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

Running Errands

Today we needed to take care of some things in Esfahan. Lucie needed to get a visa extension, and I needed to get my camera sensor cleaned as a result of the dusty and sandy conditions in the past few days. And of course we wanted to see a bit more of the city because yesterday’s sightseeing session was rather short.

Visa extension

Extending a visa is a long process that started on 7:30 a.m. and ended around 4 hours later. Countless interviews, running to the bank for making the payment and returning the receipt are some steps involved. But in the end Lucie was successful and her visa got extended by another 30 days, which will be enough until we cross to Turkmenistan.

Shopping in Esfahan

Unlike in European cities, shopping in Esfahan is straight forward. Shops of the same kind are usually grouped and along the same streets. When I was walking to the photo store for the sensor cleaning, I first passed by dozens if not hundreds of car repair shops. Once I reached the street of the photo store, basically all shops were selling electronics. During the day, we also discovered streets that sell household items. So basically, if you know in which street you can get what, you basically have all the shops in one cluster. This is actually very convenient.

Sightseeing

Today we were not a group of 8 for sightseeing but only Lucie and me. This gave us much more flexibility and we could actually visit the mosque we saw from outside yesterday, we walked through the famous Bazar-e Bozorg and spent some time over lunch in one of the beautiful parks in the center. Unfortunately we arrived a bit too late at the famous Jameh Mosque so we only could see it from outside.

Another family evening

For the third evening in a row, we were up to 15 people. Unfortunately I was not at all in the mood for it today, I was tired from a whole day of walking through the city, did not sleep much the nights before and would have preferred a calm evening. Also, going to sleep early was not possible as we only had dinner at 22:45 because some guests arrived late. I guess this is the downside of staying at locals, but still, I don’t regret it, as you really get to know a lot about Iranians.

Next steps

Tomorrow we will leave Esfahan however and go north with the bus. As we should be in Turkmenistan in 12 days, it is impossible to cycle the remaining 1500 km. We will most likely go up to the Caspian Sea and then follow the coast line towards Gorgan and finally towards Mashad.

Even though Esfahan calls itself bike-friendly, we decided not to use our bikes today. First, because we live at a local family 30 km away from the city center and second because the traffic especially in the suburbs is everything but not bike-friendly. So we went there by car together with the host family and some friends of theirs. In total we were 8 persons.

Spring time in Esfahan

We reached Isfahan at a very good time of the year. The Zayandeh river was carrying a lot of water (which is not normal, I saw pictures from 10 days ago when the whole riverbed was dry!). Also, the parks at the riverside were green and the flowers were blooming. The temperature was with 15-20°C also perfect for sightseeing.

Historic center

In addition to three historic bridges over the river, yesterday’s highlight was the Naqsh-e Jahan Square. After Beijing’s Tiananmen square the second largest in the world with more than 500m of length and 150m wide. Compared to the Tiananmen Square, the Naqsh-e Jahan Square is howoever much more beautiful because it is surrounded with mosques, palaces, and has beautiful fountains and green on it. The pictures were unfortunately taken at noon, so the light is not that good, but I will try to go there again tomorrow to get some better shots towards the evening.

Sightseeing in a group

I really love the Iranian hospitality, but for sightseeing in a city like Esfahan it can also be an annoyance. The main problem is that first, all family members and friends want to spend as much time as possible with us, which resulted in a group of 8 people. Sightseeing gets quite inefficient like this because there is always someone to wait for. And the second problem was that for locals, sightseeing does not have the same meaning as to us. So after two hours in perfect weather, one guy suggested that we go to his home to have lunch. The home was 30 min away by car. We could convince them to stay in the city center for lunch… but only until after lunch, when they took us back to the village. So in the end there was not much sightseeing and we spent the whole afternoon at their home drinking tea and just “being” there.

I am really glad that tomorrow we have another day in Esfahan. This time I will go to the city alone with Lucie and will appreciate the hospitality again in the evening when returning to the village.

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