17th June – Mashhad to Gorgan

Today we have a big days drive of 580 km to Gorgan.

Our morning tea stop is off the main road down country lanes through a farming community and out into the middle of fields to Radakan Tower.  This tower is on an old caravan route through the Toos plain and is an octagonal shape 25 metres tall gthat was built in 587 AD.  It is an architectural master piece of Khajeh Nasir and it is an astronomical calendar to determine the beginning of the year and seasons.  The brickwork and turquoise tiles add an elegance to the tower.

When we stop Burgundy can smell fuel and it is discovered that the car has a fuel leak which is fixed before we leave, thanks to the “mechanics team”, however this problem does leave Burgundy short of fuel, so we’ll need to fill up sooner rather than later.

Back on the road we drive through a town that has a street of shops selling walnuts.

Our next stop is at an old Iranian house that has a beautiful mosaic tiled front. We draw quite a crowd in the street where we park.

For lunch we stop in a lovely shady courtyard under walnut trees with a stream flowing past, it’s very picturesque.  A member of the Iranian MG Car club meets us here in his MG6 as he can’t make it to Ramsar tomorrow.  The boys talk about the MG’s despite the language barrier.  David offers to take the Iranian club member for a drive in Ginger so they head off around the local country lane. We’d all finish our lunch and pack our cars waiting for Ginger to return, so we call him on the radio but get no reply.  So we decide to make our way back towards the main road and as we wind our way along the country lane we come across an accident that has involved Ginger.  David and his passenger and the occupants of the other car are all OK but unfortunately Ginger has significant damage to the front end and is not able to be driven.

We decide to split the group and the guide car and Shiraz stay with Ginger while the other 6 cars and the MG Media Centre car continue onto Gorgan.  After organising a tow truck and dealing with the paperwork and the Police we start our drive to Gorgan behind the guides car with Ginger following us on the back of a tow truck.  The MG Media Centre boys have organised a workshop for Ginger to be taken to in Gorgan.

Our drive to Gorgan is as quick as we can make it with short toilet and driver change stops only and 2 cars can travel much faster than 8 cars so we make good time.  We drive through a flat desert plain where we see a couple of whirlwind.  We pass over some mountains and down through a beautiful farming area.

We are fortunate travelling at this time of the day as we see a magnificent sunset over the rice paddy’s.

We arrive at our hotel only 1 hour behind the rest of the group and they are just heading to dinner so we are all able to eat together after a long and exhausting day.