked to sleep here, but the increasing number of cars full of young people suggests a night of partying in the open air and the weather forecast is calling for rain. And that means mud. This time Gerd prevails and races through the previously mastered sandy tracks like a true desert fox with our Felix.

Once we have solid ground under our wheels again, we realise what an incredible day it has been today. It gets quiet in the car and we roll a few more kilometres through the mountains until it gets dark. But more of that later, I promise!

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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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