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Sunday, December 8th - Nok Kundi to Yekmech, 14,923 km
It's another early start this morning. After our morning tea, fruit and cereal we are set to roll by 9 am. We have a paved road all the way this time. I am feeling well fed today and with my renewed health and a paved surface to ride on I feel energized. The morning cold, which was just below freezing, warms quickly in the sunshine. Good fortune has given us a tailwind. By noon, it is quite hot in the direct sun. Stephen and Kate stop on schedule for their smoke breaks, never waiting until there is shade or a decent place to rest while waiting 20 minutes every hour for them to finish. If we didn't get these early starts it wouldn't be possible for them to cover more than 70 to 80 km per day. There is more traffic today; trucks, buses and pickups mostly. Still, there is only one vehicle every 10 to 15 minutes. One pickup passes us with several men in the back holding machine guns - smugglers. I am riding with Coen and Vincent who are leading the pack half a kilometre ahead of the Brits. Given my two options, I prefer to be riding with them. It's just like old times when we were cycling together in Turkey with the Brits out of sight. That is, until Stephen cycles up to join us.
I like Stephen, though his choice of Kate as a partner is a strike against him. Still, he is showing an incredible lack of judgment here. "Where is Kate?" I ask him with a concerned voice. "She's about half a mile back," he answers. "Stephen, you need to stay with her. This area isn't safe, especially for women." "She can take care of herself," he shrugs. "Against a truck load of armed men with machine guns?" I question him. "Women are no more than property here. With a man they are much safer, but alone they are open game." I convince the other guys to stop and wait for her to catch up and I encourage us to stay together. "If anything happens to any one of us, we will all be affected. We need to look out for each other," I advise them. I am thinking about the four of them abandoning me in Esfahan right after I had been robbed and was bleeding internally two weeks ago.
Kate isn't too impressed that we are waiting for her. She thinks she could go it alone if she had too. I don't want her to find out otherwise.
The rest of the day rolls on without incident. I don't think Kate and Stephen appreciate my interference or that I make them uncomfortable as they keep me waiting during their smoke breaks. Kate gets a certain degree of mean pleasure out of making me wait but I know she wishes I wasn't here. I say nothing since I too wish she and Stephen would go their own way.
Yekmech is not a town. It's a speck of dirt on the map that someone forgot to wipe off, but it has a small hotel with a small general store on the main floor. There isn't much in the store but it has all that we need, warmth and safety. We are advised that there are bad people around at night and that we should not go out again until morning. There isn't anywhere to go anyway, but we thank them for the warning.
It seems we are all short of money since none of us can take money out of banks in Iran or so far in Pakistan. Kate and Stephen "borrow" part of my last meager worldly possessions - US$70 - to buy a couple more packs of cigarettes. I am afraid to worsen our relationship by denying them, though giving them money certainly doesn't improve their treatment of me. Kate cooks us dhal (lentils) she bought in Nok Kundi. They were dirt cheap because they have dirt in them - small rocks, actually. I am sure they are clean after being boiled but I almost chip my teeth on them more than once. Ah - the indignity of cheap travel.....
We all feel good to have made it this far safely. Things seem to be getting better. Tomorrow we only have a 55 km ride to Dalbandin, the first real town on our route to Quetta.
PHOTO 1: the road ahead
PHOTO 2: one of those pretty trucks
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