Iran Part 1 - Desert, Snow Storm...

We were especially looking forward to pedal Iran ever since we started to plan our route. Right before we arrived, newspaper and TV news were full of reports about demonstrations against the government. As there has been no travel warning issued, we decided to stick to our plan. To create maximum suspense: We didn’t feel insecure at all – rather the opposite: We felt welcome and literally everyone seemed to be happy to talk to us.

Our credit cards get useless the moment we crossed the border. The reason: No international money transfers because of the imposed sanctions. The only possibility is to exchange money, which typically works the following way: Look for a bank – find someone who speaks english – ask for money exchange. The answer is very likely “impossible” – which made us really nervous the first time, we were glad when he completed his answer : “....because our exchange rate is really bad for you, better use the exchange office” followed by a perfect description of the way. With an exchange rate of 1 $ : 500 000 Rial we happily left the exchange office as multimillionaires.

We soon realized we won’t be able to pedal all the way through Iran in time for our next family meeting in Dubai, so we decide to take a bus from Rasht to Isfahan. Now we only need a local Simcard, bus tickets and food. Not exactly easy as illiterates, but a typical Iranian solution is waiting for us in a restaurant nearby. We ask the owner where we can find a phone shop to buy a simcard – and he closes his restaurant, takes us to the next shop, fills all the required forms and uses his ID card and after a short while we have a our own simcard including a 15GB data package. The question for the next bus stop is answered in a similar way: He calls the bus driver, who happens to be a friend and asks him to stop in front of the restaurant. Worked out very well, and after a comfortable 6 hours bus drive we arrived in Isfahan.

 

Our plan was to escape the cold, winterly north and cycle towards springtime. In Isfahan it seemed as if our plan worked out, sun is shining when we visited the city and plan our route for the next days. We check on the weather forcecast, only some rain showers predicted for the next afternoon – so we decide to cross the Varzaneh desert. Weather turns out even better than predicted, no rain during daytime, only in the evening, already lying in our tent we notice some raindrops...

 

 

…which turn into heavy, onglasting rain. As it was still getting very cold during the nights, this means the rain is turning into a snowstorm around midnight. So we woke up in a stunning scenery the next morning. We only had to remove the snow of the tent every 20 min during the night.

As if that wasn’t enough of a challenge, we also suffered of upset stomachs, which means no food for the next two days...

 

 

Luckily the 5 cars passing by until lunchtime create nice skidmarks suited for cycling and we decide to go on. While the snow was no big problem, we felt really weak due to not eating and after only 15 km we decide to pitch our tent again. In the evening some policemen stop to tell us that it is getting very cold at night and want us to follow them to a village “only” 70 km away. We didn’t accept that offer..

 

 

In the morning two soldiers check in to make sure we survived the night and don’t need anything.They told us we will arrive at Rabbit Castle in a while, but we’d better not spend the next night there, cause… ahemmmm, the locals say it’s very spooky.

 

 

Two days later we feel better, but now our map starts to show weakness. The first village doesn’t exist, we had planned to buy food and water there. The next villages are each about one day trip away...

 

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