DAY 79 - KABUL

79) WEDNESDAY, 14 SEPTEMBER 1977 : 499KMS. - KABUL
 

A very exciting day.... !

We left KANDAHAR almost noon, heading along the Asian Highway to KABUL.  It was getting late in the evening,  close to dusk when we were on deserted road and surroundings. It would take us quite long time and get dark before we could reach KABUL.  So we stopped in the middle of the desert  intending to  overnight on the roadside, shortly before reaching GHAZNI.

On the way to GHAZNI - Photo : Flickr / Bing images search

We prepared to park on the roadside, where there was  no house around.  After having closed and locked both doors in the front,  we closed the wooden self-installed front inner door (actually it is a door of compartment  for our clothes and personal belongings),  securely bolted separating  the sleeping section at the back from the driver compartment. We also did not forget to lock the back doors of the campervan that gave us fully security locked in.  Inside the campervan, we  opened the vent that we extra fixed on the floor for the wind and fresh air to flow up to the top vents in the top middle of the campervan for good ventilation.  

Armed Afghan men - Photo : afghannetwork.net / Google images search

While preparing for the night rest (we used very little quantity of limited fresh water we had in the plastic washbasin-formed container to clean our faces and body with wet towels whenever we camped outside camping areas), we heard people talking and coming nearer and nearer toward our campervan. Without saying a word, we looked at each other, a bit worrisome, and we looked through the door-spies which we put intentionally on the middle of each side of the van body (no window on each side) and at the front and the back doors  and we saw a small group of armed Afghan men. It was rather normal for Afghan men carrying gun in public in Afghanistan !

Armed men - Photo : washingtontimes.com / Bing images search

They walked around our van and pushed it to shake slightly for a few minutes, they talked  and laughing together. We kept our mouths shut and didn’t make any noise believing that if we remained silent  there would be no harm.  We believed that they were just curious to see the parking campervan without anyone. They should not come for robbery and would not brake in into the campervan but they might be walking back home (but where then….. I did not see any houses !)

The men finally stopped laughing, still talking and moved away.  For security sake, we could not imagine what would have happened if we parked overnight on that area, we didn’t see any shelters around and wondered where those men came from and if they wanted to break in, what we should do… was it dangerous or not?

Broad smiling with arm - Photo - armybase.us / Bing images search

Like the divine protection ...... that  helped inspire those armed men talking and laughing softly before moving forward in the direction we were driving past.  I looked through the peephole on the back  door, seeing some men had looked back from a distance. We had to wait until they were almost out of sight.  We then came to our conclusion and agreed  that when  we were driving alone, we would not again stop in the middle of the deserted area during night time.  We waited so long till we thought they were far enough  to run back on time that Tilo started the engine and immediately drove away to Kabul.

GHAZNI -  Photo : Patrick Byers / tripmondo.com ( Google images search)

We passed GHAZNI but we could not find a proper place to camp ovenight and it seemed not  interesting. 

KABUL by night - Photo : happygolucky.no / Bing images search

We then continued to KABUL and arrived at night, when KABUL was emerged to our eyes as a glittering city of lights. There were houses everywhere !  It was a very long and exciting journey for today.