An amazing trip - to Iran

Badlad

Administrator
Staff member
A report from last week..  ;)

Our caving trip to Iran had taken some time to pull together mostly because of clashes with other commitments.  Eventually we had to settle on dates in February even though our hosts complained that it would be very cold at that time of year.  Our objective was Ghar e Dosar (cave of the twin peaks) only discovered in 2013 and expected to be in the world?s top ten largest chambers.  This is, of course, another story of our round the world laser scanning tour, but hey this is Iran and if you like adventure, caves and wonderful people you should go there too.

Just a week before our departure Mr Trump decided to make life harder and banned Iranians from entering the US.  We wondered if our own Prime Ministers hand holding antics with the US president would have any reciprocal effect on our visit.  Friends advised caution and concerns were expressed that we would all end up as political tools and permanent guests of the Revolutionary Guard.  We were passing through customs with some very high tech gear after all.  Iranian contacts re-assured us and we left as planned.

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Snowy mountains surround Tehran and inside a cavers house

In the airport we were met by our contacts and whizzed through customs without a glitch ? which is not usually the case I can tell you.  Throughout our visit we were made welcome at the homes of cavers and their friends and this hospitality made us feel very easy.  After a visit to the Mountaineering Federation offices where we learnt more about the structure of caving in Iran, we were put on a bus for the ten hour journey to Yadz.

As one of the oldest cities in the world, our arrival in Yadz was a little disappointing as we were dropped off on the edge of town at three in the morning.  No need to fear arrangements were in hand to taxi us to the basement apartment of one of the main cavers who would accompany us to the cave.  At his house we were re-assured more ? he was undoubtedly a real caver with racks of outdoor gear hung up on the wall with more of the welcoming feel of a caving hut than a home.  We dossed down on the floor until morning.

Next day was a bit of a voyage into the unknown as none of our language skills was up to much.  Somehow we ended up at a major conference on the survival of the Persian Leopard but it seemed this was mostly to join in with a big lunch.  We headed from here into the desert on dirt roads where it was clear most Iranian youth only have one speed regardless of the amount of times the suspension bottoms out. 

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Our first sight of the entrance and the view

We arrived at the cave and seemed to have picked up a lot more people.  We had attracted a reporter and TV crew and a host of other local cavers.  It was refreshing to meet a female caver as the equality of women is one of my major distrusts of the Islamic world.  She also spoke great English. 

The cars had all come to a stop at the edge of the gravelly desert where the limestone mountain rose up to considerable heights.  A dry gully led upwards to a quite remarkable entrance punched into the smooth water worn rock.  The oval hole dropped down straight to the first pitch but that would have to wait until tomorrow as our hosts led us further into the desert to a guard house for the night.  This was some luxury guard house situated on top of a mountain spur with near panoramic views of the surrounding landscape and a richly coloured sunset thrown in for good measure.

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So the next morning saw a fair amount of bilingual faffing over who was doing what and when before we were up to the entrance and the local cavers were rigging the cave.  Now kitted up I could see the guys and gal looked the part and as I followed them down and it was clear they knew exactly what they were doing.  The first pitch of 20m dropped onto a chamberette come wide ledge.  A traverse out over a black hole led to two short rebelays before a 90m freehang into the middle of the chamber.  My Petzl Stop bobbins never seem to last long these days and what with the weight of the scanning equipment and the brand new 9mm rope it took a lot of friction to maintain a controlled descent ? braking karabiner and twice round the leg in fact.

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The entrance pitch and a view up the main pitch

Big chambers are awesome whatever size and shape they are but the first thing that struck me on landing was the temperature.  We were told it might be 10 degrees and had dressed accordingly.  Sure enough there was an icy draught breathing in from the entrance but at the bottom it was warm as toast and we all left a pile of oversuits and extra clothes near the bottom of the ropes.  I unpacked the scanner which was cold from a night in the desert and set it up for the first station.  Within minutes it was covered in condensation and unusable.  Luckily the clever thing has an inbuilt heater and I left it alone for 20 minutes so I could make a recce over to the nearest wall.

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Scan in progress and a perilous station at the edge of the 100m drop

It didn?t take long to see that the chamber was pretty huge but was void of the grand formations of the great Chinese caverns.  Perhaps just a few times a year water poured down the entrance onto a clean washed gravelly area at the base of the pitch.  A valley ran down slope to a flat alluvial plain at the chambers lowest point.  Everything from here was upwards, up grand boulder slopes with gulleys, ridges and prominent boulders 20 ft high.  As we scanned our way up we got zero reflections from the upper chamber and speculated what this might be.  On reaching the top of the boulder slope it became apparent ? cloud!!  The chamber has it?s own weather and the cloud appeared to be a fairly permanent feature judging by the dissolving surfaces of the rock in this area where the rest was mostly dry.  There were a few small splatter formations here and there, some white crusty crystal coating and an area of cave pearls.

