Sunrise in the desert

We learned from our mistake yesterday: We got up as early as possible to avoid the strong desert winds in the afternoon as much as possible. So I got up at 5:15. It was still complete night at our campsite and temperatures have dropped close to the freezing point, and the stars looked wonderful. No light pollution and a clear view to the Milky Way. And the complete silence in the desert was amazing, I cannot remember last time I had that much silence.

Starting the ride

After a short breakfast we started cycling at 6:45 with the first sunrays. It was a beautiful atmosphere. And we had tail wind. We reached Varzaneh, the original goal of yesterday’s ride, after 20 km within less than an hour. Yesterday it would have taken us more than 2 hours in the strong wind.

After restocking our supplies in Varzaneh, we continued taking advantage of the soft tail wind and reached at lunch time already Ziar, a village 25 km away from Isfahan. The whole valley since Varzaneh was very green because the water channeling system allowed farmers to water their fields, even though it was still in a desert-like area.

Entering Esfahan in sand storm

After a long lunch break in a public park in Ziar, we continued with the remaining 25 km until Esfahan in still beautiful weather. However, 15 km before reaching the city, a huge storm formed within a few minutes covering the whole city in dust. From far away it looked like a big thunderstorm, but it turned out that it was a sand storm. That was quite unpleasant, especially on the bike, where you get sand in your eyes, mouth, etc. After fighting a few minutes against the storm, we decided to take a break in a burger place. One hour later, everything was over and the sky was blue again. In order to protect my photographic equipment, there are no pictures of the sand storm unfortunately, but it was quite impressive.

Local family dinner

We had dinner and spent the night again at a local family. It was a family that we met on day 3 on our route from Shiraz to Seydan under a bridge while having lunch and we exchanged phone numbers. And as usual, all friends and family joined as well, so we were up to 20 people in the evening. And the family’s son is a mechanic who fixed Lucie’s bike (the rear rack’s screws broke so the luggage would not hold properly anymore) and washed both our bikes. We highly appreciated that.

About Esfahan

The family lives around 30 km away from the city center, so we and bikes got transported there by car. And that means: a normal sedan car with 5 passengers, 10 bike bags and two bikes. Somehow they made it all fit (parts of the bike were sticking out of the trunk though). This is the first time I realized how big Esfahan is. I was told that Esfahan has around 8 million citizens, and is the second largest city after Teheran with 12 million. And because the buildings are not tall, the area covered by the city is enormous. You can see buildings up to the horizon. I will post more about Esfahan after tomorrow’s sightseeing.

Detailed Track

After being stopped prematurely by strong head wind yesterday, we decided to leave at 7:00 today because the strong wind is known to set in at around noon and we wanted to cycle at least 100 km today in order to reach Isfahan the day after. But because we slept at a local family, we only managed to hit the road shortly before 8.

Rain, wind, and trucks

During the first 40 km we were still in a high plateau at around 2000m. So the morning was quite chilly, and as if this were not enough, rain and wind made our start more unpleasant. Only after leaving the high plateau, the conditions got better – at least until lunch break.

And apart from the weather, we were passed in the high plateau by big empty trucks in about a one minute interval, giving us a shower from the wet road every time. We were both wondering, why there are so many trucks on the way. We knew though, that today is the first day after Iran’s New Year holidays, but the road is very remote and yesterday no trucks were in sight.

We found the answer to our question after 35 km. There is a quarry where the trucks get loaded with black stones. 2-3 km before this quarry the trucks were starting to queue up along the road. There were at least 100 trucks that we passed. Many of those trucks probably passed us an hour earlier.

Dirt road

Until the quarry the road was paved and as usual in Iran in very good condition. After that, the road turned into dirt road, and because there was rain overnight, it also had some muddy parts which was difficult to cycle. After a few km however the road got dry and because we were going downhill, it became a pleasure to bike on the dirt road.

Desert storm

Until the lunch break at around 13:00 the wind was fine and we only had some moderate side wind. After lunch however, the wind turned into a storm. I did not measure the wind speeds, but judging from my experience from paragliding, some gusts probably reached 100 km/h. And because the wind came from the front, we could only progress with 10 km/h. After two hours we were both exhausted from the fight against the wind and full of sand.

