Had two lots of visitors. A 4x4 that said a quick hi and
headed up the hill; and a car with 4 walkers in it. They chatted to
us for a while and took some photos. They invited us to join them on
the walk to the peak but we declined. 
The Caspian side was full of fog so we decided not to take the panned
route. It is one thing to bounce along a slow road with views and
quite another when the visibility is non existent.
The
road we took was interesting anyway. The hills very rugged, the
towns built out of local mud so they blended in well.
I
got quite annoyed with a silly very young teen on a motor bike. He
passed me then sat just in front very slow. I finally got a chance
to pass and he speed up again to pass. I then just dropped back and
even stopped for 5 mins but he was waiting for me around the corner.
He let other cars go but sat in front of me so we had a slow tripo
into town. A very busy town.
Here
we stopped and bought some vegies and I found a small box of tamarind
pods. Yum….
I
went into a sweet shop looing for bread but no bread the girl behind
the counter spoke English so bought some sweets & bickies. The young lad from
the motor bike was there as well…
Finally
made it out of town the roads we wanted to take were one way the
wrong way!.
Another
village we arrived in had been severally damaged by the recent
floods. Whole sections of hill had slumped, taking some houses and
roads with it. The first real damage we had seen from the floods
other that the odd washout on the road. 
We
headed up into the hills parallel with the Golestan National park
boundary. As
the altitude increased the fog thickened until it was dripping out of
the trees. The tracks John had marked were too overgrown, steep, wet
and slippery looking. Not something I wanted to tackle just on dusk!!
We drove on and turned onto a side road and found a neat little camp
on a saddle among the dripping trees. If it clears in the morning we
should have a view. 1240m altitude
234km
234km