Day 108 to Gonbad-e-Qabus, Iran, 114km, 8,828 to date, 1497m up,  1160m end. 

An easy day, essentially all down hill.  At the start of the ride, it was cool, dry and in the Golestan national forest.  As we rode it was a steady descent, passing through extensive forests, very similar to Quebec.  The ride ending with us on the flats about 100km from the Caspian Sea - so the humidity must be approaching 100%.  We have a rest day tomorrow to help get used to the humidity.

We camped last night at the headquarters for the Golestan National Forest Service.  The park has an amazing collection of wildlife including various large cats, brown bears, mountain goats and various very large predator birds.  A big part of the Park Rangers job is anti-poaching.

This is one of the park rangers offering us tea just before sunset:

As many of you know, I tend to keep my wardrobe simple - i.e. my normal shirt riding my bike is a long sleeve white cotton dress shirt.  I like cotton shirts because I find them very comfortable, but also relatively cool in the hot sun.  My fashion leadership seems to be catching on:

A couple landscape pics:

This trio is riding from Tehran to Mashhad  - Mashhad is Iran’s holiest city somewhat like Mecca:

Day 107 to Golestan National Park, Iran, 114km, 8,828 to date, 1497m up,  1160m end. 

A good but hard day, essentially the same in distance and climbing as riding the Vancouver - Whistler GranFondo.  I’m very pleased, I definitely seem to be returning to “health”, I’m a bit weak and the stamina needs some work, but all is good - physically and mentally.  The temperature wasn’t bad, probably hitting about 33C in the shade - or maybe I am getting used to it - drinking a couple litres of water, 

Stopped by the police again today, actually I ran the police check - I didn’t know that the waving arm meant I was supposed to stop.  So I was chased down and stopped.  The officer was really good, after I stopped, he formally greeted me with warm handshake.  Yes, he wanted to see my passport (with Iranian Visa) but that was it.  After he took some notes he warmly wished me a good journey and I was on my way.  What I found really interesting was that he took some handwritten notes - his writing was obviously in Iranian (Arabic), writing from right to left - I was very impressed with how quick and easily he wrote and how absolutely beautiful the script was.  It would be really fun to learn the written script, however it would require a bit more discipline and memory skills than I have.  I have managed to get most of the numbers - so I can read the speed limit signs on the highway.

Yesterday, we went to the Iranian Cell store.  It took a bit of time, scanning passport, being fingerprinted, but for the equivalent of $10CDN, I have an Iranian SIM card and 5 gig of data, on a 4G network!  As I write this, we are way out in the weeds, but still connected!

Just as I started riding this morning, I eat past one of the city parks - the park was full of tents.  I gather a common practise is for people on vacation to simply camp almost anywhere including city parks.  Very tidy with no trace by mid-morning.  Can you imagine Centennial square, Bastion Square, Beacon Hill park, Stanley park being full every night with tourist tents.  Why not!

Getting close to my next major highlight of this trip, Tehran:

A picture I forgot to post earlier.  As most of you know, Iran is Muslim and hence no booze.  Our next beer and/or glass of wine will be in Turkey.  For one of the riders, this is going to be a real challenge.  This is Irwin (from Germany) savouring his last beer before we walk the no man’s land between Turkmenistan and Iran.  He had brought the beer to the border just for this enjoyment.

As a strong Muslim country, women must be fully covered.  This has been a challenge for the 3 women we have cycling.  Long pants and covered arms make for quite hot riding.  They are getting better at keeping a headscarf on covering their hair, but taking a lot of effort.  One of the ladies bought a Chador, which roughly translated mean “tent”, she claims it is reasonably comfortable, hers is a patterned white.  I can’t imagine wearing a black one.  Yesterday at lunch when the police checked us, and then were very friendly - introductions etc., it was as if the women weren’t there.  I have trouble balancing this with the generosity and friendliness of essentially all Iranians.

Day 106 to Bojnurd, Iran, 126km, 8,714 to date, 351m up,  1009m end. 

