Iran - Persia's cradle Pasargadae & Felix becomes an adventure mobile

We are too late, the snow-covered pass and the old tree have taken too much time. So we're standing in front of Persia's cradle in the car park. All alone. We cook ourselves something nice and go to bed early. Which is a good thing, because the muezzin and the barking dogs wake us up early. Very early.

And so we are at the entrance gate to the UNESCO World Heritage Site at 8 a.m. on the dot. And we have to laugh because we wonder how anyone can be here so early. Which, in retrospect, turns out not to be such a good idea. Because at 8 o'clock in the morning it is still -1° and there is a strong wind whistling. So we walk across the archaeological site, our caps pulled low over our faces and our hoods pulled back over our heads.

More than 2500 years ago, Cyrus II had an imposing city built on a high plateau, marking the beginning of the expansion of his initially small empire. Trembling, we hurry past the presumed burial site of Cyrus II, along endless paths, always against the whistling wind. Suddenly a car pulls up next to us, one of the guards must have taken pity on us and drives us through the grounds. He can't explain anything to us, but we no longer have to trudge the more than 5 kilometres across the windy area. Thank you, you wonderful saviour!

Now that we have visited all parts of the excavation site and warmed up in the moving car in between, we say goodbye to our helper and walk the remaining kilometres back: and the best thing is that the sun is slowly warming us and the wind is coming from behind, so it is no longer blowing in our faces.

The cafés in front of the archaeological site are still not open, so I don't expect the Swiss to be so early. So I make us a pot of tea, we have a cosy breakfast and off we go. I've found a cool canyon that we'd like to visit. We also hope to have less icy wind in the canyon.

So we set off, but at some point the right road ends and Gerd becomes unsure. Okay, then we'll just walk a bit, it's probably nice back there. Gerd drives on instead of walking (is he sick of my hiking ideas in the freezing cold?). Slowly, the road resembles a track that has been washed out by the rain but has thankfully dried out. Our Felix is doing well, rocking left, rocking right. Our cutlery is once again completely reorganised in the drawer.

At some point, I get out and should walk ahead to check the situation. And especially the turning options, if there are still any. To be on the safe side, I take the camera with me and show from afar that the coast is clear.

Back here, in the last "Chracher", there's nobody around. It's probably a 10 kilometre walk back to town. I sincerely hope that our Felix will make it there and back. For a moment, we both push these thoughts aside and enjoy the vastness of this landscape. What a stunning sight!

Oh yes, of course Felix has mastered everything superbly and we secretly believe that under our constant training he has moulted into an expedition vehicle all by himself. Well done, dear, faithful, grey-blue companion!

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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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