My First Backpacking Trip - To Khalkhal-Asalem Road

Well, here's how it all really started: Masoud said "I want to go to Khalkhal-Asalem road to backpack and I'm going to take you (meaning me) with me!" Me, being a positive person, agreed. I have always loved the idea of adventuring and this was a dream coming true. I googled the place and was astonished with the beauty it promised. Needless to say, all the promises were kept. My first backpacking trip has always been, in my mind, the best, although, if you ask Masoud, he might not say so. I was cranky during the most of the journey since, well, since because I was out of comfort zone. Terribly terribly out of my comfort zone. But the haunting feeling of being totally lost in the disturbingly huge wild nature of the north of Iran has never, not a moment, left me.

 

On the bus, Masoud is taking up the space for three people.
That is rude of you, Masoud!

I don't even remember how we got to the road. It all happened really fast. But there we were... on the golden road to heaven...

Just starting up...

In retrospect, I don't know how I managed the trip with the kind of backpack that I had. It was awful, and totally not suitable for a three day backpacking trip. It could, barely it could, keep the food for three days inside it. How it didn't tear completely apart, leaving me stranded in the forest is a mystery to me.

The best part of being on the road is, in my mind, that a lot of things happen, a lot of good things, when you least expect it. And this one was full of it.

Who woulda thought we'd be offered breakfast from an old couple living in
an old lonely cottage?

Look how lonely, but majestic!

We knew we're going to be walking on this road for two days, so we took our time enjoying the little beauties around us.

Like this lovely little cow family!

Or, like this lazy sheep family, taking a rest from the sun!

I'm writing this after two years. I might miss some things, but there are a lot I remember. I remember the sun, and I remember the tall trees, and I remember all the good people we met on the road.

We might have gotten tired sometimes...

...but we never forgot to smile! 

And there were times when we decided to role-play. 

Sometimes I was Robin Hood...

And sometimes, Masoud.
He was a better Robin Hood than me! He knew the Robin Hood Whistle.

As I wrote before, there were many times when I would get cranky. For many reasons. I would just be bitter and hard to talk to. But make no mistake, there wasn't a time where Masoud didn't cheer me up. He's an expert in this area!

Look at hist stupid smiling happy face!

But I haven't got to the most important character of the story yet. I think both Masoud and I agree on the fact that one of the most memorable part of the journey has been meeting with Sexy! Yes, her name was Aexy and she was a.. wait for it... dog! Yes, a female dog. Now let's not get the wrong idea, we're not attracted to animals of any sort, nor any of us is a zoophile. Although I am merely speaking for myself! ^_^

Sexy was a dog that we met on the first day's evening, and he came along with us on the road for the following day, until a ride on the back blue Nissan truck would put us apart. You might wonder why we chose the name Sexy. I wonder the same. All in all, Sexy was the best dog anyone could have. She was caring and, fast, and ready to defend us from other hostile dogs who barked at us from when we got too close to their village. I am writing these sentences in the past form because Sexy is dead now. The next year when we came back to all these places we heard from locals, that the beautiful dogs has died. She was sick, and we didn't know that. I'm going to put up some pictures of her, but I'm doing it with a sad heart. 

Here's she is...

And here we are...

The next morning, and she's at our service!

A close-up selfie! 

Back then we didn't know that she's sick, and looking back, I think that is a good thing. Because knowing that such a good dog is sick would definitely make us sad.
Anyway...

On the second day, we had more time, so would enjoy the nature much more.

We swam around...

And enjoyed the cool water!

Not a care in the whole fucking world...

yum yum...
(needless to say, our hands were bloody red afterwards)

There are many more picture to upload here, but I guess these are enough, and they do the job. Backpacking on this golden road was...where me and Masoud found our friendship. This was it. This is where we thought, well, now, we could take the world. And we knew that we would and someday, we will.

Miss you, you stupid fucking idiot. Let's travel soon.

Backpacking and Hitchhiking to Pamenar - Dezful - Khuzestan

I needed an out. That's how it all started. Couldn't stay anymore in the city, and I had to plan another adventure, another great experience. I had heard the name of Pamenar, a village near Dezful from an Iranian travel blog. The pictures in that website looked beautiful and natural and wild. The kind that I love. I had to go there. I looked into the calendar, looking for a holiday next to a weekend, so I could backpack there and at the same time, not to miss any classes at university. And by the power of god of travel (if there's any! I mean, there must be!) I found out that next week there's a holiday right after the weekend. So I had three night and four days. I decided to go. Now all I needed was travelling companions. Some trips you have to go solo, some trips with other people. This one, I felt like, I had to have a companion. At least one. But I told this to many people. None of them came, except for one. My roommate, Aria. He showed his interest early when I was planning and kept his word and came with me.
Slowly the days passed and slowly we packed our backpacks, and slowly it was time for us to go to the train station.

Aria, on the train, looking outside, talking on the phone with a family member

The trip to there was rather long. Its start wasn't promising. We were waiting, waiting and waiting...to reach there. On the train and in the stations...
But finally we arrived, tired and exhausted, at 4 am to a city near Dezful, called Andimeshk. It was hard to keep the morale of our little group up. Aria was seemingly exhausted and hard to talk to. I told him he could go to sleep in the station, and he did. We were waiting for the sunlight to come up, so we could start our real journey to the lake behind Dez Dam.