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A snapshot of a scanned image where you can move the position to anywhere giving a great shadow effect in this case

It took two days to complete 65 scan stations including a rather perilous one at the top of the pitch.  While I was doing that with local assistance Andy Eavis was helping Carsten Peter to photograph the chamber.  This took three days and sounded a very frustrating affair, however, you?ve got to admire Andy?s fitness and stamina doing the cave three days in a row at the age of 69.  Impressive stuff.

For some reason we couldn?t use the guard house more than that first night and we camped in the desert for the remaining two nights.  It was cold and windy of course but we had a fire every night which made a nice central point before bed.  All food was cooked on the fire by our hosts including delicious kebabs and stew and lots of tea. 

On the last day I headed off with Roo Walters to find electricity so that we could crunch the data and stitch the model together.  We were taken to an old guys house who had originally found the cave.  He and his family hosted us all day long and we had lunch together on the floor of the living room.  His grandson arrived speaking perfect English mostly learnt from school and Harry Potter of which he was a massive fan.

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Crunching data at the home of a stranger and a group of our new Esfahan caving friends

The whole team came together again in a darkened layby on the main road before going our different ways.  As we travelled back up through the country to Tehran we managed a little sight-seeing and stayed with some of the cavers in their home in Esfahan.  It was great to meet their friends and to be shown around a few historic sites.  Roo also gave a presentation of our work to the local group at a fire station training room which was also pretty impressive.  It was so sad to say goodbye to some of the most welcoming and friendly people I have ever met and all too soon we were taking off from Tehran in a snow storm.  Once in the air the drinks trolley came round and we all enjoyed a glass of wine after a week of abstinence.

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Breathtaking historical sights to visit

Iran is a great place and nothing like the media would have us believe.  Most amazing of all were the people we met and caved with ? are you reading this guys, huge thanks to you all?  If I was a younger caver I would be thinking of ways to return and do more caving with the Iranians.  Those we met were on top of their game, certainly very competent in rigging and survey.  They have recently explored a 500m deep shaft and a cave over a 1000m deep and still going ? and all in an area we Brits said was worked out in the 70?s!
 

SamT

Moderator
I think Iran has to be on my bucket list destinations.

Hearing Simon Brookes lecture at HE about his travels there really opened my eyes to this incredible sounding country.  Sounds like its been totally misrepresented in the media over the years.  I suspect anyone of my generation just associated it with the Iran/Iraq war of the 80s (and their perhaps not so good human rights history  :confused:)

I want to go snowboarding in Tehran , then caving, then go and relax on some caspian sea beach and do a bit of snorkling.  :D
 

Alex

Well-known member
Wish I could go but I don't think it would be safe for me, for reasons I don't want to get into on a public forum.
 

Franklin

Member
EXcellent, Badlad. Sounds great - always fancied visiting Esfahan and I believe Persian poetry is a thing of beauty ... did you manage to pick any up?  ;)
 

Badlad

Administrator
Staff member
Couldn't read the Farsi and they start books from the back forwards.  However, as a thing of beauty it will be a joy forever.  ;)
 

nearlywhite

Active member
I highly recommend reading Iran Empire of the mind by Michael Axworthy if you're interested in the culture, really enjoyable read - I have read quite a few books (being half Iranian) to try and learn a bit more about my heritage and it's by far the best one I have come across. The poetry is particularly well explained. I'm not on commission either :)

Anyway, a good read, really enjoyed that
 

droid

Active member
SamT said:
  I suspect anyone of my generation just associated it with the Iran/Iraq war of the 80s (and their perhaps not so good human rights history  :confused:)

Most of my generation associated Iran with Ghar Parau.
 

mojgan.soleymani

New member
Thank you very much Tim. It was a great pleasure to give you professionals accompany in Dosar and then in Isfahan.next time, stay longer so that we can hang around the city as well as other caves- so many unseen phenomena left! miss you guys and hope to see you soon again. (y)
 

moletta

Member
Just read this post so maybe it's a bit random to add to it now, but there is some good kayaking and friends have had equally good experiences of contact with Iranians.
 
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