Well the day has finally arrived!
Months of planning has brought us to this very point… this afternoon we will be boarding a car ferry from Sharjah, UAE to Bandar Abbas, Islamic Republic of Iran… a 12 hour overnight voyage… Yalla! Let’s go!
But first, a last fill up of that cheap Emirati petrol…
Yes, for those interested, we’re talking 2.93 Emirati Dirham a litre (which has gone up significantly in the time we’ve been here)… the equivalent of NZD1.28 per litre… nice!
Heading for Mina Khalid port in Sharjah, I will admit that there was a massive swarm of butterflies which just wouldn’t leave me… accompanied by a heavy sensation in the pit of my stomach… and even a few tears… what was that? Nervousness? Anxiety? Fear of heading into the unknown? Being not contactable except for by sat phone for the next two weeks?!
We have spent so many years travelling to interesting and far away places but I’ve never experienced anything like these feels before… it was actually quite overwhelming, especially in the sweltering humidity of a 38c Emirati summer’s day.
Docked along the port were numerous vessels which regularly plough the waters of the Strait of Hormuz - the narrow body of water separating Asia from Arabia… and one of the most strategically important shipping lanes in the world. In 2022 an average of 21 million barrels of black liquid gold pass through these straits everyday, from ports in Saudi, Qatar, Kuwait and the UAE, that accounts for about 30% of the world’s oil consumption.
However trade in this part of the world has not always been about oil, as the boats in front of us could testify. Dhow after old wooden dhow - many of questionable seaworthiness - lined the portside… - being laden with everything from foodstuffs, to refrigerators, tyres and flat screen TVs… but which of these was our ferry?!
Aha, luckily none! Although it was certainly curious watching a crane hoist a white sedan onto the deck of a rickety old dhow… at 2.5 tonnes I’m not sure it would be such a good idea to try that with Lando!
We eventually made our way to the passenger terminal where Remco and I were deposited into the waiting area while Eric drove “around the back” with Lando.
It was a long wait, a really long wait. But nothing as long as what we were to experience at the other end 😱 (more on that in the next episode...)
Eventually in the dark of the night we were packed into a bus with a couple of dozen locals and driven to our actual boat.
It’s a car ferry service right? So it was highly amusing to find ourselves with only 2 other vehicles… a local and another pair of crazies - also on an epic adventure driving to India. Can't be that much of a popular cruise I guess?!
But we made it onboard, with only another hour before we cast off at 9.15pm into the darkness, and into the unknown…
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