After a hearty breakfast, an employee showed us a photo album about Reza’s history and the Chapaker Guesthouse and we left a guestbook entry. In between Reza stopped by to say goodbye to us. He had to leave quickly to teach a class at the college. All in all, we paid 21 million rial (about 68 EUR) for yesterday’s tour through the desert, the barbecue, the overnight stay and breakfast. Of course, being planning geniuses, we didn’t have a place to stay in Tabas yet, our next destination, so Reza took care of it and kept us constantly informed of news throughout the day.

Around 10:00 am – as always too late – we started in the direction of Tabas. On the way we stopped again at a gas station. At first we thought that the gas station had closed, but only the fuses of the gas pumps had to be activated. Over coffee, the store owner suggested that we visit the adjacent town of Anarak. He showed us a lot of photos on his cell phone for half an hour – also private photos of his apartment and his second mainstay – Persian “antiques” from his online store. Unfortunately, we had to decide against his suggestion, because we still had a long distance ahead of us and so we drove on after this break in the direction of Tabas. On the way we found on the roadside still a Lost Place – an abandoned settlement – which we had to explore, of course, briefly.

On the way to Tabas, a brief moment of shock occurred. There was a tremendous, loud thud. Andreas, absent for a short time, was terribly frightened. A bird had had the bad idea to compete with our car or the windshield and drew the short straw.

For a change, Mel and Andi reached Tabas after more than 500km faster than expected, so that there was still a little time to drive to the Kal-e Jeni Canyon (Valley of the Djinn), which is hardly known to a local. So we could explore the canyon almost undisturbed and Mel could do without the headscarf at least for some time. Even if it sounds unbelievable, but actually the wind blowing through the canyon produced strange, ghostly sounds. At the end of the trail, we reached a small watering hole. Local men enjoyed the cool water, while the women did not plunge into the floods, or perhaps were not allowed to.

Our presence caused the locals to go back to the parking lot. Later, we met them again in the parking lot. Suddenly they were accessible and wanted photos with us both and even invited us to a tea. We declined with thanks, as we still had no exact info about our accommodation today. A short while and a few text messages later, we knew where our way should lead: to Ezmeyghan in the “The Agha Seyed Zabihollah Traditional Residence”.

We were kindly greeted by an elderly couple upon our arrival. Since neither spoke English, communication was by phone with an acquaintance. Ezmeyghan is a very small place, which reminded us of an oasis. Since there was no snack bar in the small town – at least not clearly visible to us – the couple took care of our physical well-being. We got dates, cookies, coffee and tea as a welcome. Around 21:00 we then got dinner: Chicken with saffron rice. In addition, we were served the traditional drink “Dugh”. This was a somewhat thick milk, which was very sour and at the same time contained mint – unfortunately, it was not our taste. We ended the evening on the roof terrace after Andreas had taken a shower in the neighboring house. Tired, we fell into bed – uh, no – on the floor. We slept in a traditional accommodation – slept, sat and ate on the floor or the large, typical Persian carpet.