Day 4: From Seydan to Pasargad

Early Start

After a comfortable night at the place of some very traditional locals we wanted to go out earlier than yesterday so we have more time, so we already left at around 9:30 in the morning. After a few kilometers however Lucie’s front wheel started making some cracking noises. After some investigation we realized that the isolation of the front hub was not good and yesterday’s rain and mud got too much dirt in the bearings. So we decided to go back to Seydan and fix the problem at a local repair shop. After a one-hour break, we then started over, our time advantage compared to yesterday was gone however.

Tire problems again

After yesterday’s tire problems I thought that statistically speaking, nothing should happen anymore for the next few days if not even weeks. However, I was proven wrong! After around 45 km and around lunch time I ended up with another puncture, luckily close to a village called Sa’adat Shahr, where a local biker invited us to fix the bike in his home as he has a mountain bike himself. The problem was fixed quickly and compared to yesterday it was only one tiny hole. And after fixing the bike, we were invited by the family for an extensive lunch, which was very nice, but set us back another 1.5 hours in our schedule.

Ride to Pasargad with a former colonel

The local biker and one of his friends accompanied us the remaining 23 km to Pasargad. It turned out his friend was a former colonel in the Iranian army, but now retired (at 58) and president of a local biking association. He told us stories about the war against Irak, and how he was hit by 3 bullets and survived. His right hand’s fingers got partially cut off by a bomb which was clearly visible. He was a very gentle man and it was very interesting to listen to him, he for sure experienced a lot in his life.

After a one hour ride we reached the archeological site of Pasargad. The ruins unfortunately were not well preserved at all if we didn’t have to pass there anyway, we could easily have omitted them. The surrounding landscape with the Zagros Mountains in the background looked stunning in the evening sun. And to our surprise, the colonel unpacked a gas cooker and prepared coffee for everyone, which we enjoyed on one of the ruins while watching the sunset. Also, the colonel used his connections and organized a place to stay for us so we don’t have to camp outside. We had a lot of fun with the family, even though our common language English did not work out so well and Google Translate was our friend.

A very nice day is coming to an end, and even though we did not nearly cycle as far as we planned, our day was full of impressions and we enjoyed once again the hospitality of the Iranians.