Again a relatively easy day, especially as I now (and finally) appear to be on the mend, thanks to a anti-parasite drug called Tinidazol. A mosque on leaving town:

Iran continues to impress me.  Today at lunch we had several police cars show up.  After some initial checking, they then became very friendly, wanting to know where we were from, how we like Iran etc.,  The head guy with considerable care met each of us.  They stated several times, “…we are here to support you, please call on us if we can help in any way..”.  Not the normal exchange with police in distant lands.

Something I noticed today:  In all the “Stans”, I saw both very small farms/ranching, i.e. one person managing a small land plot and/or a small (3 or 4 animal) herd, and then there were the large “factory” farms.  In Iran, I’m seeing essentially none of the one-person farmers, almost all are larger factory farms. 

One of the towns I rode through today is the centre for dried fruits, spices and nuts - delivered by the truck load.  I bought some cashews and pistachios here:

Day 105 to Quchan Camp, Iran, 52km, 8,588 to date, 763m up,  1248m end. 

A good day, the morning was cool which made for the climbs being relatively easy.  Now into the land of very good pavement.  A short day as yesterday was quite long, a 9:00 pm dinner in the dark.

The road signs are all bi-lingual:

Changed money today, the Iranian currency unit is the Riel, the official rate is 31,500 Riel to 1USD.  The Black Market rate is 35,000, so for my $100US bill I received 3,500,000 Riel - good thing they have 500,000 Riel notes.

We are camped in a city park which is also a travellers camp site and the local picnic spot.  The word seems to be out as we have had a steady stream of locals coming by just to talk to us.  The image painted in the West definitely doesn’t balance with what I am meeting!  Good thing there is no booze in Iran, they were able to party most of the night without the help of booze.  This was at the top of the hill by the camp:

Day 104:  Because the border we were going to use to enter Iran is closed we were trucked some 100m back east to another crossing then again trucked another 150km to the intended “mosque Camp” in Iran.  So no riding today, which was a good thing for me - I think the new drugs I am taking are (slowly) having the hoped for effect - I’m getting tired of the continuous “toilet humour”.

The morning of our leaving Turkmenistan, the “Leader for Life” (previously a Dentist), announced a new law - all new cars coming into the country must be white - I guess this is an environmental initiative (easier to air-condition).

Not any pics from around  Ashgabat as the police were everywhere and wouldn't let us take pictures of anything.  Every building in town is new, fancy and white, e.g.:

The exit out of Turkmenistan was slow and painful, full checks of all bags etc., checked passports probably at least 6 times - and this is to exit the country.  We took a 1950's vintage bus from the customs check to the immigration check whilst getting out of Turkmenistan:

And into Iran, country #9 of 10 for the ride!  Our first view of Iran:

I am very impressed with Iran.  At the border, we had to walk carrying our bags about 100m across the “no man’s land”. We were welcomed by the Iranian border guards by them providing us with cakes and cold drinks!, served on a silver platter!  Processing all the paperwork, especially for the vehicles was going to take some time, so were were ushered into an air-conditioned Board/instruction room where a couple of the senior officials sat and talked with us.  Then more cakes and cold drinks, then tea.  As we were leaving, with lots of picture taking, all the riders were given bright yellow reflective vests.  Has anyone else every had tea, cakes and cold drinks served to them as part of a border crossing!

Enjoying our cakes and cold juice:

Our "waiting room":

Our 1st camp in Iran was at a Mosque/park - a bit rough, but did include reasonable toilet facilities (which I really care about).  It was a bit of a vacation spot in that there were many Iranians also camping there.  Many adults and kids would very politely come over, ask where we were from etc., As I had been previous told, Iran has a culture of being very hospitable to travellers and they are simply very curious about you - where are you coming from, why are you traveling by bicycle, etc.,

Another countryside pic:

This rock face seems to be a bit of a climbing wall - with a twist.  If you look carefully you will see a bivouac tent high on the rack face.  I was told by one of the locals it contains the remains of a famous Iranian climber - he asked to be laid to rest at the top of a rock face - he has been

Day 101/012/103 Ashgabat, Turkmenistan

I am continuing to have gut problems, beside the obvious need to take crap’s frequently, it is also really wearing me down.  Totally exhausted from the riding, hence took a taxi into Ashgabat a day early to try to recover.  This continuing gut problem is getting very annoying and is getting me down.  Further discussions with our medic today about options.  I didn’t miss much on the ride today as dead flat, hot, and really nothing to see.

