Iran: Cycling towards Turkey

Cycling through Iran, towards Turkey

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Grassy ass!

Iran: Hospitable and Hot

I can confirm that August is the wrong month to cycle through Iran! Hot as the flames of hell!

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Grassy ass!

A Brief Round Up and a Thank You

So, that’s it. We have now biked back home.  We’re here, it’s all over, we made it!  We cycled home from South Korea.  The last few months seem to have gone by in somewhat of a blur, and all of a sudden it’s over.   Being back in Dublin, surrounded by all things familiar and comfortable, the rose-tinted glasses have been firmly affixed to our faces, remembering all the good things and times, while the difficulties have all conveniently slipped from our minds!  I’ve actually already left Dublin again and am now in the French Alps for the winter, where I’ve swapped my bike for a pair of skis.  Life on the bike seems like a dream, a different lifetime ago, and sometimes I find myself wondering, did I even do it?

We arrived into Dublin port on Saturday the 15^th of October to a right hero’s welcome.  All our family, and loads of our friends, were there at the port waving banners and ready to cycle the last few kilometers with us up the quays to the city centre.  We couldn’t have asked for a better arrival home.  We left Holyhead in the rain but by the time Dublin was in sight the sun was shinning and the sky had totally cleared.  Cycling up the quays surrounded by familiar places and faces was a feeling I won’t forget in a hurry.  The magnitude of the journey, the long road home, slowing began to sink in and I’d be lying if I said I didn’t shed a tear or two as my little heart swelled with pride at what we’d achieved.

After the highs and lows of central Asia, followed by the intense heat of Iran in August, Turkey and beyond through Europe all seemed like a bit of a doddle.  Meeting my folks, who’d driven out from Dublin, in Turkey, helped us feel like we were almost home too - or at the very least, on the home straight!  Eager to get home by then, and with a slight cooling off of the weather in September, we gunned it and cycled from Greece to England without a day off! I had been dreading cycling through England if I’m honest, in much the same way that I hate flying through Heathrow – so close to home but still so far away, but the sun shone for us, the roads were quiet, the drivers were very respectful of bikes and the relief of finally being able to speak English without slowing down or gesticulating wildly was a very welcome change.  The availability of beans and sausages for brekkie was no small part of the enjoyment of the place either and the fact that we had friends and family dotted along the way didn’t hurt.  We very quickly adapted back to modern living with all the comforts we usually take for granted but had been so long without.  It wasn’t a hard transition let me tell you! 

And what next you might ask? Well, the French Alps have called, and we’ve answered! We’re off to work for a chalet company for the ski season while we consider our next move, and maybe even plan our next cycle! Our fundraising page is still open (https://give.everydayhero.com/ie/bikebackhome#/) and will remain so until January.  We have raised just over €24000 and are completely blown away by the support that we have received from everyone around us, be it in donations to our chosen charity, Jigsaw, or emotional support in the form of messages and kind words, or just by taking an interest in the two of us and our little adventure that was Bike Back Home.

Video: Tajikistan part 3: The Wakhan Corridor

Tajikistan: The Wakhan Corridor, along the Panj River on the border with Afghanistan 

     

Part Two of the Pamir Highway

Part two of the Pamir Highway.

I didn't use music in this video as I felt it gives a better sense of our weeks in Tajikistan

The Shit that goes Wrong/Bad Shit #2

Shit that goes Wrong/Bad Shit. Part 2.

I’ve updated the title of this series. Mostly because shit doesn’t always go wrong, but sometimes bad shit just happens, - it’s a nuanced distinction but one I think is necessary - and, partly because the distinction gives me more crap/shit to waffle about. In my mind that’s always a good thing, often to the abject sorrow of others.

So once again, just to keep people up to date, (a bit like a “previously, on Shit that goes Wrong) this piece is about Shit that goes Wrong/Bad Shit, Meltdowns, and People who are Gas Tickets Altogether.

Shit that goes Wrong/Bad Shit.  The crux of this episode of Shit that goes Wrong/Bad Shit was written in terms of absolute irony in order to mitigate imaginative disgust overload!

Tajikistan: Pamirs Part 1

The start of our climb to 4,655 meters through the Pamir Mountains

Turkish Delight

We haven't actually had any Turkish Delight yet, although we do hear very good things about it, but it was some delight crossing over the border from Iran and shedding that headscarf let me tell you.  There was a bin right next to the X-Ray machine that our bikes and bags had to go through which I gladly dumped my scarf into and had a little celebratory chuckle to myself.  I waited until I was outside and away from the border guards to shed the rest.  What a welcome to Turkey it was!

