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Published: July 21st 2006
Hamedan & Mt Alvand
The view from outside our guesthouse in the main square.Hamedan is a pleasant, green city with fantastic views up to the Zagros Mountains, with Alvand peak dominating the skyline. The Farsisch Guesthouse was really welcoming and the 2 crazy old men who run it made us feel very at home, giving us washing powder for our laundry and helping to tie a rope on the roof to dry it, even if they were mumbling stuff about “Hitler, good” and “Britain, hmmm Bobby Sands ha-ha-ha”.
It was Friday and so it seemed everyone in Iran had gone for a picnic. We met Majid in the guesthouse, he is a student in Tehran but was working doing civil engineering and surveying for a new railway that is going to be built pretty much along the line that we had taken as a muddy short cut in the storm a few days before. Majid was very impressed that we had come on that route since he knew first hand how bad the track is.
Majid came along with us to look around Hamedan. After seeing the monument to Abu Ali Sina (a.k.a. Avicenna), a famous philosopher and physician, we decided to go up the hill to Ganjname so see some important cuneiform
Cycling through the Zagros
The peak behind Erika is Mount Oshturan, the highest point of the Zagros chain. rock inscriptions.
Ganjname was a bit of a shock; hundreds of people were there and the walkways and gardens around the stream and waterfall were lined with stalls selling sticky sweets and fruit compotes. Although it was busy it was a very peaceful place, and nice and cool as it was up the mountain. The rock carvings were very impressive too. This was the first cuneiform that we had seen and the letters carved in a large bluff of granite looked as if they could have been done yesterday. Proudly Majid explained a bit about the empire and the king that had ordered the carvings. I was most touched by the fact that the ancient Persian Kings were Zoroastrian and had proudly announced this fact to the world in their carvings. The inscription praised Ahura Mazda who created, amongst many other things on earth, happiness! We had a nice cup of tea by the river and then finally after sitting in traffic for about 1 hour managed to get back to the hotel.
We had planned to stay only one night in Hamedan but our bodies were completely weary after the long cycle and we decided to stay the
The summit of Mt Alvand
From the top of a different mountain that we climbed by mistake....... next night as well. The next day though we took a taxi back up to Ganjname and set off up the trail to try to climb Alvand. We had stocked up with lovely veggie samosas in the market that morning and were really happy to find them as it served as a reminder that we really are getting closer to India.
The path up Alvand was steep but quite easy to follow and we got great views of Hamedan and the surrounding plain. There were also lovely flowers up there and once we got quite high up we came across a nomad shepherd camps. We could also see a fantastic road curving over these hills to the south. We were really tempted to try to cycle it, and I think that without baggage it would be a fantastic ride; however we decided to take the main road the next day because of time pressure. We found snow fields up Alvand and were really happy and relaxed to be up the mountains again and all by ourselves. Unfortunately though, having no map, we took a wrong turning on the paths and did not manage to climb Alvand. We could not read
Coolest Man in Iran?
His name is Darvish - probably some kind of Sufi except sufism isnt really tolerated in Iran. He liked my dreads a lot! the Farsi signs and we headed over to a different mountain peak. There we spent quite a bit of time struggling and failing to climb some sheer rocky outcrops to reach what we thought was the summit. We gave up realizing you needed ropes to climb that bit. I also was not at all happy; when we left Britain I had been doing a fair bit of climbing and scrambling and getting my confidence up around heights, I have been on the bike for too long now and my old fears resurfaced. Still a cup of tea and some cake sorted us out and we happily trotted back down hill. We saw Majid and his friends again that night and he invited us to go the Alborz Mountains with him if we had time to visit Tehran.
We set off from Hamedan a day later then planned, knowing we had 5 days to do over 500 km to get to Esfahan with plenty of time to try for our visa extension, and if that failed with enough time to leave the country. The road was mostly flat and we sped along at times - we even had a helpful
tail wind (only the second time this has happened in the whole trip so far!). The road was going to the east around the line of mountains we had been up the day before, and was confusingly called the “Persian Gulf Highway” despite being nowhere near the Gulf at all.
