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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 entertained (fortunately not in our tent!).

Next morning was warm as soon as the sun came up, and it got gradually hotter as the day went on. The further south and lower in altitude we went, the hotter and hotter it got and we felt like we were driving into a furnace (or hell). The mountains were rocky, bent and broken.. it reminded me of a grey hellfire peninsula. We measured it as 44 degrees in the cab at one point.

Then we drove into Bandar Abbas, by the Persian Gulf. The temperature was a few degrees cooler but the air became very humid as well, so that our light, long-sleeved clothes didn't help to keep us cool anymore. We stopped for lunch and walked around dripping with sweat for an hour because all of the shops with aircon were shut for siesta until 5. It must have been high 30s or 40, and unbearably hot and sticky.

Once we left we drove for another few hours along the road to the east, back away from the coast where it wasn't so humid but a hot dry wind again, and camped in the desert off the road.