Our first view of Turkey, and where I took off my long legs and sleeves and felt pure freedom after the confines of the Iranian dress code

We've been here almost two weeks now and although the weather here is cooler, and significantly less humid, than in Iran, the cycling has been tougher than anticipated.  I suppose a quick glance at the topography of the country would have had me a bit more prepared for the mountainous terrain, but we don't usually do much of that, preferring to just get up and go and take it as it comes.

The Shit that Goes Wrong

I’ve been dying to write a blog post for ages but I’ve been stuck in the debilitating conundrum of either making a video, or sticking up a written piece.  So, in an effort to make up for my lack of writing I’ve decided to write a short post about everything of immediate interest, all in one fell swoop and with a focus on keeping waffle to a minimum. I believe I have a tendency to maximise waffle!  Think of it as a running roundup of the trip’s quirkier events. Like Sport Sunday, but with bicycles and a romantic subplot. I think I’m already starting to waffle! Anyway, I’m also sometimes going to work backwards. Partly because we’re in Iran and they write backwards, and partly in order to jog my memory. So apologies if it reads like were going in the opposite direction. And, just to confuse things even more, this time I’m going to work retrospectively forwards.

I’m going to focus on three themes: shit that goes wrong, people who are gas tickets altogether, and meltdowns! As it's difficult to write about everything that goes wrong in one go I will write about one of each theme when possible, and update additional shit going wrong etc. as the weeks go by. Everybody always wants to hear about the shit that goes wrong. Just part of the human condition I suppose.

Welcome to Iran

'Welcome to Iran' is shouted out the windows of almost every car that passes us.  People in the street say it to us too, followed by 'What is your country?'.  This question is usually followed with 'How do you like Iran?', an easy question to answer - we love it here.  What's not so easy to answer however is when they shyly ask next 'Why do people from the west think we are all terrorists?' Why indeed. 

Our taxi from the airport. 3 people, 3 bikes....no bother!

Neither Nick nor I have ever been anywhere where the welcome has been so big, so widespread and so overwhelming in its sincerity.  We have stayed in countless Iranian families homes, we have been fed and watered and not a day has gone by where we haven't received something free of charge.  The welcome is huge and across the board: children and adults; city folk and country folk; rich and poor Iranians.  They seem delighted to have people visit their country and ignore the 'black news', the bad press this country seems to generate in the western media.  They do their utmost to help us and leave us with lasting good impressions, to hopefully go home and spread the word.  Which we will, we tell anyone who asks.   The hospitality and friendliness towards us isn't just a bid to change the country's awful reputation abroad though.  It seems to be an inbuilt characteristic of Iranians.  They are a family and community oriented people, and if you enter into their community it seems you get treated as part of it.  It's not a need or a task they feel they must perform.  It's a default response and they seem to get as much happiness and joy out of the interactions with us as we do with them. 

Onwards, with a Unfortunate Change of Route

As I wrote in my previous post...

We’ve been in Dushanbe for a week now and have successfully got our Uzbeki and Iranian visas.  They are relatively straightforward to get.  The Turkmen one on the other hand is notoriously time consuming, and even then, not guaranteed.  We’ve to go back to the embassy on Thursday (21st July) and it should be issued to us then but we aren’t holding our breath…we’ve heard plenty of horror stories and loads of people that have just give up on it and re route instead.   If we don't get it, our only option will be to fly over Turkmenistan, which we are not particularly keen to do!  Just thinking about boxing up the bikes for a flight gives me a headache, so fingers crossed we get the visa and we'll be back in the saddle on Friday!

....and yet here we are, still in Dushanbe, on Saturday.  

When we went to the embassy on Thursday, the man made a quick call to someone in Ashgabat to enquire about our visa status, hung up the phone and shook his head.  So that was that.  No Turkmenistan visa.  So we did the only thing we could, which was to book a flight from here to Tehran, which leaves tomorrow.

The Spectacular Kyrgyzstan

Kyrgyzstan

The Pamir Highway (M41) and the Wakhan Valley

Where do you even begin to describe a place like the Pamirs?  The sights and sounds, the people, the experiences and the emotions…

It took us six days to cycle from Osh to Murgab, a distance of about 430km.  We reckoned it would take us another 8 days to cycle from Murgab to Khorog via the Wakhan Valley and then 6 more days from Khorog to Dushanbe.  It’s more common (a relative word!) to cycle in the opposite direction to the one we went in because the wind is more usually at your back and the gradient is slightly easier that way.  But, we’re travelling westwards, so we cycled the pamirs backwards!  Having done it, I now understand that the wind really is a game changer. We cycled into a very strong headwind almost immediately after leaving Murgab and we battled it more or less the whole way to Khorog, which in the end took us 9 long days.

We have fallen in love with Kazakhstan!

