Yip – it was damn early at 0530! And the ‘hurry up and wait’ began almost straight away with us all having our bags down by 0550 but then no rider’s meeting at 0600 and no bus ready at 0700. It was already going to be a long day, and it didn’t get off to a good start!
There was amusement at breakfast though as three Russian guys came in and ordered beer at 0620 to accompany their breakfast – we decided they must also be going to Iran and were trying to get in one last beer before they went.
I’ve also said this is ‘kind of’ stage 83 because in my view if we’re not riding, it’s not really a stage – I’ve removed the other stages where we’ve been bussed from from the total distance was well (otherwise we’d never get there) which means that we’ll only be riding (a planned) 13,180km – though more of that will come off, as apparently we’re not allowed to ride into Tehran and will be bussed some of that distance on the way in and out.
It took a while to get out of Ashgabat through relatively heavy traffic, plus a stop to fuel the TDA vans – it seems buying fuel for foreign vehicles in Iran is something of a circus so the less they have to do that the better.
On to the border point and our first transfer of vehicle for the day, into an ancient old school-bus style bus to get us from the compound entrance to the customs and immigration building.
Piled in the bus with our bags for the trip.
Some form filling, passport checking, standing round waiting, receiving a military escort in order to go to the loo, more waiting, bags x-rayed, more waiting, a stamp in my passport, some waiting, another ancient bus transfer, another passport check, and we’d left Turkmenistan. Tick that one off, no need to come back here.
A short walk and we were at the first checkpoint for Iran where there were even more soldiers, though these ones were super friendly as they collected our passports and then got even more friendly when they offered us individually wrapped cakes and cans of very nice peach juice – the legendary Iranian hospitality and we haven’t even entered the country yet!
This border crossing isn’t usually very busy, and is half way through being rebuilt, however with the main crossing point near Ashgabat closed it’s currently complete chaos with hundreds of trucks and people trying to cross back and forth in the middle of what is essentially a construction site.
We spent some time sitting round outside a portacom building which is currently serving as the passport control trying to stay out of the sun as much as possible. During this time our Iranian ‘fixer’ Fari arrived – he seems like a jolly nice chap and completely unflappable, which is probably just as well given the chaos!
Some time later we were told to collect our bags and follow Fari who lead us across to one of the completed buildings (the customs administration building it transpired) where we were told to leave out bags in the corridor and were ushered into a very (very) flash boardroom which was thankfully air-conditioned – as it transpired we spent the next five hours in there staying cool and comfortable which made what was already a pretty crap day significantly more tolerable.
More hospitality in the form of mango juice, cakes, Persian tea and chocolates followed before we were left to our waiting. A couple of hours in we headed back out to the passport building to be given our passports back – I took a sneaky photo
Getting our passports back
As we went back to our holding pen we were told ‘only about 15 more minutes’. Two hours later our passports were all collected up again because something else had to happen. A little while later the local governor arrived to have photos taken with us! before we were each given a reflective jacket (which we’re supposed to wear when cycling – on the back it has text about improving road safety, and that the jackets are donated to people who travel through Khorasan province), more photos with the governor and we were loaded onto a less decrepit bus for the final trip through the chaos of trucks and into Iran.
Next we loaded our bags onto a truck and ourselves into a bus for the two-ish hour drive to our campsite for the night, arriving at our campsite behind a mosque just on sunset on a Friday afternoon – you can imagine how busy that might have been!
It’s now just gone 1930 and dinner’s ‘coming as soon as possible’ which will be welcome as though we’ve had lots of cake, some snacks, and some lunch on the last bus of the day, real food hasn’t really featured. I’m also regretting my decision last night to put my fleece in my permanent bag as it’s actually getting pretty chilly here – I’ve also put my fly on my tent as a consequence!
Riding data
No riding today 🙁
View from my tent
Dusk in our valley
