369 km
11-24/11/2016
Yazd – Farashah
In
the morning, when we left Yazd, something was wrong. We felt tired and
unmotivated. We noticed, that it’s slightly uphill, but there must have been
something more. Therefore, we’d stopped after 37 km in Farashah, where a nice
family brought us to their weekend house, and left us there. We could use it as
we wanted!
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| Farashah |
We
had started quite late and we suffered with the uphill. After 25 km we stopped
in a gloomy little village. Women in chador were sitting on the ground, in the
dust, meanwhile we were eating the best pomegranate ever, from Farashah:
perfectly red and sweet. After in total of 70 km, we’d reached the mountain
pass at 2625 m, then the downhill started. At around 5 pm we were still rolling
down, but it was cold and the sun was going down, thus, we stopped in a small
village, where we got hosted in a cold (about 5-10°C) mosque.
? – Abarkuh
We
were riding all day long through the flat, rocky desert. In the afternoon, with
the help of the police, we arrived at a traditional guesthouse in the old town
of Abarkuh. They didn’t have any guests, and we could discuss with them to give
us a free room for a night.
We
had searched a pharmacy for intestinal antiseptic and shaving foam, but the
manager gave us all for free. “Foreigners get everything for free here, because
I’m happy for their visits in Iran!” Seriously, she didn’t take the money.
Unbelievable! We’d decided to stay one more night, then the manager of the
pharmacy paid our second night at the guesthouse. Whaaaat?
The guest house
 |
| The pharmacy |
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| Ice storage in the desert |
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| Traditional air conditioning towers |
Abarkuh – Surmaq
The
distance had been relatively short, and when we knocked on a door, the family
let us stay for the night. It turned out, that they were an Afghan family, who
have lived in Iran since the millennium. They were super nice to us, they were
the most meritorious people you can imagine. Their 3 sons and 2 daughters were
very polite. It was our pleasure to get to know them.
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| Macaroni! |
Surmaq – Safashar
After
some kilometers, Linh started to feel weak, so I got us on a bus, and we made
the daily distance in one hour. In Safashar, I asked a man, if he knew some
good English speakers around, and he invited us to his home. Iman and Reza, the
two brothers (30, 34) don’t want to get married but they like to have fun! We
went to a river bank with some friends to drink tea, smoke shisha, chat and sit
around the fire. It was fun!
Safashar – Saadatshar
The
landscape was diverse on that day: some kilometers of uphill, lots of downhill,
headwind and a tunnel. There, a truck driver had stopped and showed us to go
ahead, he will keep the traffic up, so we can cross the tunnel safely. Nice of
him!
In Saadatshar a retired teacher invited us to
his home for the night, and they were alright.
Saadatshar – Marvdasht
We pedalled to the
ruins of Persepolis, which is a Persian city, which was built 2500 years ago.
The entrance fee for the locals is 30.000 Rials (0,75 €), for foreigners the
discriminative price was 200.000 Rials. Our host for that night was an engineer
and his family. He spoke good English and he was very caring, we had a nice
talk in the evening.
Marvdasht – Shiraz
In Shiraz, we spent
the first two nights at Mohamed, in his cozy apartment. During the day we did what
Iranian like to do at weekends and on holidays: we visited the weekend house
with “garden”, with a dozens of family members and friends, and we had a nice
meal and fun together.
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| Inside the "King of the light" mosque |
We spent the next
three nights at Amin’s, who lived in a similarly cool flat as well. He helped
us to exchange money and get boxes for the bikes, so I could pack them properly
for the flight.
At the airport of
Shiraz we met the terminal manager, and it turned out that he is a Couchsurfing
and Warmshowers member as well as a bicycle tourer! He followed us through the
check-in and the security check to make sure, that everything goes fine. And of
course, he invited us for tea! Iran is like this! Exactly like this case at the
airport! We will really miss this country, and the helpful, selfless,
hospitable Iranian people! From the first day we enjoyed their kindness, and
when our days were hard, we were down, someone always came to help us out and
make our day unbelievable. Thank you, Iranian people, we will spread the news,
how good you were to us!
Péter
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