We reached Malayer at 1 pm after cycling 55 miles, we had hoped to be here or just beyond here by the end of the day. We were really happy to have made such good progress but on our way into the town a car had stopped quite a few times trying to get us to stop. This happens a lot along the road and it depends on how we feel as to whether we stop and say hello or not. This time however we were getting tired and hungry and wanted to make it into town to find some food for lunch and a proper rest stop. The car however turned out to be some plain clothed police who were not at all happy that we had not stopped. The policemen eventually got a unformed policeman with them and then we realised that we should stop. They wanted
Inscriptions at Ganjname
Cuneiform Script in 3 languages. to see our passports, but I do not really know why and I would certainly not have given them to the men without the uniformed policeman there. We have had many warning stories about fake policeman and non-uniformed police men are not supposed to approach tourists. A crowd had formed now around us, our bikes and the policemen and every one was trying to be “helpful”. It was a bit annoying to see a crowd of guys all trying to look at our passports too, and the policemen were clearly annoyed that we had not stopped further down the road. Anyway now the policemen were intent on helping us and demanded to know where we were going, they did not like the fact that we had not made up our minds about which road to take. We had been planning to have a quiet lunch and decide this for ourselves; anyway we gave them and a place name and cycled on. The police were soon after us shouting that we were going the wrong way, we said that we were going to find lunch first at which point they demanded we follow them to a restaurant. We decided to ignore
Ganjname
Waterfall and crowds of people on Friday night. them, they were annoying us and although they were only trying to be helpful they are really only used to giving people orders and they were not exactly welcoming. Eventually we found a shop and bought some cheese and cucumbers with the annoyed policemen hovering in the background. We found a shady spot under some trees and heartily ate sandwiches. The police turned up yet again during our lunch and this time noted down out passport details.
The road after lunch was hard going; the heat of the day had set in and it was also rising slightly all the time. The landscape was open rolling hills with scattered orchards and gardens, and we passed a big family group of nomads - the men were head leading the sheep and goats while the brightly dressed women walked beside heavily laden donkeys carrying tent bundles and all their goods. We stopped at 3 pm in a small sleepy village to buy a cold cola and some dough (salty yoghurt drink). It was lovely to take a rest from the heat and the drinks were very cheap. I resolved to stop more often for sugary or salty drink if we were
Majid
Our good friend and guide in Hamedan. finding it hard and hot. We thought we would see if we could make it to Borudjerd, in Loristan province. On the way there the road was climbing all the time towards another line of mountains just visible in the hazy distance. A car kept stopping along side us. Eventually we stopped too to be greeted very happily by 3 young guys from Ahvaz, in Kuzestan, near Iraq, They had been filming us cycling and gave us crisps and cakes. They also offered us money. This is just one example of the immense generosity of the Iranian people.
A lovely river valley flowed down to the east into Borudjerd and perhaps we should have found somewhere to camp there in the trees beside the river, however it was heavily farmed and there were lots of people about so we pushed on. Borudjerd was bigger than we expected though and it took us ages to get around the city on the bypass. At one point a bus driver decided to open his door and have a conversation with us whilst he was driving, never mind about his passengers or the fact that he was almost pushing us off the road
Not Mt Alvand
The summit of the peak behid, which Erika led us up by mistake. not that we really reached the top - that rock pinnacle is a proper rock climb.... with his enormous bendy bus. Still, Iranian hospitality and friendliness never fails to put a smile on our faces, even though I was really getting tired now we had to cycle on around the town to find somewhere beyond to camp.
On the way out of town we passed a record breaking 100 miles on our odometer. Unfortunately the countryside beyond the town was open and farmed or had industrial complexes lining the road. As it was getting dark we found a track and hoped that we would find a good area near the river to camp. We were spotted by some local youths and farmers and they were desperate in trying to tell us to camp beside their village as the fields were dangerous because of wolves. We had to laugh at them - there really were no wolves there and we opted to camp next to some ruined farm buildings. We were exhausted after our longest ever day of 106.5 miles (about 170 km) and did not want to camp in the village and have to deal with curious people. We eventually convinced them we would be safe and would yell loudly towards the village if we
Wolf Protection
Our Lor friends who were so concerned we would be eaten by wolves they came to protect us with their "Kalash" had any problems. One of the farmers asked if we had a gun, Robin tried to give a vague answer, slightly unsure why they were asking this.