An interesting observation:  There is a “free for all” version of Uber Taxi here and essentially everywhere since China.  One simply stands on the side of the road/street with your hand out, cars immediately stop, you negotiate a price for where you are going and away you go.  Typical fare is about $2 or less around town, more from way out in the country.  Everyone uses this system, including very attractive, very well dressed young ladies - being picked up and dropped off anywhere.  Talking to locals, they consider it very safe.  Could you image an attractive young lady catching a ride this way from Vancouver to Hope!  Although we are now in a serious Muslim country and women are restricted in dress, it appears they are very safe on the streets.

Spend half of today dealing with getting an Iran Visa.  Once we figured out the process, it wasn't that bad (the process seems to change every year).  This year it was:  i) go to the Iran Embassy have them do an initial check of paperwork and tell us how much it would cost (different for each country), ii) via taxi go to the bank of Iran and give them the required amount (in Euro's), then with that receipt, iii) back via taxi to the Iran Embassy to file the paperwork.  Just to keep things moving, the Embassy is only open from 9:30 to 12:00.  

The embassy “waiting room”:

Also to make things interesting, the border where we were going to cross into Iran is closed, so busses are being arranged to a crossing some 100km away, with additional busses arranged for the Iranian side to get us to where we are supposed to be.  I'm impressed with the organization/"roll with it", skills of the TDA staff. 

There are interesting rules in this country, such as no smoking anywhere in public ( a good thing), also one must keep your car washed - one of the TDA trucks was fined today because it was dirty. And you are not allowed to take photos of also anything - bridges, government buildings, gas stations, etc.,

Ashgabat is not a major tourist centre.  The Lonely Planet guide book states that "..only the insane or deeply unfortunate would find themselves in Ashgabat in July or August..." - it is stupid hot.  That could explain why there are only 10,000 tourists a year visiting.  To put that in perspective, Whistler has 30,000 to 40,000 visitors on a good day.

On the other hand there are police checks everywhere, probably every 10km along the highway.  They usually ignore bicycles, but I was stopped by one guy in the middle of nowhere.  He was just finishing dealing with a car and I noticed the handshake where a money exchange took place.  After about 10 minutes of trying to tell me he wanted money for some made up infraction and me playing the dumb tourist not understanding, he gave up and I cycled away.  All part of the tourist experience.

Location map:

Day 100 to Graveyard Camp, Turkmenistan, 120km, 8,536 to date, dead flat.

Much of the day was spent riding just north of the Iranian border - one could see several Iranian flags only a couple km to the south.  We are riding along the southern part of the Karakum Desert - I noticed that the spell checker changed Karakum to Karakul in a couple earlier posts.

The camp is at the site of very old ruins (1,000yrs+ old??), all sorts of pottery bits lying around.

Day 98/99 to Canal Camp, Turkmenistan, 125km, 8,416 to date, dead flat.

Rest Day Mary, then a flat, but hot, relatively easy day to a camp in the middle of nowhere.

Another statue in Mary:

A good part of the day was riding along the Karakum Canal, one of the longest irrigation and water supply canals in the world (1,375km).  It enables the extensive agriculture of southern Turkmenistan, but with negative consequences for the Aral Sea.

This “store” was on the side of the road probably 30km from any other person.  The design and workmanship were excellent, I would  have bought one of the children’s outfits if I had had a reason.

Day 98, Location map:

I forgot to add the location map to the last post:

Day 97 to Mary, Turkmenistan, 77km, 8,291 to date, dead flat.

