{"id":1572,"date":"2020-04-16T12:42:11","date_gmt":"2020-04-16T10:42:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.heroes-world.de\/drei-freunde-vier-kamele-und-122-stunden-im-zug\/"},"modified":"2021-12-07T17:12:02","modified_gmt":"2021-12-07T16:12:02","slug":"three-friends-four-camels-and-122-hours-by-train","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.heroes-world.de\/en\/blog\/2020\/04\/16\/three-friends-four-camels-and-122-hours-by-train\/","title":{"rendered":"Three friends, four camels and 122 hours by train"},"content":{"rendered":"

The plan: three friends, four camels and a 7,000 kilometer trek from Iran to Mongolia<\/span>.<\/span> But soon after starting their journey from Augsburg to Iran, Benni, Henning and Ravi ran into their first problems. After one hundred hours of train travel, the three Hesse natives are stuck at the Iranian border. Did they manage to get through?<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>

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\u201cWe\u2019re pushed to our limits on a regular basis,\u201d joked Benni, Henning and Ravi as we met them for the first time. Plans for their experiment \u2013 the Silk Road Camel Cross \u2013 were well underway. The three friends, all from the\u00a0Bergstrasse\u00a0district in Hesse, talked about the 40\u00b0C temperatures on the\u00a0steppes\u00a0of Kazakhstan, the -40\u00b0C temperatures in the Mongolian desert, and the 7,000 kilometer trip with their ships of the desert along central Asia\u2019s former trade route.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

That was one year ago. Now, it\u2019s for real. The first challenge: 122 hours in trains and buses from Augsburg to Bandar Abbas, in southern Iran. Eight hours to Budapest, a short overnight couch surf, then another 17 hours towards Bucharest. From there, a bus to Istanbul, since the summer timetable has no train connections between the two cities.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>

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Setting off into the unknown<\/span><\/span><\/h2>\n

A 5\u00a0am arrival to a cold, rainy city on the Bosphorus. In his notes, Benjamin wrote: \u201cWe\u2019ve got to find some way to the pass the time until 10 pm. The central station is just a tiny train stop. We wanted to chill at the university, but it\u2019s not nearly as accessible in Turkey as it is at home. Security is everywhere. We tried pretending to be interested in the Erasmus program, but no one bought it. We\u2019ll be happy to finally be on the train to Ankara in the evening.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Once again, the three friends traveled overnight, this time for nine hours. Once again, the train is noisy and the lights are bright. In Ankara, they topped off their provisions and were glad to finally be moving in the direction of Iran. Then came the bad news.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Somewhere along the way, they overheard that the USA had killed an Iranian general on Iraqi soil, and that Iran had responded with a retaliatory strike on a US base in Iraq. The German Foreign Office was warning against traveling to Iran. The situation was unclear. \u201cWe have to make a decision,\u201d scribbled Benni. This wasn\u2019t the first time that Benni, Henning and Ravi had undertaken an extreme trip together, but this situation is difficult to gauge.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

If it deteriorates any further, they have to assume they won\u2019t be allowed to enter anyway. \u201cSo, we boarded,\u201d wrote Benni. The ride to Tehran took 54 hours. There was some chatter online about needing to board a ferry. However, the trio didn\u2019t know where or when \u2013 and couldn\u2019t ask, because nobody on the train spoke English.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The view from the window provided some comfort, with gorgeous, slowly changing landscapes of blue lakes, rocky cliffs and snow-capped peaks.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>

Problems at the border<\/h2>\n

It was actually in eastern Turkey, in the city of\u00a0Tatvan, where they needed to board the ferry. The train headed for the Iranian border awaits them on the other side of the lake. At 4 am Benni wrote: \u201cEntirely unmotivated, we have to pack up all our stuff once again to walk to the border with all our baggage. Once all the Iranians passed inspection, the border agents moved\u00a0on to the tourists. We\u2019re the only ones, except for one German couple. After a while, they get their visas stamped. Then Ravi and I get ours. But what\u2019s up with Henning? It\u00a0was\u00a0taking forever. More and more agents gathered\u00a0behind the computer. At first we joked\u00a0about it. Luckily, one of the Iranians at the border spoke\u00a0English and\u00a0was able to\u00a0translate. Henning\u2019s visa\u00a0wasn\u2019t in the system, and he can\u2019t enter without it. We deliberated\u00a0in vain, we called\u00a0the embassy, but it\u00a0was\u00a0the middle of the night in Germany.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What could they do? The train needed to leave. Stress levels were rising. The border agents suggested that their friend sleep in the prayer room and call the embassy in the morning. \u201cWe can only hope that the issue gets settled quickly,\u201d said Benni. He and Ravi continued their journey in hopes of procuring some camels and in the knowledge that Henning can cope with the situation on his own.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

To be continued…<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The plan: three friends, four camels and a 7,000 kilometer trek from Iran to Mongolia. But soon after starting their journey from Augsburg to Iran, Benni, Henning and Ravi ran into their first problems. After one hundred hours of train travel, the three Hesse natives are stuck at the Iranian border. Did they manage to get through?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":1266,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[128],"tags":[155,135],"class_list":["post-1572","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-adventure","tag-adventure-trip","tag-read"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nThree friends, four camels and 122 hours by train - HEROES WORLD<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.heroes-world.de\/en\/blog\/2020\/04\/16\/three-friends-four-camels-and-122-hours-by-train\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Three friends, four camels and 122 hours by train\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The plan: three friends, four camels and a 7,000 kilometer trek from Iran to Mongolia. 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