Iran | A harmadik út

Capital:

Tehran

Population:

73 215 781

Area:

1648195km²

Cycled distance:

2052 km

Getting parted from Iran

Near to Mashhad, in the crazy Iranian traffic, happened something, what you cannot avoid, you can just hope that it will miss you. I had an accident. In spite of breaking heavily, a car ran into me from the rear. The next moment I was lying on the ground. I was hit on multiple places, my elbow was swollen, I had multiple bruises, but thanks God overall I was in good shape.

Stepping in Vámbéry's footsteps

In 2005 I cycled approximately 300km on the shore of the Caspian Sea, just in the opposite direction. I was amazed that I could not recognise any of the places I went by. Iran changed a lot. At the launch of the expedition I was still unsure about if I should or shouldn’t visit the 15 million populated Capital, Tehran. It is not the best choice on a bike... but as I had time, my plan was to make a larger detour from Tehran, this time to Shiraz, following the second route of Vámbéry.

Arriving at the Caspian Sea

After I left the home of Reza’s family and Ardabil I took the direction to the Caspian Sea. Luckily Ardabil is quite high above sea level, so I did not had to cycle a lot uphill to get to the 1510m high pass. From here on it was only downhill till Astara. This is the first Iranian city on the coastline; north from this point on it is already Azerbaijan.

Bike review at halfway

Mister havarjuu thenksfaajn... this the English knowledge of the average Persian. I asked the same question from my Kenzel bike the other day, and luckily it responded in similar fashion. It has been 38 days since the launch and I was sitting in the saddle for 32 days; 3220km on asphalt, gravel, in hot sand on the shore, in mud, in pouring rain, in around zero degrees cold till 50 degree hot heatstroke, through broken glass till bushes full of thorns. It had its share of everything, and it had to carry me and at least additional 30kg of equipment.

Life in a densely populated Iranian city, Ardabil

The roads in Iran, compared to the previous countries, are first class and the hills are also milder. On the other hand the heatstroke in the afternoon is unbearable. I was forced to stop daily for 3-4 hours. But I could not spend these hours with sorting my things out, or writing my diary, as the Iranian noticed me just after a couple of minutes and leave me no rest.

Hello Mister, Iran good?

This was the first question what the locals, later everyone who saw me, asked me when they stopped me in Iran. What can you answer of such a question when you just stepped into the country five minutes ago? Of course what they want to hear. “Good!” How “good” it is we will turn out after my (more than a month long) stay.