Cycling through Kazakhstan

Died and Gone to Kyrgyzstan

Heaven is a concept that I've always struggled with.  A paradise, a garden of eden, but also a place that can be all things to all believers.  I don't know anyone who could vividly describe what heaven is to them but I'm petty sure it's in Kyrgyzstan. When people say 'I've died and gone to heaven' after eating a particularly rich piece of chocolate cake or some other such thing, what they really mean is they've been transported to Kyrgyzstan.  They mightn't be aware of it, but believe me, the scenery that we've just cycled though, is out of this world, heaven-like, totally breath-taking and had I not seen it with my own eyes, it'd be hard to believe that such a place exists, so natural and unspoilt by us humans.  Instead of trying to contort the surroundings into a way that better serves people, or more usually, better serves more people and helps richer people get richer, here the people live in nature, with it and aware of it, taking what they need from it and no more, leaving it to continue giving and providing for generations to come.  The Kyrgyz nomads have it right.

**Photos are at the end this time instead of in amongst the text.  Feel free to scroll to the bottom to see them and skip the wordy bit!

A Most Hospitable Place

Kazakhstan has come and gone and we're in Kyrgyzstan now.  A place where I never imagined myself being.  A place where, before we started planning this trip, I'm quite sure I couldn't place on a map, name the capital city or even spell, yet here we are!  But first, let me talk a bit more about Kazakhstan...

I didn't have many expectations of Kazakhstan before getting there.  I knew that our route through the country was short and that our time there would be quick.  If I'm being honest, I had kind of thought of Kazakhstan as just a means of getting to the Pamir Highway.  Actually the only real thought I had was that the food was going to take a serious nose dive from the tasty treats we'd been used to in China.  How wrong I was.  The food was delicious and varied.  And so far in Kyrgyzstan we haven't been disappointed either.  The beauty of the countryside in Kazakhstan is hard to fathom, at least the small part that we went through anyway. The huge open spaces, the towering mountains, the quietly grazing herds of animals and the lack of too much human intervention into the natural world immediately brings with it such a sense of calm.  Being in Kazakhstan just felt good.  It felt relaxing.  It was a world away from the modern stresses of life, as we've come to know it, in the west.  The air was fresh, the sun was warm and I could actually feel my body and mind relaxing and slowing down.  Despite all this though, for us, it was the the people we encountered along the way that really made Kazakhstan the place it was.

The real last video from China! From Jinghe to Khorgos: the border with Kazakhstan.

Our Final three days in China were spectacular. We had some great experiences, made new friends, and we have left China with wonderful memories.

Kazakhstan - A Breath of Fresh Air

It felt great to get back in the saddle after our time off in Urumqi, although my body wasn't quite as excited as my mind was, if truth be told.  The 500km or so from Urumqi to Jinghe were fairly uneventful but then the mountains reappeared on our left, and all was right in the world.  The highlight of that stretch was without doubt Sayram lake, despite the fairly brutal climb up to it at 2100m. Making brekkie the morning before we arrived at the lake we were sitting in our camp chairs in shorts and t-shirts. Three hours later we were piling back on the layers and hoping that the ominous looking clouds that had rolled in weren't going to dump on us, and they'd roll back out again as quickly as they'd rolled in.  Still later in the day, while we were tucking into a nice big bowl of noodles in a little shed of a place that appeared on the roadside just as we'd run out of water, it started to sleet. The variation of temperature in just one day was hard to believe, and in hindsight, even harder to remember if it really happened that way.  From shorts and t-shirts to thermals and waterproofs in a matter of hours.  We waited the sleet and hail out and made a dash for it when it stopped. The people in the restaurant told us we were mad to be considering camping at the lake saying that it would be very cold and the forecast was bad but, we were determined.  We'd camped in the cold before and were pretty sure our gear was up to it so we thanked them and headed off anyway.  Ten minutes down the road the sleet started again but the lake had just come into view and we knew we'd made the right decision. The view was immense.  The lake is huge and surrounded on all sides by massive mountains.  The tallest peaks of which were snow-capped and the lower slopes were covered in grass so green it looked like someone had painted it, as well as a dense smattering of buttercups.  The moody grey sky, the almost turquoise-coloured water, the green grass, the yellow buttercups and the brilliantly white snow, made for some view.  Each time we camp we think we've hit campspot nirvana and this time was no different. We cycled around the lake to the side closest to the direction we'd be going the next day.  It was all action.  Nomads, their yurts, horses and camels were everywhere.  It seemed to be moving time.  We think lots of families were on the move for the summer months, coming from lower down where they'd spent the winter, to set up camp by the lake.

The mountains on our climb up to Sayram lake

Lunch, sheltering from the hail and sleet outside.

Arriving at the far side of China

We're gonna miss you China!

China: between X'ian and Urumqi