This is Dash-e Lut desert
We’d heard about the Dasht-e Lut desert long before setting out on our overlanding adventure, seen those breathtaking photos, dreamed about it, and kept it high on our bucket list. The plan was to make it part of our second visit, right after crossing the Arabian Peninsula.
But then plans unraveled. Florian caught Covid in Kuwait, and by the time we re-entered Iran, he still hadn’t fully recovered. Summer had already arrived in full force. Friends from Iran warned us not to go “the heat will be brutal,” they said. Sensible advice, for sure. But…
We had to go. What we didn’t realize at the time was that the Dasht-e Lut is the hottest place on Earth, with NASA recording ground temperatures up to 70.7°C.
We went with Mansur, a local guide from Kerman (it's not allowed without a guide). His take? “It’s doable, no problem.” But there was a catch: we’d need to leave the desert before 10 am to escape the worst of the sun, then return later in the afternoon, just before sunset, to set up camp.
We started our Kalut adventure from the city of Kerman and drove about an hour to the village called Shahdad, got some more supplies and some fresh watermelon and made our way towards the desert. Temperature felt already burning hot. From Shahdad, it took another 40 minutes into the kalut area — the point where the road ends and off-roading begins.
Off-roading here isn’t just for fun — it’s a necessity.
Unmatched Landscapes The kaluts are unlike anything else on Earth.
Temperatures were rising high, fortunately not to the worlds record of 70° C.
Here used to be an ocean, long time ago.
The temperatures climbed fast — thankfully not up to the world-record 70°C — but still, resting an arm on the sunlit armrest felt like it was sizzling on a frying pan.
…but we barely noticed — the landscapes were too wild, and the driving was just too good.
Tracks of sand, gravel, and cracked earth. The landscape was alive with strange formations — The Kaluts, massive wind-carved ridges that stretched for kilometers like the ruins of an ancient alien city. In between, vast plains shimmered under the brutal sun, so hot the horizon seemed to melt. Without having our air con fixed a few weeks ago in Dubai, we could not do this.
Off-roading here isn’t just for fun — it’s a necessity. You navigate through soft sand, weaving between dunes and stone outcrops, sometimes losing the track entirely and just trusting your sense of direction because GPS also had some issues.
Just before sunset, we found the perfect spot to set up camp — a small dune with an open view across the endless sea of kaluts. The light was turning golden, shadows stretching long between the towering formations. We stood there for a while, soaking it all in — the alien shapes, the endless horizon, the feeling of being completely removed from the rest of the world.
That first night in the Lut turned out to be a gift. The sky was perfectly clear, scattered with more stars than we’d seen in months. The brutal heat of the day finally eased, not cool by any means, but bearable, and a gentle wind threaded through the camp, carrying with it the faint scent of dust and stone.
It wasn’t even the hottest night we’d spent in our Defender, but it felt different here. Maybe it was the knowledge of where we were – in the heart of one of the hottest deserts on Earth – or maybe it was that true silence we've never experienced before. Either way, it was the kind of night you store away in memory, knowing you’ll never be able to quite recreate it again.
Waking up for sunrise has never been easy for us, but we still find ourselves doing it often — it’s one of our favorite times of day. Out in the kaluts, though, we didn’t really have a choice. The plan was simple: be up before the first light, catch the magic with a coffee and head out before the brutal heat came crashing down again.