On the way to Yazd a few days ago we had lots of tail wind and back then I assumed that when going back towards west, we will face this wind again. Unfortunately I was right. It seems that the wind always comes from W during the day. This time to our disadvantage.

Camping in some clay ruins

At 95 km we found some ruins next to the road which gave us shelter from the storm. Even at 19:00 the wind was still very strong, so we decided to stay the night in these ruins.

Summary

Today was definitely the toughest day so far on my bike tour. Very repetitive landscapes, wind, rain, little progress are really hard on the mental fitness. Especially when you see a 50km road ahead in the desert and you barely make progress. Tomorrow might be another such day, let’s hope we reach Isfahan before the afternoon storms hits us again.

Detailed Track

Bad awakening for Lucie

Just like the night before, we spent the night in a public park, me in my tent and Lucie simply without a tent and close to her bike. To our surprise, the next morning one of the panniers of Lucie’s bike was missing. The bike was maybe 3 meters away from her, but that was obviously far enough for someone to steal it. Luckily, there was only food in the bag. But for the future trip, the pannier has to be replaced.

Leaving Yazd

Due to the theft we left Yazd only 1 hour later, shortly after 8:00. We wanted to start early because today the whole trip went through the desert and temperatures will get very warm towards noon.

The landscape was quite monotonous. Basically, it was a straight road with sand and rocks on both sides. I guess that one road was straight for at least 30 km, which is not very motivating because you always see the whole road ahead and it seems that you barely make progress. At least a gentle tail wind accompanied us, however not comparable to the tail wind that supported us on the way to Yazd.

Lunch with local family

After 65 km of desert, there was the first village coming up with a campground. So we decided to stop here and eat our picnic. Today was however also an Iranian holiday, and the whole park was full of families having lunch together. It was only a matter of time until we got invited to one of the families and had a full lunch with them. Completely fed we left the campground around 1.5 hours later.

Fighting against the storm

While having lunch, the westerly head winds got very strong. Instead of in average 20 km/h we advanced only with half the speed for the next two hours. The dry air of the storm also made us lose a lot of water, so we decided after 85 km to go to a local village to get more water and relax from the tedious ride against the storm.

Dinner in local house

Also here it took only a few minutes until a family in a white car stopped next to us and invited us to their home for relaxing, showering and dinner. And because we were totally exhausted anyway, we accepted their offer. I was especially looking forward to showering because the two nights before in the park in Yazd there were no shower facilities and I was full of sun cream, sweat and sand from the storm.

Tomorrow we really want to head out early towards Isfahan because the strong winds normally come back around noon, so we want to cycle as many kilometers as possible.

Detailed Track

Cycling-free day

After our long cycling days, today we only use the bicycle to get around Yazd. Even though the center of Yazd is easily explored on foot, it was still convenient to have the bikes with us.

Morning Hours

After a night in a city park we were up early, and that was a clear advantage because the narrow streets of old town Yazd were not crowded with countless tourists yet. The old town of Yazd consists of clay buildings, mosques, and bagdirs (wind catchers) and from a roof-top café we could get a very nice morning view of the city and the surrounding mountains.

Yazd can get very hot in summer, even now in spring temperatures were getting close to 30°C. At times when there was no air conditioning, the citizens of Yazd built the bagdirs, also known as wind catchers. The concept is simple: The openings in the towers let the wind enter directly into the houses, where usually a cold water pool was situated and the air was cooled down. The remaining hot air then gets exhausted on the lee side of the tower. The bagdirs are present almost everywhere in old town Yazd.

Tourism

Yazd is by far the most touristic place I have visited in Iran so far. After 5 days of camping or living with locals, it was quite a change. Apart from the mosques, every building had an entry fee to pay, and what I also observed in other places in Iran: They pack as many shops as possible in the historic places. In a watermill (that cost $5 entrance fee and is seen within 10 minutes) for example, there was a tea store. And in a former prison, every room had things to sell. This is very annoying, and I prefer our “model” where the exhibition is as it is, and on the exit there is ONE souvenir shop.

Relaxing in the park

To recover from the previous rides and prepare for the ride to Isfahan that starts tomorrow, we decided to go to a park, have some picnic and do some bike maintenance, e.g. fixing the bike stand that was no longer holding the weight of my bike, or readjusting the mudguard which was touching the wheel. We were invited there by locals to tea twice and once for lunch, so in the end we spent the whole afternoon in the park before going for dinner in a tasty Persian restaurant.

