Steve's Cycling Blog

With the air-conditioning cranking all night keeping the temperature and humidity in our room under control I had one of the bests night’s sleep I’ve had in a long time which was welcome after the last few nights where I’ve not been sleeping as well as I’d like.

Unfortunately the hotel breakfast wasn’t of the same calibre with an even less inspiring selection than in Ashgabat and the closest thing they have to coffee are sachets which contain powered coffee, powdered milk and artificial sweetener which apparently you add water to for a delicious cup of creamy coffee – what you end up with was just plain nasty!

A group of us (Roger, Rob, Ron, Michael, Bruno and I) headed out to walk into town and check out the only attraction on offer the UNESCO World Heritage Gonbad-e Qabus Tower.

The tower was built in 1006 AD on the orders of the ZiyaridAmir Shams ol-Ma’āli Qabus ibn Wushmgir (شمس المعالي قابوس بن وشمگير) [and] the baked-brick-built tower is an enormous decagon building with a conic roof, which forms the golden ratio Phi

Wikipedia

Even at around 0900 it was a a pretty hot and humid 4km walk but it was well worth the effort, it’s a pretty impressive structure particularly when you consider that it’s over 1000 years old.

The other amazing thing inside is the reverb which lasts for several seconds – there’s not much (nothing really) to see in this video clip, but hopefully you get the idea of the sound in there.

As we were making our way back through town we spotted this store, and simply had to go in

For what worked out to be less than $1USD I had three very tasty cakes and a can of mango juice, all in air-conditioned comfort – I have no idea how they make any money!

Back down through the town to the hotel, stopping along the way for a soft-serve ice-cream and to chat with the various locals who stopped us to talk to us – again I’m amazed by the quantity and quality of the English which is spoken even in a pretty rural town which (despite the UNESCO site) gets very few tourists.

I had a few work jobs and some administrivia to take care of before a late lunch and a stop at the supermarket – which is very new, and very flash, and very empty (of people) so again I have no idea how they will ever survive, but at least it was good for us to stock up.

Since then I’ve been working on blog posts, and a bit more work to keep things ticking over and tryi to get a few more ££ into the company bank account which is looking pretty empty right now!

This coming week is going to be a bit tougher than the last as we head through a fairly decent set of hills and on into Tehran.

Plans for the riding week ahead

The significant advantage of tomorrow is that we move away from the Caspian Sea and back into higher altitudes which will mean slightly lower temperatures but more importantly a drop in humidity which has been what’s made the last couple of days less comfortable.

We also get a bonus hotel night in the middle of this week – it’s amazing how much difference being able to have a shower and some air-conditioning makes to how comfortable a week is.

As you can see we get ‘transported’ (truck for the bikes, bus for us) into Tehran – the combination of population density, motorways and completely manic traffic mean that TDA have deemed it unsafe for us to ride in.

It’s a bit of a shame for the people leaving from Tehran, particularly Will and Charlie who have been with us since Beijing, that their final day will end in a bus. I hope they won’t do that as we head into Istanbul, that would be a real let-down! I don’t think they will as the hotel that we’re ending at is on the Asian side of the city – there’s no way to cross the Bosphorus by bike or on foot – and a reasonable distance from the busiest areas of the Asian CBD as well so fingers crossed we’ll be able to ride.

Right – time to go and get my bags sorted for tomorrow, then think about sone dinner and getting an early night for another fantastic night’s sleep before an 0500 alarm in the morning.