We have our own castle! Our own city! Yeah! We started the long ascend towards Esfahan early. It was much easier than yesterday - we were fresh after a good sleep, the sun was warming us and illuminating the nice landscape. We stopped for a short while (or so we thought) in the village of Tarq at 2050m close to the top. We had a view over a half frozen pond towards a mud and brick fortress some 100 meters away. So after a short chat with some locals we decided to have a look at the castle. It turned out to be a small fortified city - lots of it lies in rubble but several houses are pretty well preserved. Maybe about a century ago this castle was Tarq. I immediately thought that it would be a nice place to sleep - even though there is no electricity or heater - after all it would still be warmer in unheated mud house, than in a tent. It is still 100km until Esfahan - which is quite long but doable for tomorrow. We just were not sure if this was ok with whoever owns that place. Fortunately shortly after an Iranian tourist group with a guide and an fluent english women appeared. The guide knew the guy responsible for the place and a few phonecalls and translations by the iranian lady later we were allowed to squat here, yeah, in our own castle!
We used the rest of the afternoon to inspect our premises and enjoy the views from our multiple terraces. After sunset we prepared a good meal, practising juggling and guitar playing while waiting for the water to cook - it takes quite long at this altitudes. In the long dark evening hours I will retreat to my sleeping bag and keep on studying the Quran.
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Marek Mahn
marekmahn@gmail.com
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