Through the Dasht-e Kavir

The long and straight road to Mesr Desert

...After the fertile north we then turned left and down. We left the forest and scrambled over some rugged and broken hills, to then roar through the soft bands of colourful clay, and enter the void of Dasht-e Kavir. A vast 200 km of nothingness.... no rest stop, no fuel station, and Nadia tells us to put the camera away, warning us that the area is considered sensitive, we later learn it's a militarized zone. She then jumped into her air conditioned car and left us alone in the shimmer.

There is something meditative about driving through long straight stretches of empty land. In the void, you are once again reminded that time and space are just creations of our brains to give us something to hold onto in life. As the last bit of this path was nearly over, we arrived in Jandaq where Nadia waited for us to have a road side kebab.
With a happy belly we turn left again, into the Mesr Desert, on a gravel-sand road that leads into the land of dunes.... The light gets softer, the silence thicker. What a magical Maghreb ride.
At the end of the sandy path we arrived at Hossein's place, a place where tired travelers are welcomed with a chai and warm words. After a delicious local dinner, Hossein walked us into the dunes to breathe in the night, a night so peaceful like someone turned down the world’s volume.
Next morning, when we parted, the mother threw water after us to have safe journeys always.

In a land that gives nothing for free, a handful of water offered into the dust felt like the purest form of peace.Read more