Easy, dead flat, but hot.  Another two flats today, one caused by glass, the 2nd by a small piece of fine wire - usually from exploded truck tires.  Although the temperature wasn’t too bad whilst riding, as soon as I stopped to repair the flats, I was absolutely pouring in sweat.  Heavily drinking to make up for it, including always having one bottle of re-hydration mix on the bike. 

We are again seeing herds of Camels (one humped version - the two humped versions were back in Mongolia)) in the middle of nowhere, not sure if they are wild or domesticated - using the term domesticated and Camels in the same sentence is  bit of an oxymoron.  

We are now in the city of Mary, Turkmenistan.  Mary is a new version of the old nearby city of Merv.  There is nothing left of Merv other than ruins, now a Unesco World Heritage site.  Merv in its day was known as Marv-i-shahjahan or Merv - Queen of the world.  A major centre of religious study and a lynchpin on the Silk Road, its importance to the commerce and sophistication of Central Asia can not be underestimated.  History says that Chinggis Khan sent a tax collector to collect substantial tax’s - the population didn’t like it and beheaded the tax collector.  Chinggis was not impressed.  Merv was wiped out (slaughtered) by Chinggis Khan’s son. Every person was killed, some 300,000 people.  Merv never recovered.  Messing with tax collectors today brings somewhat similar results…

Some pics from around Mary: 

A WWII war memorial:

This is the typical dress of the local women:

You may have noticed that there is a heavy use of the eight pointed symbol in the architecture  and very common on floor tiles and on sidewalks.  This is a Muslim symbol and is called “Rub el Hizb”, the Jewish symbol is 6 pointed.

Day 96 to Truck Stop Camp, Turkmenistan, 140km, 8,214 to date, dead flat.

Another dead flat day crossing the Karakul Desert, very hot (bike thermometer showing 45C, but I believe the “in the shade” temp is about 37C).  Two flats today, both from small very pretty thorn bushes, first flat was before I left camp - I suspect I rolled over the thorn bush without realizing what it was, the second flat was after lunch - I had stopped the bike just off the road, again I guess I rolled over a small thorn bush.  I am now very careful about these bushes.

Day 95 to Desert Camp, Turkmenistan, 81km, 8,074 to date, dead flat.

We crossed the border into Turkmenistan this morning - both the exit from Uzbekistan and entrance to Turkmenistan were uneventful, but a long slow process, actually considering we obtained our Visa’s as part of the process - 3 hours shouldn’t be considered long.  But that meant we didn’t start riding till 1:00, arriving at camp at 5:00, so riding through the hottest part of the day.  The temperature on my bike computer read 45C for the afternoon, albeit that is in the sun - but so am I.

Just after crossing the border we crossed the Amu-Darya(Oxus) river - this is the downstream continuation of the Pyanji river that is the border between Tajikistan and Afghanistan.

Another country (#8 of the 10 I will visit), also means another currency, the Turkmenistan currency unit is the Manat, roughly 3.5 Manat to 1 US dollar.  I exchanged the 190,000 Uzbekistan Som for 95 Manat.  The good news is that everything is effectively the same price as it has been - Ice Cream bar (I’m having at least two a day) is about $0,40Cdn, a cold beer is about $0.80Cdn - I’m not allowed to drink for another 3 days as I’m taking some gut pills that seem to be working.  A new definition of happiness is not having to desperately take a crap several times a night.  I’ve only another 11 days before we enter Iran (no booze), so my days of drinking beer are going to be quite limited…

This is in Turkminabad:

Not many pictures of the countryside as it is extremely flat around here, there have been extensive irrigation canals built that have resulted in all the land being under cultivation, although that seems to have ended about 60km into Turkmenistan - i.e. a bit West of the city of Turkminabat.  We are now in the Karakum Desert (yes, I know one “s”).  The next week will be continuous desert.  I am not expecting any relief from the heat till we leave Iran for Turkey.  Hopefully we will be seeing some low 30’sC not high 30’sC.

