Babak Castle trek

We left at 8.30 for Babak Castle but the journey took much longer than expected. The driver drove into a police checkpoint to explain that as the office had been closed yesterday evening he’d been unable to get the necessary permit to travel into the Western Azerbaijan area of Iran. The policeman was not friendly, fined him and sent him to the next town to get it. This took a while but gave us an insight into what everyday life can be like for Iranians.

We drove through some beautiful mountain scenery before arriving the nearest town to the castle about 4 hours after leaving Tabriz. We bought some fruit and left the bus for a couple of beat up old jeeps which drove us up a very rough track to the trail head at around 2000m.

Then it was a steep but good climb to the castle. Again we were stopped many times for selfies. The castle was perched right on the top of the vertiginous mountain. It was stunning.

Then it was a long drive back again though we were held up over half an hour because the driver took the wrong turn. Mr C said almost at once he thought we’d headed the wrong way at a roundabout but it wasn’t until we’d climbed up a steep twisty mountain pass that another chap said we were heading north to Armenia, not east to Tabriz. Then later he was pulled over to be told he wasn’t breaking the speed limit but nearly was and why hadn’t he checked in at the previous police post. If he was anywhere else he’d be having a stiff drink now.