Rather than directly go to the border from the inside, why not take a detour to the island of Ormuz and south-east Baluchistan? It seems that we missed this little gem of an island  on our first visit to Bandar Abbas, and some Iranians boasted about the beauty of the coast to Chabahar. Admittedly, it will be nearly 1,000 kms more on the meter (fortunately we are in the country of cheap fuel), not nice for the carbon footprint, but we will probably not have the opportunity to visit the country later and let alone this region.

Let’s roll, roll, roll pebbles on the beach, after 2 days of road, bye bye to the pleasant air of the mountains and the plains of vineyards of Shiraz, here we are again in the heat and the humidity of the Persian Gulf. We barely have time to park Arty before getting ready real quick to take the ferry at 17h. Free style, nothing planned on site, except a contact given by Reza. Let’s see …

45 min later, between tuk tuk, mopeds, and after a quick call, it is finally the happy Beni Black who will take care of us. Quick discussion to agree on the program and especially the price of the next 24 hours, and we board a pickup that takes us to see the Rainbow Valley. The sun already almost disappeared, and the best lights have unfortunately been missed, but enough remains to illuminate the contrast between the red, ocher, white, chestnut, blue-green rocks and the dry bed of the orange-yellow river.

A few kilometers further down the road is the Valley of the Statues, with its rocks shaped like animals (tigers, dragons…) and ending with an impressive steep cliff and a breathtaking view of the sea.

The evening will be spent at Beni Black’s, the drinks offered are made for the heat, fresh water flavored with lemon replaces tea, local fish on the menu, and night spent in air con, no way to say no!

A little wavering the next day, before Beni and the pick-up reappear around noon. Continuation of the program under a blazing sun: beautiful beach of different shades of sand, from volcanic black to red, through ocher, beautiful mountains covered with salt like snow, salt waterfalls, another visit in the Rainbow Valley.

We got amazed by this little jewel still wild enough, it’s time to return to the pier to wait for the ferry. We will have for the first time the opportunity to discuss a little with a small group of women (with the same skin tint and type of features as me) wearing the curious masks typical of the region (a priori used to protect from the sun but we have seen some of them wearing it at night…).

We then meet Reza for our last evening in Bandar Abbas, with a stroll on the seafront and tasting local cakes.

After the last shopping trip, especially small additional fans (the nights without wind or lack of falling temperatures starts to be painful, and where you got mosquitoes you got mosquito nets, so no draught possible in the night), we hit the road in the direction of Chabahar.