The journey today was from Mus, Turkey crossing the boarder into Iran at Bazargan.

The road climbed to just over 2000m and as we road around Lake Van we really did see some wonderful views.  We stopped off along the shores of the lake at what looked like a deserted holiday park, only to find it open and serving drinks and a packet of biscuit that went down a treat.

The temps were climbing into the mid 30’s and a welcome drop in temp as we climbed over the mountains where we arrived in Dogubayazit (we named this place Dog Town as it was easier to pronounce).

We arrived at around 3:00pm and still feeling fresh(ish) we decided to make a run for the boarder to cross into Iran that evening.

We arrived at the boarder and the exit from Turkey went nice and straight forward, however the Iranian side challenged due to the language barrier. Fortunately we found a friendly English speaking person who assisted greatly with the paperwork and it was all over within a couple of hours.

Unfortunately the boarder town of Bazargan was not a good place, with what appeared everyone trying to rip you off and had a very unsafe feel to it.

Once  we found a hotel for the night we asked for the ATM cash machine, only to be informed that our cards would not work in Iran due to the country not being part of the international banking protocols (due to sanctions). Suddenly we found ourselves in a country with no access to money! All the research and discussions we made prior had not brought up this issue, fortunately Steve and I had US$’s as a backup stashed away which got us out of trouble for night. Tomorrow is another day.