Yazd & Shiraz

Day 103 - 108

My first morning in Yazd is spent applying for a visa extension. Because I only got a visa on arrival I can only get one 10 day extension. I am not terribly impressed but there isn't a lot I can do. I would love to be able to spend more time in Iran but I have no choice. 

After dealing with beurocracy, I catch up with Jeff and Neil and we go to a garden and drink an amazing milkshake. This garden has the worlds largest bagir - tower designed to catch the wind and keep houses cool. 

Vahid's cousin, Moien meets up with us and we grab lunch and then hot the sweet stores. Yazd is famous for its sweets and I am not disappointed.

Moien also takes us to an ice cream shop and I have the best banana smoothie I have ever tasted. It has rose water ice cream and pistachios and I don't know what else. Amazing. 

The afternoon is spent napping before meeting most of Vahid's other siblings in the evening. 

We pack our things in the morning and head to town. I pick up my passport with my measly 10 day extension and then find Neil. He has found a welder that will fix our broken aluminium racks. A few hours of waiting and $6 later my front racks are fixed. They were in poor form, one had broken in two places and was held together with tape and a nail working as a splint. The other was only broken in one spot. My front racks are the only problem I have with my bicycle set up. Next time I will use forks that have rack mounts and get steel racks. 

Due to time restraints the three of us have decided to catch the bus to Shiraz. We get in at about 9.30pm and find our couch surfing hosts. It turns out that the host Neil has arranged lives about 100m from my couch surfing host. 

My host, mamali is rad. He plays in a band and works at an awesome cafe around the corner from his house. I spend a wonderful few days hanging out with him and his room mates, swapping music and stories, eating fruit. 

Jeff and I visit town and do some sightseeing, Vakil mosque is very impressive, flowery tiles line the large domes, very different from the mosques in Esfahan. 

In the evening we visit a nearby village with Neil, his couch surfing host and a bunch of other couch surfers. This village is very relaxed and we manage to get hold of some wine. Not the most delicious wine I have ever tasted but it is pretty cool to drink wine in Shiraz. 

The following day is pretty low key, sitting at the cafe, waiting for emails to load. In the afternoon I visit another mosque and then have ice cream with Jeff. 

Jeff and I are up early the following day to visit persopolis.  It is amazing. It must have been such a rich society to spends so many years, money and labour building such big palaces and statues. The carved rocks are amazingly well preserved. Funnily enough, there is graffiti from explorers in the early 1800's. 

In the evening Neil, Jeff and I have one last dinner together at a very fancy house. 

I wake in the morning and meet some new couch surfers that arrived last night at Mamali's place. It turns out that I met the two travellers in Murghab in Tajikistan. The world is a small place sometimes. 

My last morning in Shiraz is spent at the cafe, one last check of emails and arranging a couch surfing host in Tabriz. I am sad to say goodbye to Jeff and Neil, the three of us going in different directions. I am also sad to leave Mamali, he has been a great host in the most relaxed and laid back Iranian city I have been to. 

11/10 Yazd & Shiraz:  rode 23km, ODO 3245km

16/10 total Shiraz: rode 40km, ODO 3261

Esfahan - Yazd

Day 98 - 102

One last breakfast at Aria's house and the three of us are off. We make our way through the crazy Iranian traffic, unscathed until a taxi clips Neil's trailer. Somehow he manages to jump off his bike and land on his feet. Unfortunately the wheel on the trailer is very loose. A quick stop at the mechanics and we are off again. 

Soon enough we get jack of the traffic and horrible industrial area and consult the map. We decide to take the shorter route which is marked as a dirt road. We have no idea what condition it will be in, good, washboard, sand?

We reach a village and camp out in the open on a concrete platform next to a house a herder is building. 

In the morning the kilometres pass by quickly. We visit some old abandoned mud brick houses after lunch and consider stopping there and having a lazy afternoon but we push on. 

We are treated to a beautiful sunset across the desert that evening. After dinner the wind picks up and blasts us. Each one of us has our head tucked right into our sleeping bags to escape the wind. 

The wind doesn't let up overnight and after a crappy sleep we are treated to a heavy dusting of sand on our breakfast and in our tea. The road we are cycling on is now under construction but the surface is pretty good gravel. 

Unfortunately the wind is not in our favour. We try to settle into a steady rythm but the wind is coming slightly from and the side and is very gusty, trying to blow us off the road. One hour later we have cycled a whopping five kilometres. 

An engineer that is working on the road construction project pulls up next to us. He invites us to his work site five km up the road. An hour later we are inside a donger, being served some tea, out of the wind. Brilliant. 

After the road workers buy us lunch (driven in from a town 50km away!) we while away the afternoon reading and updating our diaries. The wind doesn't let up and the invitation to sleep in the donger is greatfully accepted. We cook dinner for our old Iraqi roommate and settle down. 

The wind has eased a little overnight and we make our way towards Nadushan. Along the way is an old abandoned caravanserai. We wander in and around this building, imaging traders and camels stopping here for a rest, drinking coffee or chai on lounges, watering the animals and having a break from the desert. 

The road is a little sandy but not too bad. A truck stops and hands is a bottle of icy water and a bag of biscuits. Flat desert turns in to stunning rolling hills, great fun to cycle especially now the wind has dropped off. 

In the early afternoon we stop at a village, hoping to find some bread and cheese for lunch. The shop has no bread. Icecream, bikkies and soft drink it is. The owner of the shop brings us some chai to drink while we are sitting on the footpath. Five minutes later we are invited for lunch which is gratefully accepted. The invitation to sleep there is declined and we push on to Nadushan. 

The police show us a park in the village where we can camp. After we have gone to bed (early by Iranian standards, late for cycle tourists) a visitor stops by and gives Neil three plates of food left over from a wedding.  

After chicken and rice for breakfast we hit the road. Most of the days cycling is along a long, straight, flat road. Boring. At least the km go by quickly. 

The three of us arrive at Vahid's house in Yazd in time for a late lunch. Vahid is the engineer that we me the other day and kindly invited us to stay with him and his family (parents and sister). 

The evening is spent with two of Vahid's sisters, his cousin and the man himself. We eat delicious food and see a couple of sights. 

6/10 Esfahan - mystery village: rode 69km, ODO 2950km

7/10 mystery village - somewhere in the desert: rode 104km, ODO 3054km

8/10 somewhere in the desert - dongers in the desert: rode 11km, ODO 3065km

9/10 dongers in the desert - Nadushan: rode 56km, ODO 3122km

10/10 Nadushan - Yazd: rode 99km, ODO 3221km