Planes, trains and automobiles (without the trains)

I am back up in the zones again – I feel like my life nowadays just consists of packing suitcases and traveling around. This time I flew up, rather than driving, which is a far swifter and more comfortable experience. It takes six hours to drive up here, but less than thirty minutes to fly! A distance of about 150km.

Right now, the country side is almost completely barren – it is a light brown colour and the hills look like sand dunes from afar, although when you get close to them, you realise that it is actually a sort of sad scrub cover. Everything is incredibly dusty – it gets everywhere and you have to wipe off your computer screen several times a day from the dust! Down in the valleys you might see a stretch of green – a few fields, some trees. This is the only relief from the brown dust that covers the entire country.

Driving is a different matter altogether. I often wear a burqa when traveling long distances, for security, and that thing just totally sucks! I will get a picture one day and post it here. I love to drive through the country side – I have always enjoyed doing that, pretty much any country I have been in – I just love to watch people going about their daily lives and seeing the local scenery. In Afghanistan, however, you can go kilometers without seeing anyone, then you will stumble upon a small village, made entirely of mud huts, that could be from biblical times. There will be some small boys herding sheep or goats, maybe a family on a donkey (the number of times I have looked at a man walking besides a woman on a donkey and exclaimed “hey – it’s Mary and Joseph!”) The only sign of modernity (apart from our 4WD, anyway) might be the occasional motorbike leaning against a wall.

The roads are fairly dire. I have driven across some horrendous roads in Africa, but nothing compares to the ones here. The only reason we can get to here from Herat in six hours is that the first half of the journey is on tarmac road (which we do in an hour) – if it weren’t we would be looking at a minimum of ten hours (and remember that this is summer – in winter the time for everything just about doubles as you dig yourself endlessly out of the mud).

The zone where I am is the only one I can fly to – from here, you must drive everywhere else. This means many hours in a bumpy car going through the mountains and valleys. Due to the bumpiness, it is impossible to sleep in the car, so I get plenty of people watching (and empty space watching) done. I love to watch the family dynamics of people as we whiz past – only small girls are out and about – or the occasional woman with her husband. Mostly it is men and boys.

One of the greatest things is to see a Koochi family go past. The Koochis are the nomadic people of Afghanistan – they move around and camp in great big black tents, toting all their possessions with them. Occasionally I have passed a whole family on the move – if they are wealthy, they will have camels, and you will see a convoy of ten camels, laden to the hilt with blankets, equipment and people, plus other livestock, moving along the road (we have to dodge them) – it is like Lawrence of Arabia! I like to watch the camels from a distance, but am not so keen on them close up, having ridden a particularly skittish one in Egypt a few years ago!!!

Sorry this is not a particularly coherent entry – I am writing it bit by bit as I tend to other things and I don’t think it has a theme! But I just wanted to throw a few thoughts down, especially as I am having limited time to post entries (just working manic hours). I anticipate being in the zones for most of August – I like it in the area where I currently am – although it is still stinking hot, it cools down better in the evening and I can sleep (unlike Heart, where I struggle to sleep in the summer).

Hope to be back with some more coherent thoughts soon…
Toodles