10th – The Scandinavian reunion

This night was much colder than we have been getting used to and while we didn’t have storm-like conditions like the previous nights it was windy when exiting the tent and it showed no signs of slowing down. The wind has also changed direction which means that people going to the summit today will have to pass straight through the sulphur fumes. And with a few clouds gathering it seems timing for our summit attempt was perfect.

After 3 nights in the camp we were to go down and return to Tehran. We had breakfast at around 0800 and at that point most of us were already done packing. Having packed everything, we left around 0915 and we arrived at the bottom around 3 hours later. It was then a simple matter of relaxing and doing nothing until the rest of the guides, kitchen staff and equipment and mules with our bags arrived.

During the descent we must have met at least 3-400 people going up and only a fraction of this number going down. Combining with the many arriving yesterday the already existing chaos will potentially only get worse. Another sign of we having perfect timing. On the other hand, part of me would have loved to stay behind to see how things developed with all the extra people arriving.

On the way down we met an Iranian who, when realizing we were a group of Danes and Norwegians, presented himself with “Hej! Jag är Hassan från Sverige!” (“Hi! I am Hassan from Sweden!”). He had come to Sweden long ago, gotten a citizenship and 12 years ago returned to Iran. He couldn’t resist getting a group photo with him and us and we had a few fun minutes of talking where he clearly disproved himself when saying he didn’t speak Swedish well anymore which he clearly still did (that being said; I’m just a Dane, it all sounds like hurr-di-hurr-di-hurr to me, anyway).

Arriving at our pick-up point we ended up waiting close to 2 hours for the rest of the guides (who had stayed behind packing the kitchen supplies and equipment) and the mules with our big bags. From there we drove to Polour where we changed to our busses that returned us to our hotel in Tehran where we arrived around 1630.

We got to drive in a... Peusan? Nisgeot?

I am pretty sure those tires are barely legal no matter where you are.

1½ hours later later, after having a much needed shower, we left for the largest rotating restaurant in the world, located in Tehran. It was an absolutely delicious buffet and to my surprise Iranian food does not involve spiciness. While I hadn’t expected blurry photos when photographing the view I had expected it would have been faster than it taking 2½ hours to do one rotation. We were back at the hotel around 2330 which finished a wonderful day, but also a sad one as we had said goodbye to our guides.

Milad tower with the restaurant near the top.

I was quite a nice restaurant.

Tomorrow we will be picked up to go to the airport around 1100. We don’t depart until 1525 but it is generally recommended showing up 4 hours before departure. Remembering the immigration process it feels unsafe to not adhere to that recommendation.