Soaking up Cappadocia

Soaking up Cappadocia

The Pulled Up In A Lemon crew of four Kiwi women continue their adventures on the Mongol Rally as they travel from Prague to in Ulan Ude, Russia over eight weeks in a Toyota Yaris.

As we drive through the rough Turkmenistan roads, winding our way up the straight desert highway avoiding the many potholes, we have some time to reflect on the past week and half, where we were able to visit some of the best countries yet.

Last week  provided us some resting ground when we were camped up at Dilek camping with our epic host, Marut. Marut is a Turkish legend and has hosted rally teams for the past five years. We were up at 4am with hopes to see the famous air balloons take off at sunrise, but a thunderstorm put a dampener on that. Fortunately, the day was revived with many a kebab, visiting an 80m deep underground city and a winery. We also took in the incredible scenes of Cappadocia, and a big night of sharrup (Turkish wine) and dancing the whirling dervish. The following day, a long and hungover 12-hour stint in the cars, travelling directly east across Turkey took us through some incredible mountainous landscapes and past some big blue lakes. Arriving at night at a random camp spot by Lake Van, three hours from the Iran border, we found ourselves on a mini peninsula in the blue lake surrounded by mountains, and a friendly farmer and his goats. After a much-needed swim in the clean blue waters, a game of kubb and cup of the tea with the locals, we made our way to the Iran border to camp up for the night. We had our first run in the military here and were followed to our camp spot in the dark by soldiers with guns, who were wondering what four random cars were doing camping in the wilderness so close to the border!

We arrived at the Iranian border at 4.30am to beat the queue and left about lunch time. The kerfuffle to get all 14 of us, plus our cars, into the country was unreal, cost a little bit too much money, and involved us driving around after our fixer (an Iranian local who helped us) for 20 minutes to three different locations until we were sorted. We were stoked to finally be in Iran. It was like taking a step back in time with 90% of people driving 1990s model cars. They were either little Peugeots or Renaults - everyone had the same car! Except for the old trucks stacked with hay four times their height! Being an Islamic state, we were all required to wear long pants and tops, and the women wear head scarves at all times. It took a while to the accept this, but the locals made us feel completely at home. They aren’t used to seeing tourists, and we were treated like B-class celebrities. Every car waves and toots and we had so many photos with the locals. We were event given food from car to car on the highway.

The landscape was huge, dry, mountainous and rocky. It was beautiful! We definitely felt like we had arrived in the Middle East. We made a beeline to the city of Tabriz and camped up before taking a detour over a huge mountainous pass the next day on our way to Tehran. The scenery was jaw-dropping, and our Toyota Yaris Liz really showed us what she was capable of, carrying us lot up and over a huge pass twice in one day with no issues. In Tehran we were welcomed by our friend and local guide Jam, who toured us around the crazy city and the local bazaar the following day.

Two nights in a hostel in Tehran gave us plenty of time to clean and recharge as we tackled another massive mountain pass the next day to go north to the Caspian Sea. We drove from big dry mountains and lakes, into cooler and damper, forested mountains and big canyons. The drive was incredible, although the Caspian Sea, not so much. The girls weren’t impressed as women are not allowed to swim, unless we did so fully covered up, head scarf and all!

The following three days moving east through the country, we had some fun nights locating camping spots in the dark, meeting more friendly locals and witnessing more epic landscapes. Our convoy of four finally managed to link up with some of the other Kiwi teams on the rally and our convoy became 10 or 12 cars as we made our way into Turkmenistan after another five hours at the border. Ashgabat, located 30 minutes from the border - is a city built from marble, by their president who was obsessed with Guinness World Records - blew all our minds. The city was immaculate, and every building was marble and gold. It was so quiet with hardly anyone around. Safe to say they have broken the world record for the most marble structures in one city!

Our hotel was host (on our own accord) to a big Kiwi rally party and with everyone finally convoying and entering the first of the ‘stans’, it felt the rally was really beginning now. The honeymoon stage of sight-seeing and tar sealed roads were over. This would be the last of the hotels we were going to stay at for a while.

On the 15th, 15 rally cars rolled out of Ashgabat in convoy and headed through the desert highway to the find the famous gates of hell. This is a massive crater in the middle of the desert in Turkmenistan. It’s 87m wide, where 40 years ago a geologist decided it would be a good idea to set fire to the crater to burn off the natural gases. The crater is still burning! This place provided us not only the perfect setting for another massive rally party and our debut driving in the sand, but as it was out in the middle of desert, it was the dream setting for boys and cars. The Lemon was preyed upon as we left the keys in the car and the boys did donuts and skids around the fire pit. Us girls watched nervously, seeing Liz the Lemon do things we never thought she was capable of doing, and feeling very thankful we had our sump protected!

With the sun setting, the orange full moon rising, and the fire pit looking even more impressive in the dark, with over 20 rally cars parked up, the party went on until the early hours. We managed to get enough sleep although to take Liz to the start line of the rally car race around the mountain with the other rally cars the next morning. This time, with dark horse rally car driver Maddie Parker at the wheel. All the boys’ egos were bruised as Liz went flying past them, racing over the sand, dirt roads, the desert and too many rocks, before skidding to a stop in second place!

We almost lost our roof rack, front bumper and sump guard in the process as we bottomed out many times and old Liz doesn’t have much clearance. We are still running ok and a few bolts and screws should fix any problems!

After our epic time at the gates of hell we were off with the convoy to the Uzbekistan border. Our luck ran out that day as along with another car, we went to the wrong border, got lost and managed a four-hour detour. There is absolutely no communication using phones in Turkmenistan, so it took a bit of thinking about how we were going to find the others once we had split. Eventually we located them at the other border two hours away and we made it into Uzbekistan this morning.

Keep your eye on us as we spend a day or two exploring Uzbekistan and then ready ourselves and Liz for the feared 4600m Pamir Highway in our next country Tajikistan.

Days on the road: 32. Miles travelled: 6870. Car issues: wobbly sump guard, bumper and roof rack. Showers had: 8. Average car temperature: 34 degrees.

You can track Pulled Up In A Lemon progress using this link: trackme.kiwi/event/unlistedview/1227/496486 or download the app Track Me NZ and enter lemon@trackme.nz

Pulled Up In A Lemon is raising money for New Zealand’s Women’s Refuge. Its fundraising link is https://givealittle.co.nz/cause/pulledupinalemon

BY LUCY PRINGLE - Pulled Up In A Lemon member

Photos: Pulled Up In A Lemon

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