Tag Archives: picnic

Day 9 – Orange Sky

Even though we still suffered a bit through a little fatigue from the day before, we managed to get a quick shower in and wrap everything up by 10:30 am. Number 3 agreed and keeled over almost right away. That made for a good progress.

I hopped into a supermarket along the way to sort out the essentials for lunch. You would think there is not much to surprise us in a European supermarket, but the in-store stall with 50 or so hams (still on the leg) and a professional ham-slicer to serve you straight from the leg were definitively unusual 😉

We briefly debated going for the mountains to hop by a couple of monasteries recommended by the Lonely Planet but the weather was still a bit dreary. No point putting Number 3 through an extra hour of driving to go on curvy roads in the rain. Instead, we decided to keep our eyes on the campground selected and spend an hour or two catching up on things.

Food and sand don’t mix well, Number 3!

That also left plenty of time to look a bit about for a lunch spot. We chose a beach 10 minutes from the highway. That way, Number 3 got his first picnic on the beach. He was a bit undecided about the sand situation, but we all enjoyed the sun finally breaking through. 

As it turned out going for an early camp, that was an excellent choice. Even avoiding the motorway, we made excellent time. In most places the road was a perfectly good motorway right next to the toll road.

The campground was the first one we picked from a site recommended by Dutch traveller friends of ours. https://www.rustiekkamperen.com/ It roughly translates to rustic, or better romantic campsites and focuses a lot on things that we like in our stops. This time, we went for a larger one on there – a converted Orange Orchard a bit off in the hills. It was an amazing choice! Perfect, clean facilities, super quiet and cheap to boot. The pool looked like something out of a travel magazine – we had to try, but it was waaaay to bloody cold. After almost freezing Number 3 in the kiddie pool, he got to have a hot bath instead!

We topped it all off with another great dinner and got to see a beautifully lit sky for sunset. All was quiet, except for the bunches of overly excitable birds all around in the old and gnarly olive trees. 

  • Beach lunch at El Mora
  • Food and sand don’t mix well, Number 3!
  • Vege and cheese
  • Number 3 learning how to balance
  • With floaties?
  • Camp at an old orange plantation
  • Father and son
  • Pool @ camp ground
  • Hot bath for the little one
  • Dusk through the olive trees

Day 273 – King of Kings

“My name is Darius, King of Kings, King of the Universe”

Persepolis. I have known this name for more years than not. Capital of the Achaemenid Persian Empire under Darius and Xerxes. The way we travel, we usually only learn about what there is to see a week or so in advance. There are a handful of places though that stand above this. Places like Uluru, Borobudur, Angkor Wat … and Persepolis. Today we went just there.

Teamed up with Jan for this day trip which is a good opportunity for riding pictures

Teamed up with Jan for this day trip which is a good opportunity for riding pictures

We joined up with Jan, who we had met on the ferry, for this day trip, as he is also in town and keen to do the trip. The site is an easy 60 km from the center of Shiraz along the road to Esfahan. We arrived there by 10 am and parked the bikes right at the entrance car park to get changed (small mistake, more later). The admission price for foreign tourists is steep, at $10 NZ per person, given the average meal costs us about $5 for two.

The site itself consists of several structures in varying states of conservation or reconstruction. All this is set on a massive level platform, half cut out of the hillside, half build up with massive stone blocks. When Alexander the Great burned the city to the ground and looted the treasury, there was still room to spare for a palace or two. As a bonus, behind the platform up the hillside are two huge tombs cut straight into the rock face.

This represents about the level of care taken at this site ...

This represents about the level of care taken at this site …

Overall, we both were a bit underwhelmed by the site and the presentation. It is always amazing to stand in the presence of such an historic place, but we felt clearly lacking in information. The sparse signs, some of them missing, had barely more information than half the guidebook entry on the site. By the looks of it, most archaeological work had stopped in 1979 and not much has changed since.

