<!-- @page { margin: 2cm } P { margin-bottom: 0.21cm } --> This morning we headed towards Zahedan, since our escorts insisted we could only use the airport there. We drove across more desert and were held up at various points going into Zahedan by many police, who have the city locked down because of the bombing, presumably. We got through to the airport and said quite a sad farewell to 10 of our number. We will catch up with them again in India. ...

<!-- @page { margin: 2cm } P { margin-bottom: 0.21cm } --> We headed for the first town with an airport to try to drop off the people who had decided to fly to India. We drove for a few hours across some mountains and through more desert, and when we arrived in the town the guys stopped to ask some police for directions to the airport. That was a bit of an unfortunate mistake. The police hung around for ages trying to work out what to do with us,...

<!-- @page { margin: 2cm } P { margin-bottom: 0.21cm } --> We left early to try to get to the border today and drove all day, stopping in a town on the coast where it was absolutely roasting and really humid. It was only about 36 but the humidity just made it unbearable, not to mention the crowds of local men who were standing around watching and taking photos of us. We realised later than they may well have never seen real westerners before, but ...

<!-- @page { margin: 2cm } P { margin-bottom: 0.21cm } --> More driving across the desert today - we headed for the first time into proper sandy desert for a while, although there was quite a lot of vegetation around still. There were also huge dry riverbeds and creeks we crossed - they must get a wet season at some point. Further on we were driving back into the furnace. It must have been low 40s before midday and just kept getting hotter. We ...

<!-- @page { margin: 2cm } P { margin-bottom: 0.21cm } --> Drove across more desert for the rest of the day until it was time to stop - there was a hot, dry wind blowing but wasn't too bad with the windows open to get the breeze blowing. We drove up and behind some hills in the desert to camp tonight. There were some scrubby grasses and flowers there so it wasn't completely barren, although later the scorpions and spiders came out to keep us enter...