Wild camping in Golestan National Park, Iran

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Challenge of finding a good spot for the night

That evening, the search for a place to sleep (outside) took longer than expected. Our common procedure for this is that I search on google satellite maps for potential spots. When we reach the spot, we check whether it is good to stay or not. That night, all suggested spots either had an awful road (we already push the car to the extends of its not existing 4WD qualities), were too close to the main road or we got told to leave. At 20:20 with the sun almost setting, we found a spot in the Golestan National Park, close to a village, in the open grass lands, underneath a few trees. It felt good to just be by ourselves again. We spend the whole upcoming day at the same spot as well. Our (and Teslas) only movements in the hot weather (it is try and hot again…), were to follow the shadow of the trees. But it was good to have time to read and write.

Too much disturbance during one night

There were quite a few trucks, cars and motorcycles passing the road close to our camping spot during the day. No one distracted us though. While I was preparing dinner, Benedikt said, that this night, I can probably sleep much better (I usually sleep a bit lighter when we sleep outside). If no one distracted us during the day, no one will come during night. Again, we were proven wrong… The first motorcycle drove to the Tesla at around 10:00 p.m.. It was already dark outside and we were ready to go to bed. The only word they said was “home”, we guessed it as an invitation to their home. Since I already had my pajamas on, the timing couldn’t have been much worse for that invitation. About 30 minutes later a car stopped on the dirt road nearby, put his head lights bright towards our car and yelled something. He vanished after Benedikt yelled “SLEEP” back. At about 11:30 p.m. three guys on one motorcycle (yes, that seems to work perfectly) drove to our spot and only disappeared when Benedikt told them that we want to sleep. We were almost asleep when the last car showed up at our campsite at 12:30 at night. It was someone in uniform and his “translator”. They tried to tell us that it is too dangerous to stay out in the nature and that we should go to a city. After Benedikt repeatedly told them that we don’t care, we will go to a city (Bojnurd) the day after and that we just want to sleep, they left. I was glad, Benedikt was handling all those situations. I have no idea, how they would have reacted with a woman appearing out of the car… It was 1:30 till we finally fell asleep.

What we learned

What we learned during that night was that it is not smart to stay at the same spot for 2 continuous nights, especially if people saw you and the car at that spot during day. We will know better the next time.

Charging in Maragheh, Iran

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Maragheh

It seems that we were absolutely lucky in Maragheh. The first hotel that we approached (and also the only better sounding hotel – the supply of hotels in Iran is still much lower than in most other countries) could offer us three-phase electricity. The electrician of the house helped Benedikt to set up a connection right at the fuse box, where we could charge at a maximum of 32 amperes on all three phases (22kW). Overnight we charged 11 kW at 16 amperes and could leave the hotel with a 100% charged car.

The hotel’s employees and maybe even friends of them gathered the whole afternoon and evening around the Tesla. Since there is a strict restriction to import cars in Iran, it is very surprising for every Iranian to see a car like a Tesla. The Iranians often can’t stop taking pictures of themselves with our car.

 

 

 

 

 
The number of Instagram followers of the eexplorer-account has also dramatically risen since we entered Iran. Everyone shares and comments on Instagram their pictures of our Tesla. It is fun to observe this, especially from the distance (Benedikt is more patient with showing the car repeatedly to different people and surprising them with tons of cables in the front drunk (frunk)).

Takht-e Soleyman

 

 

 

 

 
We spend the evening in Maragheh searching for a restaurant and the morning after searching for hip-covering jackets for me. It is necessary for women to wear something like this in Iran. In the afternoon we left Maragheh to drive though the desert like hills to Takht-e Soleyman. It is a Zoroastrian fire temple built during the Sassanid period.

Since our Tesla is a fully functional camping car, we spent the night on a side road in the grassy hills on about 2600 meters’ elevation. We decided to do this more often, not only because hotels in Iran are, at least for foreigners, expensive ((60€-100€ for very basic accommodation), but also because we enjoy staying outside and not being the center of attention all the time.

 outlet/socket  Volt  Ampere  kW  kWh
 direct connection to fuse box  220 Volt  3*16 amperes  11  55 kWh