Sweden-Tibet-Australia: Iran, Kish no 2

So, here we are, one month later and we are still in Iran! We ended up staying a lot longer than planned on Kish Island due to a number of incidents…

1. Oliver stood on a scorpion and had to be rushed off to the hospital. No damaged done though. Luckily for him, the scorpions on Kish are not so poisonous. After an injection he seemed to have more energy than ever! He is now nick named Scorpion Boy.

2. We bumped into Mohammed, who works as a diving instructor on Kish. Pia and Richard were offered to go for a test dive and after that we all decided to get a PADI open water diving certificate. Kostas and Chi kindly offered to look after the kids whilst we did our intensive four day course. A good reason to stay for a couple of extra days we thought…

3. On day three of our diving course Tanja managed to poke Milans eye so badly so he had to postpone his last dive. After a couple of turns to the hospital (again) his eye finally healed enough for him to finish his course as well.

4. It was now time for the turtle eggs to hatch. Originally we thought we would miss out on this but by this time we had extended our stay for so long, we might as well wait for a couple more days for the chance to see the little turtles dig themselves out of the sand.

5. Our visas were expiring and in need of extension. This proved to be harder than we thought, but after quite a number of turns back and forth to the immigrations office we managed to get a few more days in order for us to get back to the mainland where we could extend our visas further.

All in all, five or so days ended up in a three weeks stay. Towards the end, we were all quite desperate to get of this Island. We felt as if we would never leave… But looking back, we had some incredible time and unique experiences on this strange Island. For some of us it was first time breathing under water! Diving is just amazing and we cannot wait for the next bit of coast on our journey where we can test our skills.

Tuvalie and Richard having some fun on the beach. /Pentax

Richard and Pia getting ready for their first dive. /Pentax

Tanja is testing out Oliver´s swim aid. /Pentax

Luka´s found yet another interesting crab! /Pentax

Mourning procession on the death day of Fatime, Prophet Mohammed´s daughter. /Pentax

Inside the great mosque on Kish Island. /Pentax

By the green tree, where people come to tie ribbons around the branches for good luck. /Pentax

And we did manage to see those tiny little turtles with a lot of effort digging themselves out of the sand and scurrying down towards the water. Such cool little characters…! One night turtles had hatched outside one of the fenced off areas so we were all searching the whole beach with torches helping the lost turtles into the water. The waken nights and lost sleep was definitely worth it. And we made some friends for life! The guys at the center for monitoring and protecting sea turtles are like family to us now. Almost for three weeks they let us stay with them, they cooked for us, played with the children and shared their work and lives with us. Hamed, Ali, Camran, Arash, Hossein - we do hope to see you sometime, somewhere again!