Our Trip Home 1963, June 20-22

June 20, 1963

Northern Iran

We woke up tired and cross after all the wind of the night.     Followed a winding overgrown road, very patched, past many little villages at the mouths of little rivers emptying into the sea, women in the fields wore black waistcoats and big long skirts.     Visited the beach at Astera which is very small.     We showed our papers at the police station and had a young soldier with a rifle and bandoliers of bullets sent with us for part of the way.     We could see across the ravine we were climbing to the strip of cut jungle, no man’s land with fences on both sides and watchtowers often on the Russian side.   

  Our young guide got off at a little settlement.     We stopped for tea and cookies in a ravine with ferns, running water, thick woods like Landour in the rains.     The road was very steep and poor.     As we got higher we came out of the woods and went over high barren domes, frighteningly narrow curving road.     There were fields here and there, all different colors and making a very pretty picture.     We could see sheep grazing too.     There was a big cloud bank boiling up over the sea with but we got up over the top and into 4 to 5000 feet plateau.     The other side of the mountain was beautiful pastures with all the wildflowers you could imagine, like the scenery in Heidi.     The fields were rippling in the wind from the storm behind us and the air was crisp and cool after the heavy wet air of the seaside.   We had lunch on a beautiful little meadow by a twisting stream.     We were pushing hard.   The road had been dreadful and now it got slightly worse.   We passed Ardabil and climbed up into rolling mountains.     There was a little spatter of rain and high wind and dust.     We passed lots of wheat fields.   Could see snow peaks on both sides 10, 12, 15,000 feet.    

We joined the new road about 5 PM.    We saw two German license plates, people out looking at the view.   They waved at us.   We got into Tabriz at 6:30 PM.   We had wired to other Presbyterian missionaries, Marge and Jim Kiesling.   The business manager of the hospital was Stewart, they had big kids but no room for us.   Kiesling’s were going out.   They had a very skimpy supper ready for us, a casserole, dry bread, cherries for dessert.     We slept in a row on their living room floor, hot baths anyway.   We left them two tins of catchup.     There were three cute visiting English nurses who were buying lovely Irani silver spoons, mother wished for some too.     Mrs.    K gave us all some delicious nougat, it is an Irani specialty.     Their children were Susie, 4 and John, 6. 

June 21, 1963

                We kids had breakfast at Stewart’s, enjoyed the kids there.    A boy 17, boy 15, girl, peg, 12, Billy 10 and Louise and Ruthie were little.   They were disappointed we couldn’t stay to play.   Kiesling served grape sugar, tasted like mild ghur and had very soft tender nan -like Mrs.   T served in Isfahan.   We got off at 8:30 AM.   The countryside was lovely and green, fields, groves of trees, snow peaks on both sides.   As we drove along the surhai holder disintegrated, one bump to many.   We nursed the surhai along for a good bit further. 

At Khowy we saw a tower with a tremendous stork nest on top.   We could see the storks and babies.   We stopped for lunch in a high field on the hillside full of poppies, lovely flowers everywhere – poppies, Larkspur, Queen Anne’s lace, huge clover, sweet Sultana, daisies.  

  We got water from springs high in the mountains.   As we got near the border ( Iran Turkey ) we passed an impressive place, Maku, where the town was nestled at the foot of tall towering cliffs, the town was dark it was so deep inside the Gorge.   The houses there were all of stone. 

Daddy discovered mother had cut off a little bit of string with the seal on it in Nain that was for customs.   We got to the border at 4 PM.   There was no trouble getting out of Iran.   We needed the papers we had gotten for Astara although we had been told we would not need anything.   Lucky we had it.   We had to wait a long time on the Turkey side as there was a visiting official.   The customs official was very kind and very apologetic.   The gravel roads seemed better right away in Turkey.   We got good views of Mount Ararat as we drove near, it is a twin peak, lots of snow.    

  The clouds were building up and we never did see the higher summit.   It was cold and threatening as we got supper.   We pitched the tent.   Mother stepped on her glasses.   We kids found 28 different wildflowers and 15 or 20 minutes.   We knew we would be cold in bed and piled on everything we could.   Supper was instant mashed potatoes and sausage. 

June 22, 1963

Soon after we went to bed there was a shower.   About 1:30 AM it began to rain again and something told us to get going.   We pitched the bedding in any old way and just in time, a huge lake of water spilled through the tent top right where John’s bed had been two minutes before.   The meadow was becoming a mudhole.   Hard to get the tent down in the rain with a lantern.   John’s hands were wet and raw.   Bobby never woke up.   Patty and I wiggled in the back, John and Bobby in the middle.   Dad drove until 3:30 AM and then dozed a little till 4 AM.   We soon drove out of the heavy rain but it kept on spattering a bit.   The country showed there had been heavy rain recently.   People seemed sullen and unshaven.   There were milk man out with their cans.   We saw many animals, cows and bullocks.   There were square cakes of cow dung.   Women unveiled but wearing kerchief’s.   They looked  European.    It was a military area and we saw lots of military camps, soldiers, etc.   Trees and grass, everything green.   We stopped from 6:30 AM to 8:30 AM to dry the tent and fix breakfast.   Daddy dozed.   We were camped by a swift cold muddy stream a few shepherds came by with their animals and big bully white dogs.   We tried to make friends with the dogs. 

At Erzurum we stopped for food and bought six loaves of white bread, the first time we could get it.   Also eggs, fruit and cashed $80 in Turkish money.   We had lunch by the road on the edge of town.   It was beastly cold.   We drove on till late afternoon.   

 The scenery was breathtaking, beautiful little valleys, herds of cows, snow on the mountains all around, quaint houses, terrible roads.   Just past a cute little town with a boarding school or something, we saw lots of boys and they were curious about us.   We are following the Aras River which was quite big further back on the border between Turkey and USSR.   We camped by the river in the field.   Spaghetti for supper.   It was very cold and John slept in the car.