Maybe the Persepolis Museum housed in the badly restored “harem” of Xerxes (think AC’s visibly sticking to the outside) held some more solid info, but another $10 each were too steep for us to be tempted to try. So we left, with all the great photos of this epic place we could wish for, in search for food.

The remainder of the second gate

The remainder of the second gate

We did, literally, pay the price for not negotiating the price for parking before we went in. At first, they asked for a ludicrous amount – 10x of what was on the sign (in Farsi) for cars. In the end, both Jan and we paid more than we should have and were a bit frustrated with ourselves.

Jan was keen to visit Naqsh-e Rustam, a necropolis cut into the rock about 12 km from Persepolis. We failed to find food on the way, but did find a minor site with some bas relief carvings instead. At Naqsh-e Rustam, we turned back once more at the entrance due to the steep entrance fee. $20 to see the tomb of Darius the Great? Maybe 3 months ago, but now … we can’t get ourselves to pay that. Funny how we are developing the same kind of attitude that we frowned upon in other travellers a year ago …

We made our way back home alone then, leaving the tombs to Jan to explore. Food is still hard to come by for Nina. After two tries, we gave up and bought supplies for a picnic. There were some nice spots overlooking Shiraz on the way. When we got back there though, it had started raining once again. We went, with picnic supplies and all, back to our room and collapsed for a while.

Nina was not feeling so well, so we stayed in for the rest of the day and did some overdue homework instead, updating the blog and checking our emails.

Day 241 – Wadi picnic

Just keep following. And don't bump your head

Just keep following. And don’t bump your head

We had been thinking of going camping all together, but the recent heat made that a less appealing idea. Thus, we were keen to join when colleagues of Michael and Lina’s asked us to join on a picnic trip to a wadi nearby.

Wadis are valleys and rivers carved mostly by rain water. Some of them have running water at all times, some just after rainfalls. The one we went to today has water all year round enough for a swim in some places.

Mats are useful all around the world. Might need to buy cheap ones again

Mats are useful all around the world. Might need to buy cheap ones again

Given that we want to have as much time as possible for my arm to heal and we did not know the road, we decided to stick this one out in our friends’ 4×4. It turned out to probably have been the wiser choice nonetheless, since the road up the wadi had deteriorated quite a lot since our guides had last been there. Michael clearly had fun with it, which may not be true for everyone in our little tin can. Either way, Gandalf the White (their car) did a splendid job with the gravel track.

The picnic spot was superb and would be just as good for camping. Nice, even ground raised off high enough off the wadi floor and river to drastically reduce the risk of being caught in a flash flood (not that there was rain today, but people die every year in these). The view was great, the water was pleasant and there were perfect swimming holes nearby, shielded from the road.

Least appropriate swim wear. Exposed shoulders and legs are a no no...for men and women

Least appropriate swim wear. Exposed shoulders and legs are a no no…for men and women

So we enjoyed ourselves – first with a great picnic of delightful turkish food and later with a refreshing swim in the wadi. It was a bit awkward since we have the least appropriate swimwear for a Muslim country, but the good old Rarotongan sarong came in to the rescue. The water was beautifully cool and clear.

After a couple of hours we quickly packed everything up. The sun had come out in the meantime and the views all around were just stunning. Eager to have a bit more fun with the car, Michael convinced Lina and the rest of us to go and explore a bit further down the track and up the wadi. We drove up a hill, down the other side, crossing the river twice for about 800m when the little convoy was stopped again.

The recent rains seemed to have had a bigger impact than just making the road a bit worse. Here, the entire road has been washed away since our guides had last been here, down to the bare and jagged rock underneath. Even the decent 4×4 were not ready to cross the 60cm steps of rock that now lay were the road has been. It was nice enough, we walked around a bit more and enjoyed the landscape on foot before finally turning around and heading home in the golden afternoon light.

After all this excitement, we were all pretty hungry again. Instead of cooking home-made burgers for two hours, we went for lazy pasta which was soon done.