Tomorrow we will be on route again towards Isfahan.

Getting up early

After a rather noisy night by some locals who had the need to turn up the car stereo to full volume at 3:00 and making sounds like wolves or other wild animals, I decided to get up early to catch sunrise in this mountain valley. The sky was however completely clear, making the whole scene much less attractive for photography.

Cycling to Yazd

The remaining 35 km to Yazd were easy as it was constantly going down into the desert city. It was worth however to stop every now and then and look back at the snowy peaks. Once down in the desert, the city welcomed us with very nice and wide roads and a lot of green between the lanes.

Looking for accommodation

So far we always managed to find some hosts or a decent campground. In Yazd, this seemed to be more difficult. All persons that we contacted through warmshowers or couchsurfing were unavailable, and because the city center is quite touristic, it is hard to get in touch with locals. After a while we gave up and went to a big park in the city where also other people sleep with their tents.

Detailed Track

Starting the day

When we arrived in the dark last night and were looking for a place to put up our tent, the criteria were: outside the city limits of Abarkouh and not too close to the highway. And we thought we found a place that matched both criteria. However, the Iranian like loud music even during the night. We could hear some party music from far away for several hours during the night, reducing the quality of our sleep. And when we got up the next morning, we could actually see where we put our tent: at the border of a garbage dump. Luckily the climate is dry and most of the garbage has been covered by sand and rocks already so it was not smelly.

Going into the desert

After a camping-breakfast (i.e. Persian bread, tea, some vegetables that were left), we packed our bikes and headed out into the Abarkouh desert. We were hoping to catch some of the tailwind that smoothened our ride yesterday, and for the first 20 km we advanced at a good rate. After that, we got slower and slower, and we did not realize why, because we still had tailwind and the road seemed flat as well. And some point Lucie asked me, if I also have trouble keeping up the speed, or if it is only her. Only after checking my altimeter a few times I realized that we are actually constantly climbing, which was impossible to observe with our bare eyes due to no reference points in the vast and open desert.

Lunch at Deshir

After roughly 60 km we decided to have lunch break in a village at the foot of the XXX Mountains between the desert and Yazd. It was a small and not very touristic village with many mud buildings (some in good shape, some not) and a lovely town square. I used this break to inflate my tires a bit more in hope to advance better afterwards.

Climbing the Zargos Mountains around Shir Kuh Peak (4050m)

After lunch break we continued with our low speed. But at least now we were climbing towards to mountains and we could see the altitude gain. That is much more motivating. We were climbing up to 2650 m, the highest point of today’s tour. As we were driving on the emergency lane of the highway, the inclination was not too steep and after 2 hours of climbing, we reached the pass.

Descent to Eslamiyeh

After climbing, we enjoyed the descent. We did not make it until Yazd as it was still 55 km from the pass. And daylight was getting less and less. So we stopped in Eslamiyeh and went to some local springs. I first thought it is a hot spring with a bath, but it turned out that it was only a water reservoir nicely located at the foot of the mountain. Still, having a place for camping with flowing water is always nice.

As soon as we arrived, we were offered tea by an Iranian family that also spent their day at the springs, followed by snacks etc. It was very welcome after such a tough and long ride. We stayed with the family for a while, set up our tent, washed ourselves in the waters of the springs and then finally went to sleep.

Tomorrow we will then finally reach the desert city of Yazd.

Detailed Track

Late start

After a long night in Aspas with around 20 family members, we only started at around 10:40 that day. The first goal was to reach Erhlid for lunch where we were already invited by the brother of Ahmad, our host from the last night. To warm up, we had to climb a few hundred meters over a pass before descending into another wide high plateau.

After the first descent, strong tail wind started to accompany us, and it turned out it will do so until the end of the day. That’s of course a biker’s dream, and on flat parts we were without big efforts able to drive between 30-40 km/h.

Tunnel or not…

After the first high plateau, there was a tunnel through the mountains so we did not have to climb another pass. At least, that’s what we thought… Police wouldn’t let us through the tunnel because they say it’s too dangerous. I guess they were right, but it was still frustrating at first. So there were two possibilities: trying to hitchhike or actually going over the pass. We chose the second option. It turned out to be a good decision, because the view from the top of the pass was simply awesome.

