Re: Iran 1978

Posted by Vicar on Nov 07, 2013; 7:57am
URL: http://sundownersadventures.385.s1.nabble.com/Iran-1978-tp5706763p5706765.html

O.K. I’ll buy in.
Forgive me if I have told some or all of this before.

Towards the end of 1979 Chop and I did an overlander from Kathmandu. As we headed west we came across other crews coming the other way.  They were from other companies and were mainly truck trips. We had heard about the troubles both in Afghanistan and Iran so we headed south in Pakistan to go via Quetta into Iran. One of the truckies said that they had difficulties with one stretch of the road and doubted a bus could make it. With limited options we tried our luck. All but for a short section of road we did it easily and the other just required the best bus driver in the world to cover it. Luckily I was there to drive it and my only disappointment came when I learnt that so many others could do it also.  

You can match up my other story about running booze into Pakistan and Iran with this trip.

We had stopped in a small village in southern Iran for lunch and all seemed peaceful. We had only been there about 20 minutes when I was approached by a policeman. He enquired if I was the driver of the bus out the front of the shop. After confirming I was he suggested I round up the passengers and get going. Even though it was not evident to me he said the locals were considering setting fire to the bus. That was enough for me to saddle up and get out of there.

A day or two later we had stopped at another southern village to have a break. As I sat at the wheel a local came in the bus and asked if we had any Americans on-board. We did but the guy had teamed up with an English woman and placed a picture of him in the front of her passport. This he had hoped would have them believe the two of them were travelling on the one passport.

Once I had said we didn’t have any Americans on-board I then asked him, why do you ask?
He replied we would kill them. My next question was why? His answer, I don’t know but we would. Go figure. I later found out he was a teacher, possibly more educated than the average Iranian.

So we too ran our booze through Iran, sorry I meant to say we ran through Iran also but no T shirt.