June 9, 1963
We drove down, down, down through high picturesque mountains till Johnny felt sick; very rocky and barren. It was a long way still to Quetta. We watched a mountain railway winding in and out, through tunnels, near the road. Before Quetta we came down into a vast barren plain and could see everything spread out, signs of civilization again.
We got to Quetta about 11:00 a.m., right in the middle of church so we drove around the town a few minutes to pass the time. We got some supplies in the bazaar. Then we drove back to the mission compound and were warmly greeted by the Rockies. They gave us a good lunch ad we bathed, washed clothes by hand and washed the car.
We told the Rockies about our cold night up on the pass and they checked the newspaper and found out for us that it had been 116 degrees Fahrenheit in Muzzafagarh the day before (where we had been on June 7th).
We were in the Maring’s house (another Methodist missionary family) and it was very pleasant. We slept out under a grape arbor, in the yard, that night. There was a plum, apple and a peach tree in the yard. It was lovely to have lots of water to get clean. We went downtown and got a big can to carry water, some vegetables and better rice, medicines, and bread. We had a lovely refreshing dinner and were glad to get to bed.
June 10, 1963
We were off at 8:30 a.m. or so. We made a last stop for a few things in the bazaar and set off on the road. This was the real jumping off place. After this was the unknown and pretty deserted country. We stopped at two road signs and got pictures, London 5,878 miles to go. Mother got her first driving lesson and didn’t do too badly but the road went up over a little mountain so she had to quit.
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| The Mileage to London |
We passed a Landrover full of European kids and they waved but we did not stop. It was another blistering hot day. About 10 or 11 we came to the real desert. It was about 4,000 feet elevation. The road wound past black, tortured looking, bare rock, clumps of green desert bushes, drifts and ripples of sand. No shade or relief anywhere.
For lunch we stopped under a four foot square bus stop shelter which we shared with a waiting passenger. The sun would just burn you up in no time. About 2:00 p.m. we drove into another little dust storm. Everything was barren and depressing. The road, however, was very good black top.
About 4:00 p.m. we came into Dalbandin, our target for the night. The houses were scattered and half covered with sand dunes. We bought gas, found a tap near the military outpost so we could wash, and decided to drive on. It was too hot to stop. The road ahead was even more gruesome. It was a moonscape with miles and miles of black gravel covering acres of sand and not one blade of grass or one breath of life visible. Probably the most horrible place I have ever seen or will ever see again.
There was almost one hundred miles of this landscape and the road was only gravel now, the black top gone, very washboard in spots. About every fifteen miles we would pass a little square fort, few signs of life around them till unset when we found that there were people inside them.
We passed several road crews raking the gravel on the road and they waved as we passed. Once in a while we passed a man walking off into the distance across the desert. Where could he be going? We saw a few camels grazing on who knows what, black gravel?
About 5 or 5:30 p.m. we got to Nok Kundi, the customs barrier between Pakistan and Iran. We stopped and give in our passports and permits for processing. Found a place that sold a very poor version of Coke. There were several other foreigners, a young couple on a motorcycle, etc. We set up camp in the rest house for the night. No one was there when we arrived. Only brackish water for bathing. It was fearfully hot.
We cooked super on the porch, set up our beds and tried to sleep. Soon others came. Daddy was invited for a “drink” with an officer who said he knew a lot of missionaries in Lahore, but daddy preferred to sleep. A party of two in a Volkswagen arrived in the middle of the night – having driven 600 miles across Iran. The man was an engineer returning from duty in Congo. His wife looked tired.
….
June 11, 1963
We got up and away early. The road got worse and worse for the last one hundred miles more desert. We could see the railway coming along with us. At last in the middle of the desert with Grand Canyon type mountains on one side and a huge water-course, dry as a bone, there was sign “Pakistan ends – Goodbye!” Immediately the road signs and all the markers stopped and the road disintegrated into a track. At the other side of the big, dry river bed [wadi] we came into a little town, Mirjevah, Iran.
We were flagged down by the police and asked to show our papers. The train had just pulled in and the railway gate was down there so we sat and bathed our faces and hands in the pool out front while Daddy talked to the police. The people only spoke Farsi. We drove around the deserted looking streets and bought some gas from a big oil barrel; time to push on to Zahidan. We drove through the heat, stopped at a little caravan serai for lunch and were surprised by how cool it was inside. Dust storm all afternoon and so hot.
As we came into Zahidan there was a policeman flagging us down. We had not gone through customs in Mirjevah. He wanted us to go back 60 miles. Finally we got that straightened out [daddy paid?]. Got some good tasting water finally in the customs yard and we could hardly wait to let the Halazone act to take a drink. We needed to cash a check but the banks were all closed over the long noon hour so they sent us to the airport. We found the way there and some army men led us to the barracks. They gave us a drink in their mess hall. The boys all eyes us like they hadn’t seen American girls for a long time [ever?]. The major could cash our check for $50. They were cute guys. We could see planes taking off and landing. Bobby loved it.
We stopped to camp for the night another few miles on behind a sand dune. We were up in very rolling hills about 6,000 feet. It was hot at sunset but cool to sleep under the stars and waning moon. We could hear trucks rolling by all night.
June 12, 1963
We got up at 4 a.m. and started off because this was supposed to be the DAY, the very worst day of all. We were in the Afghan Pass and finally about 6 a.m., after sun up, we climbed up into steep hills and crossed the ridge. We started down steeply, stopped in a dry stream for breakfast of tea, hard boiled eggs and bread. The mountains were quite high, 7,000 feet, and very pretty with all sorts of different colored strata. The pass was just a narrow gorge.
We came down into the real desert, crossing the Dast-i-lut Salt Lake, and thought it would be bad. It was not as desolate as the end of Baluchaisthan had been, rolling sand dunes, stony patches, some reeds and shrubs. We kept watching for towers, fort ruins, etc., marked on the map and saw some old ruins. Then we came to the desert light house, stopped and got a picture. We climbed to the top and Johnny counted the steps. Soon we were passing little settlements, oases? With palm trees, irrigation ditches, some very pretty red stone pillar formations. [I drove about fifty miles here.] And so into Bam by noon , very good time and the worst was supposedly past.
We looked for a restaurant and a hotel so we could have a rest. Found a Brazilian who had an Iranian wife and three daughters in Teheran, who had lived and worked in or with Americans so he had a U.S. accent. He helped us find a place to stay, upstairs in a little hotel and helped us order nan and sheesh kabobs, Cokes, which we took upstairs to our room to eat. Mom began to wash clothes and we all bathed in the bathroom until the hotel people got it across to us with sign language that our bathing was melting the walls downstairs. It was wickedly hot in that upstairs room. At 4 p.m. we couldn’t stand it anymore so loaded up the van and left. Daddy bathed in a cold, swift irrigation stream outside of town and we drove one. We stopped for the night in a lovely little valley, sand and prickly bushes, some camels grazing nearby. We got a good sleep. There were mosquitoes but it was cool.
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