Steve's Cycling Blog

Another good night’s sleep, followed by another mediocre hotel breakfast – though I did discover that you can ask for fried eggs which improved things slightly.

The first group of people to submit their Iranian visa applications then headed off to get their passports back. Those of us who applied yesterday were bid stay round the hotel pending further information on when we needed to go back so I took the opportunity to take care of a few other work tasks which needed my attention.

Shortly ahead of 1000 I got a call to say that the Iranian Embassy was ready for us and that we needed to head back over there. For me it was simply a matter of walking in, being identified from my passport and that was it. For American, Canadian and British passport holders they had to fill in an additional card and have their fingerprints taken as well.

My visa for the Islamic Republic of Iran

Back at the hotel and Michael’s still missing somewhere in the city – in theory Will’s going to be able to collect his passport because he doesn’t need his fingerprints taking, but only time will tell on that front!

Later: Seems that Will was successful as by the time I next saw Michael he had his passport complete with visa!

Michael and I headed out for some lunch at a cafe up the road which Rob had found which turned out to be the best meal, in the nicest location, that we’d found in Ashgabat.

From there I wandered back into the market to pick up my GCC white shirt and also some light-weight cotton trousers which I can pull on over my cycling shorts when I stop in towns – apparently we’ll be able to get away with lyrca out in the countryside when we’re cycling, but as soon as we stop anywhere we might be seen we need to ‘cover up’ – sadly the ones I found were dark blue, and not quite as lose-fitting as I would have liked but the largest size they had was medium. That said, they were only $6USD so I don’t expect they’ll last very long, and that I’ll also find alternatives more easily in Iran.

Back to the hotel for a couple of beers and a chat and to discover that the board for the week is up confirming what we’d been hearing, that tomorrow’s all being done by bus. The remainder of the week also looks reasonable with one short day, and one long day, but a bonus hotel (of some sort) in the middle to break things up – presumably so that we can be ‘registered’ into Iran.

Let’s hope the roads make the journey as smooth as a magic carpet

Michael, Ron and I headed back to the cafe we’d had lunch in for dinner, which was as good as the lunch had been.

Bags are now packed and alarms set for 0530 – after the last couple of days of waking up when the sun shines through the curtains at around 0730 that’s going to feel damn early!