Salam Iran!

Leaving the former Soviet republics behind us, we cycle in Iran from the religious Mashhad to the cosmopolitan Tehran. In between, we do a small detour by the Caspian Sea and cross the Alborz mountain range. Throughout our journey, we experience the legendary Iranian sense of hospitality. Welcome to Iran, my friend!

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We leave the border and set sail for Mashhad, Iran's holiest city.

First challenge: read the road signs

Curious and friendly village kids

We arrive at destination after two days of riding and rest for a while.

Haram-e Razavi, the world's largest mosque and key pilgrimage destination for Shia Muslims

Exiting Mashhad, we decide to follow the northern route that goes to the Caspian Sea.

Cycling team that rode from Qom to Mashhad

Shoulders of Iranian roads are full of nice debris that can puncture your tires

As we are looking for a hotel in Quchan, we are approached by Amar, a cab driver who offers to host us. We are treated like kings and spend a very nice evening with our host and his family.

Nice evening in Quchan

Amar and his cab

One evening at sunset, we are desperately looking for a discrete place to camp. We then remember the advice of some bike travellers that the Red Crescent can usually let us pitch tents in their compound. We arrive at a house with an ambulance parked nearby. It's actually a government EMS base but the man in charge even invites us to sleep inside!

Makhtar and Muslim, ambulance crew

School holidays are slowly ending, bringing its share of traffic jam and picnickers. Indeed, Iranians go crazy when it comes to spread a large carpet on the ground, set up a gas stove with some food and drink tea.

Even when surrounded by garbage, picnicking is extremely popular

After a nice downhill ride through the Golestan national park, we arrive in Gonbad-e Kavus.

Heavy traffic in the Golestan national park

Ahmad and his uncle invited us in their restaurant close to Gonbad-e Kavus

Shafi, the brother of a guide that we met in Mashhad welcomes us in what used to be the family house. Some years ago, the two brothers have toured in Iran before even riding to Paris!

Shafi still with his customized touring bicycle

Shafi at the Gonbad-e Kavus tower

We spend an interesting evening, talking about our respective bike tours and showing pictures. After dinner, Shafi even performs two Azeri songs for us, one on his cithara and the other with his tambourine (you can listen to the latter one in this MP3). We are both very impressed as Shafi, dressed just in a T-shirt and a boxer short, almost seems to be in some kind of trance while singing.

On the following day, we cross the Turkmen populated area of Iran to Bandar-e Torkaman. As we are looking for an accommodation, a pickup truck pulls over and the driver comes out. Khalil is a local hawker that sells shoes. He leads us to the municipal park where we pitch our tents next to a tourist family from Esfahan who will also spend the night here.

Khalil and his neighbors

The next morning, the rain is pouring down and Khalil stops by to check on us and invite us for breakfast. We spend half a day in the city with him, going to the sea and being introduced to a long series of his friends as we walk. Before taking farewell, we are invited at a mullah's place (also friend with Khalil) where we share an instructive lunch talking about Sunni Islam.

On our way out of Bahshahr, we experience the climax of Iranian generosity. We are pulled over by two persons on a motorbike. They don't speak a word of English but apparently, they are journalists. At the end of a small written interview, the man is so enthusiastic about our trip that he wants to offer us a Quran in Farsi and his football trainer jacket. We politely refuse his gifts, arguing that we don't have enough space in our luggage and that neither of us wears an XL size jacket. Relentlessly, he then calls his sister on the phone so that she can ask us in English to accept at least his jacket.

An English speaker is requested on the phone

Our friend then calls an other English speaker to repeat the whole procedure. Finally, we start riding again. As the girl is taking pictures of us from the motorbike, the guy slows down. In the blink of an eye, he throws his jacket on my rear bag before accelerating again and disappearing!

The extremely high humidity by the Caspian Sea turns it into a gigantic sauna. As soon as we pedal a little bit, we are covered with sweat in a matter of minutes. We arrive soaked in Babolsar, a popular sea side resort.

Women are authorized to swim, albeit wearing tchadors

Typical seashore atmosphere

After resting for a day, we hit the road for the crossing of the Alborz range that separates us from Tehran.

First night in a chaikhane in the climb

On the second day, there are so many cars that we have to wait for a few minutes before crossing the road to a restaurant. The good side is that traffic jams and the absence of trucks (they drive through an other route) make it relatively safe for us to ride.

People driving home from holiday

After one last day of climbing, we finally reach a tunnel, which marks the end of the ascent.

Riding downhill in a 3 km tunnel

On the other side of the tunnel, we are lucky to find a Red Crescent compound. We ask for a space to pitch our tents and find ourselves in an apartment just for us!

Sharing dinner with the staff

The road traffic gets much worse as we get close to Tehran. It takes us almost two hours just to cross this huge urban sprawl from North-East to North-West. In the evening, we meet with Kami who hosts us for several days in the capital.

Crazy traffic in Tehran

It's now time for a break! We're hopping on a bus to the cities of Isfahan and Yazd in Southern Iran.

Chilling in the Darband neighbourhood with Kami, Tehran

Our bicycles are safely stored at Kami's place

Imam square, Isfahan

Iranian couple on Imam square, Isfahan

Covered bazar on a Friday afternoon, Isfahan

Restaurant in a former hamam, Isfahan

Welcome to Yazd, the City of Winds with its numerous bagdirs (wind towers)

Bogheh-ye Sayyed Roknaddin, Yazd

Jameh mosque, Yazd

Dolat Abad garden, Yazd

Sunset at the Towers of Silence, a Zoroastrian cemetery, Yazd

Old town, Yazd

Primary school, Yazd

After a week of rest, we are back on the road. We will now set sail to the north-western part of Iran where Iranian, Armenian, Azeri and Turkish cultures meet.