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Teheran - Sarakhs
So after a nice stop in Tehran with a beautiful short trip to Isfahan it was time to move on.
We had already acquired our visa for Uzbekistan and the request for the Turkmenistan visa was also made. Now it was time to take the bus out of Tehran. Another bus? yes, for 1 Tehran is far from funny to cycle and secondary, we had to skip a few possible Achmedinijad cities. So our bus drove all the way to Sharud. Here we unloaded our bicycles, once again afraid of what had happened to them. Because so far almost every time we had put our bicycles in a bus one of them got some sort of damage. Loosing a bell, bending a part of your break cable etc etc. But this time, nothing had happened. This bus driver +copilot where really careful, which was a good thing. Thus saying goodbye was really nice. We could even tell them honestly that they had been our best bus drivers so far. But as usual something had to go wrong as well.

When we cycled into Sharud to find the road to Mashhad and find a nice place to camp along the road, we asked for some directions. A friendly policeman said we could follow his "undercover"car. Gladly accepting the offer from the once again friendly police, we followed him. Suddenly we heard police sirens behind us. Looking over our shoulders we saw 2 policemen on a motorbike gesturing us to stop. Not sure what to do with the friendly "undercover" policeman in front of us and those 2 behind us, we decided to stop. After scrutinizing our passports a little, they gestured we should follow them. Completely unsure of where we would be taken, there was once again nothing we could do, besides following the police motorbike. So would we be taken to a police office? or what where they up to? We never found out until they told us to turn right on a big roundabout. Then we finally managed to understand that they actually just showed us the way out of Sharud. Most likely the policeman in his car called his colleagues to escort us. So after a long bus ride and this, it was already dark and we decided to take the first opportunity to sleep.

So after 1-2 km of cycling in the dark, we found a sand bank which was actually quite nice to hide our tents behind. After putting up the tents in the dark we had a small meal and went to bed. Tomorrow would be hot again. The next day we got up early and started to cycle, but after barely one kilometer we had to turn back. Aafke had lost her wedding ring. Wedding ring? did the two of you get married? nope, we didn't, but wearing the rings proved to be rather effective in Islamic countries and saved us many trouble some explanations and or questions. Any how, after a short search we found the ring, and continued to Sabzevar. Today was also the day that we had our first break in a real sand castle! Which was pretty funny. The rest of the day we didn't do much except for cycling. And hence we tried to sleep at the EMS again. This didn't work, but they told us we could sleep at the fort next to them. Apparently it was no problem for the people restoring and rebuilding the fort. So we slept there in a big "sand fort". With our own room, some food and cold! water. You will only understand how great it is to get a bottle of frozen water after you've been cycling in 40+ degrees for a few days with winds feeling like a blow dryer blowing in your face. The only notable thing we saw that day was a bunch of dromedary wandering free


While the sun was rising Aafke and Douwe congratulated me with my birthday. I had a wonderful day, we cycled all day long, our lunch break place was awesome. Just a cool fresh stream of cold water and some shade from the tree's. It made our perfect place to play some cards and wait for the heat to pass.
Eventually we arrived at Rivand, a small town some 20 km's away from Sabzevar. And we set a new day record. we managed to cycle 123.5 km. For me that was  an excellent birthday present. We had a nice stay again at the EMS. But this time we put up our tents in their garden. They shared dinner with us(and their breakfast, which they only told us the next morning).
And then, while we almost where asleep, they had to wake us up. After hearing all the stories from the police etc in Iran we expected nothing else but to get trouble. Luckily they just wanted to give us a watermelon. Since all of us wanted to sleep and also not insult those people we finished the melon in 15 minutes or something.

The next day it was time to go to Sabzevar, to change some dollars into Rials. Upon arrival in the city, we suddenly realized that it was Friday! Which meant that all banks and stores where closed. Being desperate to change our money, we decided to just try and find a bank which was open. Luckily enough in the end the owner of an exchange office opened for us. he even made us some tea, gave us fruits etc. These people keep surprising me over and over again. When we asked if there was an Internet cafe he told us we could use the computer in the store next to him. So that's how things can work out if you are in these countries. After our break we got a car guiding us to the ring way again so we could start cycling towards Neyshabur. Getting rid of a few annoying/crazy motor bikers was tricky. Eventually they got bored and left us alone, so we could take a short break. What we didn't knew this day was that we wouldn't see a decent water source for another 70km. Along the road we found 2 water sources, but both appeared to be salty. Our water filter was prepared for chemical pollution, bacteria etc. Filtering the salt(and its taste) away was sadly enough not possible. In the end after a long day and another 115km we found our beloved EMS again.

Once again they provided us with a place to sleep, we even got our own cabin, including the option to shower. Of course the most important thing was that we found a shop where we could buy liters and liters of water. The next day we left with a grand total of almost 30 liters of water and other fluids. Passing through Neyshabur proved to be different from other cities due to having a more village like start. And only after you took some small roads you ended up in the center. But when we made it back to the main road towards Mashhad, we saw we had only 150 km to go. Its not something you do in 1 day under these circumstances, but it was good to know we had a place to stay in Mashhad. Vali Asari had requested our Turkmenistan visa and has a nice place to stay (vali's non-smoking home stay). So tomorrow we should arrive in Mashhad. Funnily enough, we didn't arrive the next day, but today. Finally, after more then 5000 km a truck driver offered us a lift.

A lift?? yes a lift, we got a free ride, at first he would bring us 50-60km further(or from Mashhad, we never found out) But in the end he drove us all the way to Mashhad. Arriving there in the start of evening was nice. We had enough time to find Vali his home stay. upon arrival there we had 15L of water left. No big deal, but a bit strange.

The next few days we spent in Mashhad, doing nothing but reading, playing cards, waiting for our Visa and talking. We met a few nice people during that time and got ourselves nice rugs/carpets! We shipped them home. It should take about 1.5-2.5 months till they would arrive in NL. But what about our Visa? waiting? that's bad news, isn't it? yes it was. We got turned down every time. Come back tomorrow, come back at 12, come back at 9 tomorrow etc etc. The problem was, our Iranian visa would only last a few more days. At the point where we called a cab to take us to the police office(to ask for a short extension of our visa, so we could head back to turkey), the door opened and a woman said: you can come at 4 and pick up your visa. It still meant we had to take the bus that evening to Sarakhs to cross the border on our last day of our visa. Its a shame to take the bus for that last part, but who cares, we didn't had to go back to Turkey! we could go to Turkmenistan! The only odd thing was that Douwe had received a 3 day transit visa where Aafke and I had 5 days. It sucks, but such is life, we would simply take the train from Tejen.

Haggling was one thing we haven't done much this journey, but at the bus terminal in Mashhad we had to. And when you have to haggle here, you have to do it good. They suddenly charged us 350-400% of the normal price for our bicycles. After 15-20 minutes, including walking away angry, showing empty pockets and everything else, we got the price down to 140% of the normal price. Seeing we could really not get it lower and we did need that bus ride, we accepted and paid.

After a couple of hours we arrived in Sarakhs. Tomorrow we would cross the border! Now we needed a place to sleep. This time the huge round-a-bout served as camping. The police/army said it was the best place, since they could keep an eye on us all night long. Waking up in the middle of a town, traffic driving around you, is a little bit strange. The rest of the morning/midday was spent on crossing the borders.

So, now there is one story left, and then it will be silent for a while here. Sadly enough we cannot pretend or make up any stories. But as soon as we start cycling again we will let you know. Just make sure to sign up for the newsletter under the blog section.

Till we meet again!

Marius
 
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