We had just finished eating and Robin had just taken off his clothes to wash in the dark when we heard some voices approaching. It was the young guy from before and his mates, they had brought with them a Persian/English phrasebook, some food and two Kalashnikovs! Robin had joked before that he thought if he had admitted we had no gun that it would be typical Iranian hospitality to come back and offer us guns to fend off the wolves!. We had a nice time chatting to the boys who managed to get a fire going, they were a bit overexcited though and I had enough when one of them showed off and fired a shot off right beside us. The noise was awful and I really did not want a group of excited young boys playing with guns in my camp. Robin explained that I was really very tired and that as a girl did not like guns. The boys were really worried that they had upset me and hastily
Lorestan
Earthquake damaged village and Red Crescent tents. stocked up the fire so it would burn all night and keep the wolves away, then they left.
In the morning we saw them again in the village and noticed that most of the houses were damaged and some had fallen down completely. The people were living in Iranian Red Crescent tents, because of the massive earthquake that had hit Lorestan earlier this year. We had presumed the ruin we had camped beside was old, but now realised otherwise…. There rest of the morning was a slow ride along a flat, wide valley between huge snow capped mountains. Everywhere were signs of Earthquake damage in the villages; most buildings were still standing but the surrounding high walls that enclose Persian homes were often just lines of rubble. The people were either still afraid of aftershocks or didn’t trust their damaged homes enough, as they were mostly sleeping in tents next to their houses. We found a lone tree to have lunch under near the road and fell asleep after eating. The day was very hot and we had a hill to climb. Luckily there was a rest stop at the top and they gave us ice-cold water. We cycled
on through the hills to see on our left the impressive snowy massif of Oshturan, the highest mountain in the Zagros at just over 4000 metres.
After some more ups and downs we arrived in Azna to a very warm, but somewhat crazy reception. The crowd of curious people just kept getting bigger and bigger and more excited, completely surrounding us as we tried to buy supplies. Fortunately we were rescued by an invite and were treated to tea in a carpet shop and informed proudly that the people here are Lors. Many Lors are still nomadic, and they speak their own language, Lori, or Avesta, a dialect of ancient Persian. Along with the Kurds to the north they are descendants of the oldest inhabitants of this region, and the nomads still live a traditional life that has not changed much for millennia.
Not surprisingly we were asked what we thought of Iranian carpets, and were also quizzed about our preconceived ideas on Iran - nearly every Iranian we meet asks us “what was your impression of Iran/what did you know about Iran before coming here?” Iranians are not stupid and know what the western media says about
All Powerful
And he controls the sun and the moon...... their country. One guy asked if we had “seen anybody being oppressed?” “When we listen to the radio”, he explained, “we hear that the revolutionary guard beats people and oppresses people in the street - have you seen this?” We had to admit that we had not. “You mean foreign radio stations?” I asked, somewhat confused. “Yes”’ he replies, “especially the BBC World Service, why are they always telling lies about Iran?”
He wanted to emphasise that people have good lives here and that human rights are OK in Iran. We could not really disagree with him as we have seen no evidence of anything otherwise, but we are only tourists here and mostly cycling through the countryside. However it is true that most people in Iran have quite a high standard of living and that the country is much more developed than it neighbours.
We camped behind some industrial complexes near Aligudarz and the next day was a hard one, full of many ups and downs and through remote countryside with hardly any villages. At lunch we found an idyllic spot under some big trees beside an old bridge and rushing river. We enjoyed another snooze after our
lunch and set off up the hill again, only for me to have a noisy and violent puncture near the top of the hill. After a few more drops and climbs the road flattened out and lines of hills towered around us on both sides of a big, wide valley. Eventually we reached Daran, nestled under a huge outcrop of sheer rock that was glowing red with the setting sun.
