Day 20 : Where to next? North. Armenia 🙂 ….
Iran was one of those more than expected places to visit however it was time to move on.
As the GPS did not have sufficient information to navigate through Iran, I relied on Google Maps for all our navigation. For our road north however it insisted on charting the shortest route, through the countryside, we however went with local information on using the best roads to get to the border.
Heading north of Tabriz on route 32 to Jolfa, passing Marand and Hadishahr. Up until Jolfa the highway was free flowing and easy to pass through. At Jolfa head east on route 12 for Nordooz. Once you leave Jolfa the road changes into a dual road and follows the river all the way east until Nordooz. This part of the country is very sparsely populated but is a beautiful scenic drive. A bit hair raising at times as the big 12 wheelers speed along these roads. The Nordooz point is marked by aluminium cladded arch that spans the road, welcoming you to Nordooz Duty Free zone. Turn into the first parking on your left and drive to the customs boom. We missed this as the signs were blocked by the trucks standing in the parking lot!
The formalities to exit Iran was pretty straight forward. All passengers need their passports stamped by Immigration. It must be noted that the Immigration and Customs offices in the main Passenger terminal serviced both exiting and arriving passengers. There was a constant flow of visitors and only 2 offices on duty, this made the process seem longer. As passengers we had to exit through the terminal and walk to the border point where our vehicle had to be checked and xrayed by customs before exiting.
We left Tabriz at 1pm and by 5pm was crossing the Aras river into Armenia.
The formalities on the Armenian side was pretty much the same. As passengers we passed through Immigration, not without a thorough check of our passports, while the car was cleared through the customs process. Motor Insurance was purchased at the only office just as we exited the border post compound of Agarak.
Just as the sun was setting we entered into Armenia, now in search of a place to stay for the night. All in all a good day. I can only be grateful.
