Saturday 17th October

OK, so we’re still at Bob’s place in France. We’re finding it hard to drag ourselves away because, whilst it has turned cold, the location remains stunning, the air clear and brilliant sunshine bathes the valley and surrounding mountains. We’ve haven’t had our feet up too much though, we’ve finished off the Camel’s reorganisation and made use of the internet to help plan our next move.


The Iran question is still open as, whilst it looks like we can get our visas, the situation on the ground remains somewhat mixed up. We went to seek advice from Stuart Hawkins last night, an ex-pat living on the other side of the valley, who knows the region, speaks the language and has contacts there, and he said that he currently wouldn’t go. His view was that there are plenty of other interesting (and safe) places to visit, especially in Turkey, Syria and Jordan, so why take unnecessary risks.

Another thing to consider is that it’s getting on in the year and the further east we go the colder it’s going to get, so maybe heading south sooner rather than later would be a wise move - my fingers have lost feeling due to the cold here whilst typing this entry as I’m sitting outside in the courtyard in order to get a wireless signal (the sacrifices we make for this blog...). I think we’ll head to Turkey and leave the final decision until then.