We really wanted to find a quick camp after town but the usual procession of accompanying motorbikes pushed us on. Although beautiful, sheer rocky mountains framed the valley they were far off to either side and masses of intensively farmed fields with sprinkler systems surrounded the road, there was no place to camp. We pushed on, inspired by the rosy light of the sunset on the majestic rocky mountains, and eventually spotted a mosque and headed towards it. It was well away from the road but appeared to be a shrine as it was locked up and not a working mosque. We camped nearby under some trees, too tired to find anywhere better. We were visible from the shrine’s car park and the access road but nobody spotted us,
despite the fact that one car pulled right up to the shrine and another stopped for a picnic or illicit drinking session in the car park. Our tent is a dome shape and looks very similar to the local tents that farmers put up in the day to have some shade at lunch time so perhaps no one saw us as unusual.
A long hill greeted us the following morning and we got some water from a Red Crescent station beside the road. Each day had been getting progressively hotter as we pushed further south and east, and today was very hot indeed. We were amazed to see a group of men with beards and military fatigues, presumably army, jogging along the highway in the opposite direction carrying flags and banners next to a support vehicle. We wondered if they were running all the way across Iran, though Robin was not so amused by my “I ran Iran” joke…..
The road seemed to go on forever, between rows of hills that got progressively lower as the country faded from green to brown and dropped into a long downhill towards Esfahan. After lunch by some trees we set off
Farewell
To the mountains and the sun. for the city. At Najaf Abad we picked up a police escort which was a bit unnecessary but quite amusing. The police however did not manage to stop a stone being thrown and hitting me on the shoulder; in fact I think that the police presence may have encouraged this. The police were trying to dissuade the many motorbikes riding along from giving us too much hassle. At one time however when three motorbikes were going a bit too slowly in front of us they hailed them from their loudspeaker to get out of our way and then when the bikers did not respond they charged them with their Mercedes car and only just braked before ramming into the back off them. From that point on we desperately tried to get people not to talk to us telling them “don’t talk to us the police may try to kill you!” The police drove with us for about 40 km with different cars taking over every couple of km’s. At one point they had asked us to stop at the next roundabout and it was really funny to see the policemen panic when Robin sped on past the roundabout. Quickly policemen
Towards the Desert
As we drop out of the Zagros towards Esfahan the green fades to brown and the temperature rises.... scrambled and jumped onto a motorbike and Paykan car. Robin next knew that there was a motorbike annoyingly close to him; he looked across to see a Kalashnikov pointed across the passengers lap. He realised they were friendly policemen but it was still unnerving as they were riding alongside trying to have a chat all the time, and Robin was just hoping that the safety catch was on and that the bike did not go over too many bumps in the road.
We found the centre of Esfahan and were instantly stuck by how green, shady and peaceful it was. The main street even had a cycle lane running down the centre, conveniently under the shady trees. We checked into the Amir Kabir Hotel having been told it is the place to meet other travellers and get info from guest books. We were hoping to find out about the visa extension process. We were disappointed by the place; it was expensive by Iranian standards at $10 for a double room with shared bathrooms. Also there was no guest book at all.
The next day we cycled early to the police station nervous about getting our extension, but there the very nice policeman just wanted to learn more English idioms from us. He sent us away with instructions about how to pay for the extensions and the forms to fill in; we were to come back in 2 days. We got our visa with a minimum of fuss on Saturday. We had asked for a month but they stamped our passports until the 6 July, which was in fact a 33 day extension. It cost us 100 000 rials each (about$11) - a bargain after what the first visa had cost us. The police also said that we could get another month’s extension if we needed it. We resolved to try to stay in Iran for as long as possible since this was the way to make the extortionate 100 pounds sterling we had spent to get the first visa more worth while. Now for the first time since entering the country we could properly relax and not have to worry about trying to cycle a monster distance each day. Instead we could kick back and enjoy Esfahan, one of the most beautiful cities in the world.
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Dear Robin and Erica I hope you well.You are very brave.did you travel all the world.Dont forget me