It was late afternoon when we took a boat to Qeshm Island - the biggest island of Iran. On the way we saw huge container ships and we felt so small in our little boat.
Queshm island has special status in Iran, it's free trade and industrial zone. It is partly independent from the central government and makes strategic point near important Strait of Hormuz.
One thing you definitely shouldn't do is visiting Qeshm Island during summer, temperatures are close to 50°C which makes it impossible to walk the streets.
Using all possible connections, Mohsen arranged us a small flat located above a mosque. It was spacious studio with kitchen and bathroom. As usually, there was a cute lizard in the bathroom and cockroaches in the toilet.
When we were leaving flat, we tried to catch our fellow lizard and we were pretending that we put it into Tony's bag as a joke :-) Tony was a bit afraid of it. Anyway, we let it go back to his favorite place and left the mosque.
We visited Portuguese Castle, Khorbess Cave Complex and Fallen Star Valley.
The castle is located precisely in front of the Fort on Hormuz Island. It was strategic position, because no ship could pass between the islands unnoticed.
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| Portuguese Castle |
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Khorbess Caves were formed more than 2000 years ago and you can see some reliefs carved on the caves' walls. We spent a while resting in a gazebo below the caves (we needed rest more than ever, the heat was killing us). Boys were playing chess, a gardener was watering plants around us, pure idyll.
Then we went to see definitely the most impressive thing on Qeshm - The Fallen Star Valley. The name itself promises something amazing. And we weren't disappointed. See for yourselves.
On the way from Fallen Star Valley we reached a small village where we asked some old guy for water. He went to his house, closed the door and in a few minutes brought us big bottle of water. It was so refreshing. Following the road out of the village we also passed by some youngsters playing football and pack of dogs, for which we became object of interest.
Fortunately, we were bigger so they just left us sweating and walking, trying to catch some ride to our place.
In the evening we arrived on a beach. Mohsen took a huge tent out of his small backpack. We were surprised how it could fit in. The plan for dinner was obvious, get some fish from local fishermen and prepare it on fire.
So two of us went to fishermen village and asked some people where we can get fish. They told us that we have to wait till sunset when fishermen come back from the sea with fresh fish.
When it became so dark that you could see stars, we were visited by two policemen who were going around the beach on a motorbike. They were probably just customs officers on their night watch. They were curious what we were doing there, where we came from and lot of other questions. We were trying to convince them that Mohsen was Bulgarian and his name was Mike. I think they didn't believe us :) Anyway, they told us that we were lucky to meet them and we started to call Mohsen by his incognito name - Master Mike. They brought us fish. And even supported us with a bit of gasoline for fire and regularly checked if everything was ok and no one disturbed us.
So we cleaned the fish in the sea and our brother Mohsen aka Master Mike prepared it on fire for us. He even had a bit of salt and some spice for it. During preparation we realized that something was watching us. It turned out to be a fox which was attracted by fire. It was looking at us from safe distance. Its eyes were like two small red spots in the darkness. Like from some horror movie.
Fish was very delicious! Like from some luxury restaurant. We should asked some Michelin inspector to taste and review it ;) During the night we got some more checks by our friendly policemen. It was funny because they didn't speak English and we didn't speak Persian. Tony was learning new Persian words and he was our main communication link with them.
In the morning we packed the huge tent into Mohsen's small backpack and caught a ride back to the city. We convinced Mohsen that hitchhiking is the best way of traveling and I guess he believed us when we went by taxi for free :)
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| our host |
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| Last sunset |
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| Khorbess Caves |
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