We were moving earlier than planned this morning – it seems that I’m now programmed to wake up at 0500 and despite the fact that I didn’t need to this morning I still did. I dozed through till 0615, then…
Down to Tabriz (stage 97)
Something of a sleep in this morning with breakfast at 0700 at which point it was a rather crisp 3ºC, so while I’m happy that the afternoons have become somewhat cooler I’m not impressed with the mornings being so chilly…
The endless valley (stage 96)
Never mind death by a thousand paper-cuts, the middle of today felt like death by an endless 1% climb – in the end we spent 95km climbing gradually through the same valley which was starting to send me slightly crazy…
Retail therapy before a ride (stage 95)
Unlike us, Iranians don’t rise early! I decided that I was going to stay in town this morning until I could change money and make my purchase before setting off to ride today’s stage. Fari has located a money exchange…
Round in circles (stage 94)
It did indeed get pretty chilly overnight – it was 8ºC when I set off this morning just before sunrise – a sign of things to come I suspect. Out on the road and it was still a bit gloomy…
A ho-hum kinda day (stage 93)
We got off to an earlier start than I thought necessary with a hotel breakfast at 0630 and in theory a bus departure at 0700. We finally left at 0745 which made getting up at 0600 seem even more pointless!…
Tehran here we come (stage 92)
It got pretty cool in the night beside the river – so much so that I actually had to get in my sleeping bag for the first time since the Pamir Highway! Having not put my tent up the morning routine…
And back again (stage 91)
We’ve spent the last four days criss-crossing back and forth over the range of hills which separates the inland valleys from the Caspian Sea and today was no exception, though by the end of the day we’ve come far enough…
Up, up and up some more (stage 90)
The rain and thunder continued off and on through the night, but so did the wind which meant that at packing up time things were actually pretty dry which makes the whole process much easier. From camp we had to backtrack…
Windy as **** (stage 89)
Today we’ve had every sort of wind imaginable; head, tail, howling, gusty, side, gusty-side, and far too much gusty-howling-head! It blew pretty much all through the night and although there was lots of thunder and lightening only a sprinkle of…