Day 143 Tabriz - Bostanabad

I cannot say that I was highly motivated to get on the bike this morning. But when I looked out of the window the weather did not look too bad (i.e. just a bit of rain) and I knew that the longer I waited the higher the chances for really bad weather - so I better got started. I once again had to go over 2000m, but it was not steep at all and the temperatures were bearable. There was not much to see around: first a lot of industry and later a lot of snow. But it was ok: the road was free and most of the ride there was no more rain or snowfall. Nevertheless the road was pretty muddy - on arrival both Arthur and me looked pretty messy. And just when I arrived I had something completely new on this trip: a hailstorm, yeah! Fortunately I could find a safe place within minutes. At the hotel I was told that a swedish cyclist is just 2 days ahead of me - and he is also going towards Oman! I want to get out of the mountains as fast as possible anyway, so maybe I can catch him if I hurry a bit now.

Day 141 & 142 Tabriz

I was in dire need of some rest, so I took 2 days off from cycling. However I was not completely lazy: besides the obvious stuff (eating [a lot], sleeping [a lot] and reading the Qu'ran) I did some sightseeing in Tabriz, practised some more persian reading (speaking will come later: I am still in turkic language iranian azarbaijan), organised phone (+98 93 60 237 665) and internet, cleaned Arthur, became the main attraction of a curious crowd at a hairdresser, was questioned by many iranians what I am doing here in the winter and found my herbivore way through iranian grocery stores - getting vegetarian food in restaurants is a bit tricky, usually there is only soup and rice available.
Mobile internet is possible in Iran, but it is pretty expensive - I will try to make most blog updates in the bigger cities in internet cafes.

Foggy day 140 Marand - Tabriz

Before entering Iran I was aware that the women would be veiled. However I was not aware that the country itself would be veiled, too. Today was a very foggy day. I started late as I had hoped that the fog would dissolve somewhen in the morning - but it did not so I eventually got on the road without really seeing it. Most of the time I could cycle well beside the road and most cars drove unusually slow. It still did not feel very safe, especially as the day started with an ascend where I could not go fast enough to make my lights work. As a temporary safety measure I installed my headlight on my back panniers. Shortly after the start I got a bit lost in the fog while trying to cycle beside the road in a road construction area. Fortunately the visibility got a bit better once I had reached the highway to Tabriz and the top of the hill. From there on it was an easy downhill ride, but still with not much to see around. When I entered Tabriz the fog was finally gone. Naturally the city traffic was a bit of an adventure - with roundabouts of dimensions and craziness that I only know from Halle - with 10 times the traffic and about 100 times the lust to kill in most drivers. No, it was ok - as usual it all looks much more chaotic if you are looking from the outside - once you are part of the chaos it all starts to work somehow. In the evening I just had a short walk through Tabriz in search of food. That was no easy task at all - in Iran the weekend (Thursday afternoon and Friday) is taken more seriously than in most countries before, thus I had to walk quite far until I had found an open restaurant and an open bakery. Maybe there were more on the way, but due to my underdeveloped persian reading skills I just did not see it. But I am working on it: I made a cheat sheet with the Persian letters and installed it in my map case.

Day 138 Jolfa - St. Stephanos - Jolfa

I just entered Iran from Armenia and what is the first thing I do here? Of course visiting an Armenien church! I left my luggage in Jolfa and cycled lightly to the main attraction here: the wonderfully preserved monastery of St. Stephanos. On the way there I stopped at a viewpoint for the few remains of historical Jolfa on the Nakhchivan river bank, at an old caravansarai and another smaller armenian chapel. The monastery plays in one league with the main attractions in Armenia - the whole complex including seminary, courtyard with garden and of course church is a wonderful place to stroll around. It was renovated lately and seems to be taken good care of by Iranian officials. The church walls feature cross carvings and carved windows seldom found in that condition in Armenia.
On a nearby picknick spot some other mixed Iranian/international tourists joined me just as a fox appeared to check out my rubbish - soon a fight between several cats and the fox over some lavash provided by some Iranians started.
The Iranian curiosity and hospitality is very much the way I have heard of - I already heard uncountable 'Welcome's and many people (i.e. not just men) asked me where I was from, where I was going, how I like Iran, etc.

Day 139 Jolfa - Marand

Iran does not want to unveil its beauties so fast. When I started in Jolfa most of the surrounding landscape was covered in fog. I cycled uphill most of the day but it was not too steep, so it was doable. Nevertheless I am planning for some rest days in Tabriz - my legs still feel every meter they have cycled in Armenia and I have to plan my route through Iran anyway. Thanks to Simon I even have a guidebook. Oh, there is so much to see here! It looks like I will spend christmas and new year in Iran and I will take the ferry to the Emirates somewhen in January.
Later today the I had my first real chance to see the Persian sun. Marand was not really overwhelming - I asked a bit around and got directed to a hotel well out of town. This makes tomorrows way to Tabriz a bit shorter and I have even climbed most of tomorrow mornings hill already.

