29-Sep-2014 -- This is the 8th out of 12 confluence reports, reaching 10 and attempting 2 confluence points in Iran and Turkmenistan. The story starts at 36°N 51°E and continues from 37°N 55°E.
On our way from the Caspian Sea to the city of Mašhad, we took a remote route through the Alborz Mountains. An
asphalted road misses the Confluence by just 1200 m. Looking at the aerial images, I saw that there is a mountain range in-between the road and the Confluence. Therefore, we decided to park the car further to the West in 1600 m distance at the entrance of the valley in which the Confluence is located.
However, there is a single farm in the valley that we had to bypass. Not that I am afraid of meeting people, I really enjoy the unbeaten hospitality of the Iranian people, but during a confluence visit I try to avoid getting involved with locals. From my experiences, I can clearly say that the confluence visitors don’t have a satisfactory answer to the question why they are there. This can lead to distrust and end up in a failure to visit the point. Therefore, we opted to take a deviation along the ridge of the mountains – climbing up and descending to the Confluence. We actually could have approached directly from the road, though.
The Confluence is located at the end of an open valley with hardly any vegetation. As it was shortly before sunset, the stony valley was beautifully illuminated. On the way back, we passed by the farm (coming from a confluence is not a problem to meet locals, as you are usually asked where you want to go rather than where you just come from). But nobody was present at the farm. It is probably more or less a shelter for day use only.
We spent the night in the little town Garmeh (25 km from the Confluence). Since there are usually no tourists in this area, the police got mistrustful and interrogated us. It took half an hour until trust was established, inspecting our documents, our car and our homestay. But then, everything was fine and the police was very nice to us, apologizing for the inconvenience.
CP Visit Details:
- Distance to a road: 1200 m
- Distance to a track: 300 m
- Distance of car parking: 1600 m
- Time to get to the confluence from car parking: 30 minutes
- Time at the CP: 4:50 PM
- Measured height: 1263 m
- Minimal distance according to GPS: 0 m
- Position accuracy: 4 m
- Topography: open valley surrounded by hills
- Vegetation: bare stony ground with scattered little bundles of dry bushes.
- Weather: cloudless, 24° C (felt temperature)
- Given Name: The Farm Deviation Confluence
The story continues at 37°N 57°E.