Asleep, like a baby

We had our breakfast in Dezful, right next to the river, on a park bench. It was a lovely morning. We watched the river's water flow fast, and the birds trying to catch their own breakfast from the river. It was truly a lovely morning.

River and Birds

It was then when I knew I was going to have a wonderful time.

We were in Dezful now, and we had to go the village, Pamenar. We were 50 km away from the village. We decided maybe we could hitchhike there. It was a lonely road to there. Few cars went to where we wanted to go.

There's always time for a selfie, when you're hitchhiking...

You wouldn't want to miss the sunflowers besides the road now, would you?

We gave up and called for a local taxi. We passed villages and plains and beautiful valleys, filled with newly grown grass from last night's rain. We arrived in half an hour. First sight of the water was...beyond words. It was like we had arrived to another continent, to another world. The water was pale blue, and the mountains around it were a beautiful brown and yellow. In the village we had to call for a boat to take us to the island, and camp there. We met Farhad, a proud owner of a boat. We talked to him, and negotiated for a return ticket (:-D) as well. We hardly agreed on the price, but we went there anyway. It was not like we could swim. The island was few kilometers in, and the trip by boat took about 15 minutes.

The Lonely Island

We couldn't believe our eyes. A lonely island, surrounded by beautiful water, all for ourselves. We put our backpacks down ran around the island. It wasn't very big, but it was beautiful.

Our Neighboring Islands - View From Our Tent

 And a few minutes later, we realized we aren't alone. There were - and I counted them - 6 donkeys just idling about. Unfuckingbelievable. What? Donkeys in an island? What were they doing there? We never found out...

Can you find Aria?

Me, trying to put up my hammock. but failing...

We camped there for the rest of the time that we had - for two nights - that is. Those two nights past as quickly as they could, as we swam in the water during the daylight, and as we watched the full moon swim all over the dark sky at nights... . I had brought with me the book "Breakfast of Champions" and I read it with the light of the bonfire, around which we were sitting and, and sometimes with the light of my headlamp. I could go on an on about the adventures that we had in those two days...buy the rest is, as they say, history.

We had told Farhad to come and pick us up after two days, and he did. We were back in Pamenar. Locals offered us to be our taxi, but we didn't want to take a taxi anymore. We decided to start walking back to Dezful, in the hope of a car to take us back. I wanted to hitchhike in the back of a Nissan truck, and as the old saying goes, be careful what you wish for... and there it was...a blue Nissan truck, going the same way that we were going... . So we hopped in the back:

This trip ended with so many good memories to carry for the rest of our lives.

Cat Hours

I am once again woken up

by dreams about the past

(I feel like that guy in that movie

except he was in love with the past).

I wake up after one hour and half

at three am

(although I feel I had slept

much more)

drenched in sweat. 

“I must have slept in

cat hours” I think to myself.

I don't know what "cat hours" means exactly,

but that’s my first thought.

Before going to bed,

I had decided I wanted to go hiking in the morning

and I had set the alarm

to 5:30,

and since I am wide awake now

I decide to have coffee.

I pour a tbsp. of coffee into a boiling pot

filled with water.

As I stand in the darkness in the kitchen

over my stove

I see a brown cat running through the house,

and since I don’t own a cat

I find this very weird.

So I leave my coffee and follow the cat.

I see that the door to the backyard is slightly open

(I remember I had left it open last night when I was reading before bed

for some air ventilation and forgot to close it).

I turn on the light in my yard to see the cat again,

you know,

just to make sure of its existence,

just - for me and it - to share an awkward look.

But I don't see any cats.

I think "maybe, I thought I saw a cat.

I'm not sure."

Standing on the porch, I hear the splash of the boiling coffee

pouring out of the pot.

I run to the stove,

turn it off,

and watch drops of coffee
falling on the white floor. 

 گر مرد رهی درون خون باید رفت

 وز پای فتاده سرنگون باید رفت

تو پای به راه در نه و هیچ مپرس

خود راه بگویدت که چون باید رفت

"Delicate souls have cruel ways
of showing us what animals
we have been."

Cheers!

"...I keep locks of hair in my pocket
and raise my cup
to my comrades
who fought so bravely
in the wars
and
hopefully
will continue
to do so
in my jungles of
bleeding roses."

"Wrapping 6 notes of violin strings
around their fragile necks"

Sometimes destroyed

"The best people possess a feeling for beauty, the courage to take risks, the discipline to tell the truth, the capacity for sacrifice. Ironically, their virtues make them vulnerable; they are often wounded, sometimes destroyed."

There is a pleasure in the pathless woods...

There is a pleasure in the pathless woods,

   There is a rapture on the lonely shore,

   There is society where none intrudes,

   By the deep Sea, and music in its roar:

   I love not Man the less, but Nature more,

   From these our interviews, in which I steal

   From all I may be, or have been before,

   To mingle with the Universe, and feel

What I can ne’er express, yet cannot all conceal.

A savior for the damned?