Outsider Travel
In 1978, I was on an overland truck expedition from London to
Kathmandu with 20 other intrepid travelers. We were going to
basically camp all the way; these trips were very popular among young
Europeans and Canadians at that time.
Our truck became dead and sick in Turkey about 70 k from the Iran
border. A very nice Turkish truck towed us to the next town,
Yuksekowa. They parked the truck on the soccer field across from the
mosque and the public toilet and to the left of the local police
station.
Now, we knew we were in Kurdistan, but did not quite realize the
implications. After the first night, the locals became quite hostile.
Despite the women's best efforts to cover up and cast eyes downward,
we were chased each time we left the truck and they stoned us when we
went downtown. About 20 of the louts gathered round the truck each
day from dawn til dusk to harass us. It took two male escorts to use
the public toilets--one to guard the windows and the other to guard
the doors.
The so-called expedition leader was a complete idiot and could not
devise any strategies to get us out. The police needed to be cautious
because they were Turks--couldn't afford to rile the volatile Kurds.
Finally, several of our group managed to rouse the sponsor tour
company in London to explain our plight.
After 5 days of sheer what-seemed-like-torture, we decided we HAD to
get out, dead truck or no. Several of the fellows went downtown to
see if they could negotiate a tow. They finally did, on a manure
truck. We were towed to the Iranian border and when we had settled in
for the evening, we heard a strange English voice. The tour company's
executive traveled for two days to find us.
1978--Iran--a revolution--now that was exciting, but not nearly as
dangerous as beautiful downtown Yuksekowa. The coda to all this came
several years later when Ken Follett released his book On Wings of
Eagles, about the rescue of Ross Perot's guys in Iran. While these
top-flight commandos were plotting their moves, they said they were
only scared in one place: Yuksekowa.
Lynn
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