<!-- @page { margin: 2cm } P { margin-bottom: 0.21cm } --> Early start for a long drive through the desert again today, although I don't think it was as hot as yesterday. We stopped at a couple of ruined caravansarais along the road, all made of mud-brick. Stopped for lunch at a town along the road in the desert. They really know how to make a good hamburger here, even if the meat comes out of a freezer packet. Late in the afternoon we stopped a...

<!-- @page { margin: 2cm } P { margin-bottom: 0.21cm } --> This morning we headed south out of Esfahan towards Yazd. We drove all day across a very flat, hot, grey-brown desert. There was slightly more military presence along this motorway - anti-aircraft guns all over the place. We arrived in Yazd about 5pm and checked into beautiful hotels with courtyards in the centre and rooms with aircon! Unfortunately we are only staying for one night! We...

<!-- @page { margin: 2cm } P { margin-bottom: 0.21cm } --> 3 nights in Esfahan The motorway between Tehran and Esfahan is almost dead straight and consists of flat brown desert, interspersed with some brown hills. The most interesting thing to see was a series of anti-aircraft guns spread out along one stretch, not far from the road. We got into Esfahan mid-afternoon where it was a lot hotter than anywhere we had been so far - low-30s and worse ...

<!-- @page { margin: 2cm } P { margin-bottom: 0.21cm } --> We drove for the rest of the day towards Tehran, stopping in a small town for lunch (mince kebab in the thin lavash bread they have here, yum), and headed on up the motorway. Adam decided to push on past Tehran before finding a camp so that we wouldn't have to deal with it tomorrow, but getting past the city proved slightly more difficult than just turning onto the next motorway, and there ...

<!-- @page { margin: 2cm } P { margin-bottom: 0.21cm } --> We've had a couple of nights bush camping on the road to the citadel of Tahkt-e Soleyman. It was the stronghold of Zoroastrianism around the 3rd century and was excavated in the 70s I think. The temples of fire, water etc are arranged around a effervescent crater lake, which actually looks quite like a crater, but is only effervescing slightly now. The ruins are mostly gone and there are ...