Photographs fron the 1977 British Speleological Expedition to the Zagros Mts, Iran. - Back to index - foward to next image
Bazargan - the border post between Turkey and Iran. The pink bus was a sort of travelling companion of sorts - the 'macic bus run'. About 30 pounds return to India in 1977, food included. We found sleeping like this was the most comfortable - you didn't need a tent, there was no dew - dry as a bone. Couldn't do this in UK - you would be soaking early morning. About eight could get a full stretch in the bus - one is on top ! ....
cont below...
I don't know who suggested we took with us some hardcore girly magazines - but we took about thirty as potential barganing power. We tried them out on the Turkish side rough bar before we could cross the next morning. ( The border shuts at night ) . Managed to swap some for good ammounts of free beer - until in true Turkish style they tried to return them, with pages missing, and charge us for the booze - got a little heated. If you do try arm wrestling a Turkish lorry driver, lose ! Then they love it and all is smiles !
As we crossed the notoriously ominous border post into Iran in the morning - a guard requested in very broken English, ' We wan ol de magazinns '. So we lost them all anyway. But we did go through that border in under two hours - eighteen people and a bus full of equipment, plus a GP carrying, legally he assured us, major hard drugs, ( as the tools of his trade - but it did worry us ). So perhaps our Playgirls helped us out after all.
Another strange thing happened at this border - we all had to leave the bus - be searched, passports, visas, etc and the bus searched without us. Inside I realised I had left my Zenit hanging on the seat by it's strap. Resigned to having lost it, it was still there when I got back to the bus ! Maybe they just were more honest than I thought, or they knew more about Zenit's than me.