So we’ve covered the 60% of the trip with good roads, the
5km of the “tunnel of death” as another blogger dubbed it, now there is still
one more mountain range to cross. If
you’re interested in seeing the actual route the road’s labeled M34 on this
map.
Anywho, as I was getting to the point where I was so nervous from speeding around hairpin turns at 60 km/hr (it feels faster than I’m sure it converts) that I was giggling uncontrollably and my eyes had started to water enough that I had a tear running down my face, we were mercifully stuck behind a very large truck. This was not unusual. The unusual thing was that we weren’t trying to pass on a road barely wide enough for two cars with extremely limited visibility. In no time we had crossed onto a dirt road. In fact, the road looked less like a road and more like an abandoned construction site from an old mafia movie. As we crawled further and further up the mountain, we hit several forks in the “road” at which we weren’t certain which route was the road and which part was the construction entrance. While I was initially skeptical of our policy of “well, we’ll just follow the big truck” since we were in a construction site after all, it seemed to work out. We were carried through a chinese work site and camp where I’m told they are building another tunnel. This one is supposed to be much better than the Iranian tunnel, and judging by the avalanche shelters which the Chinese built along the earlier section of the road, I tend to believe them.
Here is a picture of the head doctor in our group pouring water directly into the radiator. I don’t know if you had this class is driver’s education, but we were very clearly instructed to NEVER EVER remove the radiator cap when the engine is hot. Well, despite lots of advice and three other people pleading with him not to do it, our brave Dr. Professor gingerly removed the radiator cap. Luckily, no one was injured (that time). The car did spout out some angry looking black smoke when we poured water in, but the engine did not crack. It was a success! After much trying and 4.5 liters of water, the car was finally cool enough to start again, and down the road we went. Ever grateful to be on a dirt road which required a more leisurely pace.
This is from our return trip. At the top of the mountain, before we began our decent, we were apparently not the only car with road damage. Some of those stopped are merely taking a break, but several cars were being worked on, or smoking, or both. All in all we had the muffler welded twice, the entire undercarriage disassembled and reassembled, the petrol pump replaced, and we were told that the thermostat for the car was completely blown. I was told that it was much more economical to drive, but with the cost of all those repairs, food, petrol, and liquid gas, maybe a $150 plane ticket would have been worth it.
I tried to re-route the gmap directions onto that road, but google
apparently doesn’t think that it’s an acceptable way to travel and won’t give
directions.
(Hint: If you want to be able to manipulate the map, click on the link "View Larger Map" in blue under this picture)
Anywho, as I was getting to the point where I was so nervous from speeding around hairpin turns at 60 km/hr (it feels faster than I’m sure it converts) that I was giggling uncontrollably and my eyes had started to water enough that I had a tear running down my face, we were mercifully stuck behind a very large truck. This was not unusual. The unusual thing was that we weren’t trying to pass on a road barely wide enough for two cars with extremely limited visibility. In no time we had crossed onto a dirt road. In fact, the road looked less like a road and more like an abandoned construction site from an old mafia movie. As we crawled further and further up the mountain, we hit several forks in the “road” at which we weren’t certain which route was the road and which part was the construction entrance. While I was initially skeptical of our policy of “well, we’ll just follow the big truck” since we were in a construction site after all, it seemed to work out. We were carried through a chinese work site and camp where I’m told they are building another tunnel. This one is supposed to be much better than the Iranian tunnel, and judging by the avalanche shelters which the Chinese built along the earlier section of the road, I tend to believe them.
The downside of this construction (my private upside) was that
the road was really quite rough. We
climbed several mountains on glorified dirt paths. This is perhaps not fair. They were well enough engineered that a
steady stream of trucks and cars passed along it all day long without
much issue. Russian dirt roads perhaps? …
After more than an hour of climbing, possibly even two, my colleagues triumphantly announced that we
had crested the top of the range and would begin our decent! To celebrate we stopped at a slightly wider
section of the road to take a picture or two and breathe before beginning the
harrowing decent back down. Mistake?
Maybe. I personally think it was
our saving grace:
Here is a picture of the head doctor in our group pouring water directly into the radiator. I don’t know if you had this class is driver’s education, but we were very clearly instructed to NEVER EVER remove the radiator cap when the engine is hot. Well, despite lots of advice and three other people pleading with him not to do it, our brave Dr. Professor gingerly removed the radiator cap. Luckily, no one was injured (that time). The car did spout out some angry looking black smoke when we poured water in, but the engine did not crack. It was a success! After much trying and 4.5 liters of water, the car was finally cool enough to start again, and down the road we went. Ever grateful to be on a dirt road which required a more leisurely pace.
This is from our return trip. At the top of the mountain, before we began our decent, we were apparently not the only car with road damage. Some of those stopped are merely taking a break, but several cars were being worked on, or smoking, or both. All in all we had the muffler welded twice, the entire undercarriage disassembled and reassembled, the petrol pump replaced, and we were told that the thermostat for the car was completely blown. I was told that it was much more economical to drive, but with the cost of all those repairs, food, petrol, and liquid gas, maybe a $150 plane ticket would have been worth it.
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