Catching up by bus
Because we have to enter Turkmenistan on April 18 due to Lucie’s visa, we had to accelerate things a bit to reach the border in time. Therefore we travelled the roughly 400 km between Esfahan and Teheran by bus.
Cycling in Iran’s Capital
Once arrived in Teheran the first surprise: we did not arrive at the expected terminal at the eastern city limit, but at the south Terminal. And because we wanted to skip Teheran for sightseeing anyway and proceed towards the Caspian Sea, we had to cross half the city towards north east. As Friday is the equivalent to Sunday in Switzerland, there was luckily not that much traffic on the roads, I don’t want to imagine the traffic during rush hour on a work day. Nevertheless, the smog in Teheran was horrible. I could feel it in my eyes and lungs.
Where to camp?
Since we only started cycling at 15:30, we had planned to cycle out of the city and camp in the national park that was right at the city limit. However, once we got there 30 minutes before sunset, it turned out that the national park was in fact a military area where foreigners are not allowed, so camping was impossible. And otherwise there was also no inviting place to set up our tent. The best option might have been under a highway bridge, but that was not so inviting. So Lucie had the idea to go to the building of the emergency rescue in the hope we could stay there overnight. Unfortunately, that was not possible, but the guys there helped us finding a room in some municipality building were we can stay for the night. We are both very happy about this solution because in the meantime several thunderstorms hit the area. And it even had a kitchen and decent bathrooms in the building.
Detailed Track
Max elevation: 1574 m
Min elevation: 1080 m
Total climbing: 526 m
Total descent: -56 m
Total time: 02:54:03