A couple of pics: 

It is now a beautiful evening - the sun is down, the temperature is still about 35C, but very pleasant if you are just sitting as I am, typing these notes and watching a full moon come up over the sandy desert.  Although hot, the humidity is very low, so one has a chance of tolerating the heat.

Day 94 to Turkmen border, Uzbekistan, 99km, 7,993 to date, dead flat

A hot but easy day, we camped right at the Turkmenistan border (Uzbek side) - i.e. we camped in a gravel parking lot.  Very hot afternoon.

Breakfast in a gravel parking lot:

The local border taxi service:

Day 93 Bukhara, Uzbekistan

Spend later yesterday and most of today wandering around Bukhara.  Other than very hot, it is a wonderful old exotic place,  it is considered Central Asia’s holiest city.

Bukhara is another of those places where 3 years ago I didn’t know if it was myth or real - it is very much real.  Similar to Samarkand, however there has been a much gentler touch to the preservation and restoration.  Most of the centre is an architectural preserve, full of Madrassas, minarets, a massive royal fortress and the remnants of a once vast market complex.

In all the old Madrassas the old classrooms and dorm rooms are now filled with tourist shops, but the old image remains.

Bukhara is one of the famous places where silk carpets come from, so I spent a good part of today shopping for silk carpets, although when travelling by bicycle, it is an issue of how much one can collect.  So I had to restrain myself and the purchase was two “prayer mat” size carpets.

Some pics from Bukhara:

Roger and Phil:: 

If the place is called Ali Bab's, I've got to be somewhere interesting: 

These bakeries are everywhere, the dough is simply stuck to the oven wall:

I'm not sure when I'll be able to post again.  Tomorrow we will be camped in the middle of a dessert, then crossing into Turkmenistan, which is a bit odd and controlling, then into Iran, but a VPN should work there...  So don't be surprised if no new postings for a bit...

Day 92 to Bukhara, Uzbekistan, 142km, 7,894 to date

Another hot but easy day, flat with a bit of wind behind.  At first light this morning, it was almost cool, but as soon as the sun breaks over the horizon it quickly heats up.  My bike computer showed 40C most of the ride, the official temp is 37C from essentially 11:00 to 18:00

At one point today there was what I believe was an old mosque that never got completed, probably ran out of money.  It’s a protected heritage site, however it is also a wonderful climbing wall:

Day 91 to School yard camp, Uzbekistan, 125km, 7,752 to date

A hot but easy day, flat a bit of wind behind.

I started the day feeling good and strong, riding strong to camp.  However at camp my gut problems have returned.  Our medic has now given me stronger drugs.  Hope they work, I’m getting a bit down about it.

I was pleasantly surprised by the countryside today - continuous small village and farms, I had thought we would be in a bit more desert conditions.  We’ll see that after Bukhara.

The restaurant that we went to for dinner our last night in Samarkand, it was excellent.  The largest currency bill here is a 5,000 Som note, this is about a CDN dollar.  When you change money you get some 5,000, but most 1,000 Som notes.  So when we paid our bill in the restaurant, although about 1/4 of the price at home, t involved a fair pile of bills paying for it.

Pamir video:  TheTDA  guys have compiled a good video on the ride over the Pamir Highway:  see:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHS2uunqRb4     The guy in the white shirt at about the 1:45 minute mark is me.  Some of the footage was collected via the drone the TDA guys have.  All of the footage is of riding at about 15,000ft elevation.

Although this part of the world has created some of the ugliest “dudes” ever, it is also an amazingly civilized place.  This afternoon I was sitting under a tree in one of the many park areas in Samarkand updating this blog (laptop tethered to phone - best reception spot I could find).  An older gentleman sat down in the shade close to me.  We exchanged pleasant greetings.  When I got up to leave we exchanged the “honour to meet you” gesture of right hand over heart.  I find it humbling to be so easily accepted in such a different, far away country.