Another chilly night full of disruptions – it seems the park is the place to go after dark so we had a constant stream of people walking and driving past our tents along with a visit from the police at just before midnight (they were concerned that someone would steal the camp kitchen which was set up on the side of the road – very kind of them, but as Andreas pointed out after they’d woken him up by kicking is feet and shining a torch in his face “that’s why I’m sleeping here”).
We were treated to scrambled eggs this morning which is always a good start to any day and once again I didn’t waste any time getting on the road as I needed to warm up again. Today’s route is pretty simple, through town to the main road, turn right, ride 120km, arrive at a hotel (bonus!)
Stage 85 route notes
As we were leaving town we passed a rather large mosque which looked pretty impressive in the morning sunshine, sadly the photo didn’t quite do it justice.
Quchan mosque
At just over 30km we passed through Faruj, which seems to be the home of shops selling nuts and dried fruit – there must have been 30 shops all in a row selling exactly the same thing, I have no idea how any of them make any money, but presumably they do
The fruit and nut vendors of Faruj
Not a bad morning’s work, particularly as it’s only 0830
The highway was smooth, had a good shoulder, and was tending ever so slightly down coupled with either no wind or occasionally a gentle tail wind meant that even on my own (by choice) I was able to maintain good speeds and at lunch was averaging 34 km/h including the 70km since I’d stopped to take the mosque photo non-stop.
I took a decent break for lunch during which time a number of others came in including Grant who subsequently left before I did – he seemed to be on a real mission today, and I didn’t catch him in the afternoon š
From lunch we continued descending for the next 35km before we began to climb again more sharply than we’d been descending. With only 4km to go I regretted spending that extra 10 minutes at lunch as the head wind was back and determined to slow me down.
In the end I averaged 32 km/h for the entire 125km and was into the hotel by 1100 – I’m not sure why we’re in an hotel, but nobody’s complaining and it’s nice to have been able to shower and get some of the best WiFi we’ve had in a long time (hence the mid-week blog posts).
After getting a couple of posts done I’ve been for a wander round town which turns out to be mostly closed. It seems that shops and businesses tend to operate from about 0900 to about 1300, and then again from about 1700 to 2000 or 2100 – given how hot it is in the middle of the day that kind of makes sense.
I thought it was odd that we were camping in the municipal park last night, but as we passed through the town of Shirvan, and in wandering here in Bojnord, it seems that this is ‘the done thing’ – there we lots of tents and carpets with blanket-wrapped peopleĀ who had joined us last night, and they were definitely still there in Shirvan this morning when I passed.
Tree-shaded Bojnord park where people are picnicing and camping
I’ve been really surprised by the amount of English which is spoken in Iran. Yesterday as we hung out in the mark numerous people stopped by and spoke with us in excellent English. Even wandering round town this afternoon I’ve had several people say hello, and then engage in conversation (the usual, where are you from, what are you doing in Iran, how long are you here for, what do you think of Iran etc).
Grant and Fari have been to the IranianCell store and have purchasedĀ a SIM card on my behalf, including 5 Gb of data, so I’m hopeful that I’ll be able to get posts uploaded most evenings, even when we’re camping over the remainder of the time we’re here!
As we’re staying in a hotel this evening it also means that we’re dining at a restaurant – I really enjoy these meals because they are a set menu which is organised by our local support person – in this case Fari – so we get to try several different local dishes without having to try and work out what’s-what on a menu!
Riding data
View from my tent
The (irrigated) park below and the (naturally brown) hills beyond