Day 137 Meghri - Jolfa

I am in Iran!
On my way to the border I was stopped and controlled by some russian soldiers - just checking my passport and asking if I had any narcotics on board.
Leaving Armenia was easy - onceI was shown the right way through the border post and a very domina-style young russian lady appeared to check my passport. She eventually turned very friendly, laughing at my red face - yep, yesterdays freezing descent is still visible. Only later I realized that this might have been the last time in a long while that a girl smiles at me like this in public.
Entering Iran was just as easy. Passport control took about 10 minutes and a customs officer asked me to open some of my bags - clearly just because that is what he is supposed to do, not because he really suspected to find anything illegal.
I exchanged my last Armenian Dram and was surprised about the good rate I got - I know that there is a difference between official rates and street rates, but I would not have expected to get the latter in the border post building. The iranian side of the border is in the middle of nowhere, so it took some time until I met the first Iranians (appart from border staff). My way went through the Arax valley which is strikingly beautiful, especially near the Armenian border where it is very narrow - sorry, no pictures, it is a sensitive border area with watchtowers all around, so I better did not give it a try. Unfortunately it also works as a very good wind channel, so I had to fight against a strong headwind all day. I take this as a good sign: today I went westwards while my main direction in Iran will be eastwards (there would have been a more direct way to Tabriz but this would have involved another 2400m pass - after yesterdays experience I rather felt like taking the detour around the mountain).
After about 20km the country on the other bank had changed to Azerbaijan (or exactly the exclave of Nakhchivan) and I came to the first town where I was immediately questioned about my whereabouts by several men. I had to go all the 75km to Jolfa until I saw the first Iranian women. Most of them with a headscarf that still exposed most of their hair. I don't know if this is a border area thing or if the hejab-by-law is generally not very strictly enforced anymore. On the way the street signs already gave me a chance to relearn the arabic numbers (different from our numbers, even though we call ours arabic). In the evening I practised my first Farsi and successfully managed to order a vegetarian meal - though very simple: soup and rice, but filling. During a short stroll through the city I could not help trying to find out the prices of pastries and fruits - tonight I definitely won't die of hunger!

Pass Day 136 Kajaran - Meghri

Puuuuuuh! That was a hard hard day. But I made it over the highest pass so far - and possibly the highest pass of the whole trip (or at least for a long long time). Going up to over 2500m in November proved possible - but I still would not exactly call it a good idea. Strangely most of the drivers were very supportive, shouting and sign-languaging encouragement all along a way. Only very few made unmistakingly clear that they considered me a raving lunatic. The road condition was mostly more or less ok - only on some north-facing stretches and at the top I had to push the bike, because the snow-ice-mud-mixture really did not allow me to drive on. Of course everything around was white. On the way up my mood  constantly swung between «Oh that's so beautiful» and «Damn, that's so freaking exhausting». Once I was over the pass my mood somehow got stuck in only one condition: «Aaaaaah! Cold! Cold! Cold! Cold!». On the way up I had been working enough to not feel the cold, but on the descent all my clothes could not safe me from freezing. Worst were the hands - they felt like they were close to falling of. I could not even try to take them somehow out of the wind as I had to brake constantly. After all it went nearly 2000m down. Furthermore once the top was reached I started to feel all the exhaustion of the last days - I had to stop several times for a few minutes on the way down, just because I really could not ride on, even though I just had to let Arthur roll.
But now everything will be good. I successfully defrosted myself in Meghri. I am in the Arax plain again and according to the weather report there will be spring-like temperatures the next few days.
Tomorrow (or if I am really lazy in 2 days) I will finally enter Iran. Despite some hardships it was a good decision to take the detour through Armenia (if you want to call tossing a coin a decision).
I am not sure how soon I will be able to update the blog once I have crossed the border. Both blogspot and facebook are blocked in Iran - the best communication method will be email or - as soon as I have it - telephone.

Day 135 Kapan - Kajaran

Taking the big pass, part 1: When we woke up, a quick look out of the window showed that there was no excuse for not cycling today. So I said goodbye to Simon, had breakfast, packed my stuff and went on the road. I had bright sunshine all day, but there was still snow all around. Fortunately the road was mostly free - and in the few narrow parts of the valley where the sun could not melt all the snow it was still somehow cyclable (<= does this word exist ?).
Riding through the snowy valley in the sunshine was really really utterly beautiful. As I went up about exactly 999m I also did not have any chance to feel the cold. I arrived in Kajaran around 2pm. I guess with a bit of luck I could even have made remaining 888m or so up to the pass - however I did not really feel like relying on luck at that. I stopped in Kajaran which offered a very splendid location and somehow nothing but very very nice people. Tomorrow morning I will try to get over the pass. There might be a little snow tonight but in the morning it should be clear weather again. Furthermore the sight of several snowploughs today gives me high hopes that I somehow can make it tomorrow.

Day 134 Kapan

After checking the weather report I decided that today would not be the day for climbing the pass: rain and snow all day. I was not to sad about that - several days of cycling through the mountains did not make me feel like taking a 2000m ascend anyway. So I just relaxed and repaired my front carrier (again a broken screw). In the afternoon I even had a visitor: Simon, who I have been travelling with in Ethiopia some years ago. It seems like we always meet up on different continents. He just came from Iran and had an urgent need to make up for several beerless weeks. This was definitely something we could easily fix. As Kapan saturday nights don't have too much to offer we just moved the party to my hotel room.