High speed descent to Eqlid

The reward for the steep ascent was a 15 km descent by around 500m of altitude. Still accompanied by the strong wind, we barely had to pedal and reached our lunch destination much sooner than expected.

Out into the desert

After Eqlid, we continued cycling for another 2.5 hours until sunset because the strong tail wind was too good to miss. We left the mountains for good and entered the dry desert. We made a lot of progress and reached Abarkouh, a city in the middle of the desert, by dusk. It is a transit city and we did not feel like looking for hosts tonight, so we went at the city limit and chose a place behind some rocks for camping.

Detailed Track

Tired of highways

The last two days we were basically driving on busy roads or on the highway’s emergency lane. This was fast, but not really that exciting and not the reason why I went to Iran on a trekking tour. Today, we decided to go through the back country instead. On Google maps, the road towards north was not connected, so we consulted the satellite view and saw that there are some tracks. It was around 35 km that were unknown if they were actually suitable for our bikes. But we took our chances in order to not having to drive on the highway again.

Driving on a dirt road

The first 20 km went perfect as there was a paved road until the end of a valley with almost no traffic. This is also where the street officially ends on Google Maps. After that, there was first a quite good non-paved road, which then turned into a steep climbing dirt track which was really challenging to ascend with my bike that weighs around 150 kg. I was glad that I had a good transmission thanks to my Pinion gearbox. The ascent in total since the beginning was around 600m.

The surprise then came on top of the pass: there was deep mud. I tried to ride through it, but got stuck immediately and the whole mudguard was immediately filled with mud and the wheels refused to rotate. As a consequence I had to remove my wheels and scratch out the dirt by hand. After that, I have been more careful where I was driving, but still, it happened to me twice again because the rain from the past few days softened the dirt road a lot.

Beautiful and remote high plateau

After the 35 km we then continued on a better non-paved road for about 15 km, which then converted into a nice paved road with almost no traffic. This part of the trip was really wonderful, first because we had quite strong tailwind, and second because the high plateau on 2400m was just stunning and very remote. Especially in the first 20 km, there was no sign of civilization.

Arriving in Aspas

The steep ascent from the morning however cost a lot of energy. The last 20 km to Aspas got tougher and tougher, even though we were still accompanied by the gentle tail wind. When we arrived in the village, we first went to a small bistro to get a cold coke. And there we also met our hosts for tonight. They invited us to dinner, and with us the whole family. We were around 20 people sitting on the floor and eating. It was an awesome atmosphere and another brilliant example of Iranian hospitality.

Detailed Track

Early Start

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.

Detailed Track

Luggage has arrived

Today, my luggage has finally been delivered by Qatar Airways, so I went to the airport and prepared the bike for today’s ride towards the antique ruins of Persepolis. The bike survived the transport without problems, only the power cables for the lamp had to be reattached.

The first ride

As predicted yesterday, it was still raining heavily until the afternoon, so I had the chance to test my rain equipment on my very first ride here in Iran. And it passed the test, even after two hours I was still dry underneath. But of course, I was glad when after the lunch break the sun showed up and the sky cleared within an hour.

Big parts of the ride were on the emergency lane of a 3-lane highway because there is no other street available. This sounds scarier than it was, because the street was very wide and we had basically a lane to ourselves. Nevertheless, it was quite noisy and there was a lot of pollution. Only shortly before Persepolis we could ride on some normal roads.

The negative highlight of the day was something else however. Shortly after our lunch break I rode in some glass parts which resulted in 10 holes in the tube and also the tire got damaged. I was lucky I insisted on taking 2 replacement tubes and a replacement tire with me. I wouldn’t have thought that I will need it on my first day though. While the tube is probably done, the tire can probably be fixed.

Accommodation at a local family

Tonight we will stay at a private home of a very friendly Iranian family who offered us to stay at their place when we arrived in Seydan at Sunset. We had a very nice evening together and tried to communicate with hands, feet and Google Translate. It is now already the second time where we were offered to stay at a local family. The Iranian hospitality is at least as good as its reputation!

Detailed Track