Esfahan - Qasvin - Tabriz - Orumiyeh - Yuksekova

  Yuksekova, Turkey
Thursday, November 22, 2007

Itinerary : Esfahan - Qasvin - Qasvin! - Tabriz - Orumiyeh - Yuksekova (Turkey)
Dates : 18th November to 22nd of November 2007
Mileage in Iran : 3660 km
Mileage so far : 15400 km

Esfahan is a nice city and we stayed 2 days there so we had loads of time to relax and gain back some energy in preparation for the difficult coming week. So Edouard, as per your request, I have harden the trip by doing a 610 km day from Esfahan to Qasvin. Qasvin is about 100 km north west of Teheran and we skipped Teheran when we read that it was inhabited by 15 million people...The ride to Qasvin was the fastest average speed so far in the trip with 110 km/hour. It's a 6-lane highway with absolutely no one on it! Actually motorcycles are not allowed on this highway but we still took the right. We managed to do about 180 km on the highway until we got stopped by the police. They were nice and we acted naïve, explaining that we were not aware that bikes were not allowed on the highway...Then when the policeman realized I was French, he told me in relatively "understandable" French :"mon ami... autobhan pas possible, eight km sortir petite route..."! So they escorted us up to the exit where they pointed us the direction to go...But I'm quite stubborn and I hand signalled Kevin that we should stop for a rest to give some time for the police to go away and get back on the highway...Which we did. No problem and we were flying on the highway again! On the highway, we stopped for a lunch break to discuss the program of the day, when we got approached by 2 iranian guys that looked friendly and we conversed with them for a while...It was a friendly conversation until I realized that they were trying to convert us! The guy started explaining how Allah was great and he actually gave Kevin a sort of Necklace that the Muslim usually hold in their hand when going praying (I think). They guy actually gave his own necklace and wrapped it in Kevin's wrist...I don't know how to explain or describe Kevin's face, it was hilarious! The guy apologized to me because he had only one necklace and couldn't give me one. When they left, we joked a bit about it and I was making fun of Kevin as he was walking around with this necklace wrapped around his hand. I told him it's the equivalent of a friendship bracelet and you are not allowed to take it off until it breaks...So while we were on our way to the bikes giggling about it, I turned around because someone had tapped on my shoulder and surprise! It was the same guy! He actually went to a shop and bought one for me! So this time he put it around my neck and leaned forward to approach his face towards mine, I thought he wanted to whisper me something but he actually kissed me! People are friendly here...Too friendly! Then it was Kevin's turn to laugh at me...I have no idea what is it for, how to use it? How I should wear it? What to do with it? So Emmad, Reena, Ram, Jehredi? Your input is most welcomed...

Hmm...What can this be for?

Once in Qasvin, I just had my evening walk around town and there's nothing much to see here...The only thing that I did was eating! I've been eating a lot and Kevin nicknamed me "fatso"! The only problem is that I don't think that it's in the culture to eat outside as there are not that much restaurants...Even in Esfahan, we didn't find any nice restaurant to taste the local dishes...The majority of restaurants in the streets are fast foods...So since Esfahan, I've been stuffing my stomach with hamburgers...Maybe 4 burgers per day! I'm actually eating twice the amount Kevin is eating! Not surprising he lost 16 kg and I gained 4 kg...Went to sleep quite early that day as I had no travelpod to update...

The next day was a funny one because we planned to go to Masuleh (Matthieu frank's home town) with a stop at the castle of assassins which is 65 km out of Qasvin. Masuleh is a little town in the mountains where you can sleep and eat at people's houses apparently. Kevin was not delighted by the idea of going to Masuleh to start with but I had managed to convince him that it could be a cool stop over. Moreover, I decided to cut across the mountains towards the Caspian sea with a peak at 3200 meters. It's a narrow road to get there, so Kevin was still not inspired in doing an adventure within the adventure. He understood that I needed to get some excitement and could see that my adrenaline need was not satisfied...So kindly enough, he accepted with a bit of a long face but still mentioned that if it got "shitty" he would turn around and meet me at the border. So we started this road on tarmac for the first 30 km until a turnoff where the road became gravel, stone and sand. So Kevin stopped to look at me and said "Chris, you are a crazy Frenchman and today is not the day I will die". The road got really crappy and it was a "first gear only" road...And this for another 60 km! So I looked back at Kevin and said that I was going to do this road and that we could meet at the Turkey border. After a couple of minutes of discussion, Kevin finally decided to start to do a bit of the road again and see how far he would follow me...Well the road was crap, the equivalent of the "Manali-Pang" road in Kashmir and I found it rather exciting! After all we had the bikes to do this type of road! The only real concern was the weather which was really cloudy and moist...And it was very windy as well with black clouds lingering not too far but I kept my head down and continued riding...Unfortunately, after having done maybe 20 km in an hour and half and reaching an altitude of 3200 meters, we arrived at a dead end! The road was actually closed, under construction or not yet open! Argh! No wonder it was so crappy and full of rocks, stones all over the place...Nevermind, I got my dose of adrenaline and I think Kev did as well, so we had no choice but to head back the same way back to Qasvin. We have been following Kevin's map and I think that it's a shit map...There are roads on the map that actually don't exist!

On our way to Masuleh...

The beginning of the crappy road...

No signboard...Left or right?

Almost reaching the dead end...

All this for nothing!

Then on our way back, bad luck struck when we were in the middle of the clouds and it started snowing! I could hear Kevin swearing in his helmet and insulting me! Haha...Not funny and I powered my way down the mountain because I really didn't want to stay stuck in those mountains, and I was definitely not spending a night in the tent again! It was -2 at 4 pm so I figured that it would be maybe -10 in the night...I have a tent and a -10 sleeping bag but I don't expect to use it...It's just to act as a backpacker rider but actually I still need my dose of comfort...Maybe I'll take it out in Jordan just to take a picture...

Better hurry up...

too late...snowing already...

First time my helmet tastes snow...

heading into the storm...

So our goal was to head back toward Qasvin as fast as possible with a quick stop at the castle of Assassins that we had decided to skip when we realized that we had to get moving because of the crappy road to Masuleh...Well Guys, if you ever come to Iran, don't plan to visit this castle because there's nothing to see! I actually rode just beside it and continued my way without noticing it! I think that the Iranians don't have the same notion of castle than us! A castle looks like a big rock here! I agree it's a nice rock but I don't think it deserves to be mentioned in the lonely planet...

can you see the castle?

it's there! the rock just beside me!

Nice road going to the ''castle''...

So we headed back to Qasvin, a bit disappointed that we didn't manage to get to Masuleh, and when it started raining, we stopped in the first hotel we could find.
First rain drops since the 5th of October in Laos! More than 6 weeks ago! All good things have an end I guess...

Sniff sniff...Going back to qasvin...Defeated...

The new plan now, after wasting a days ride, was to ride hard towards the Turkish border! I seriously had to start moving as I had to be out of this place by the 23rd. And frankly, I'm not keen to be sent to break rocks and help build this Masuleh road...

Our road to Tabriz was really quick and it's a 6 lane highway again! So we reached Tabriz in no time...For those of you that think that Iran has only single lane roads trough he desert, you'll be disappointed because the roads are really good here and would make some developped countries look remote! Funny landscape going to Tabriz with funny colors! Reminded me of one of my holidays in Mauritius where I visited a sight with the 7 magic earth colours...Which I thought was a tourist rip off! (sorry Jimmy...). But the real 7 magic earth colors is in Iran! And it's free!

concentrated on the road! with my pen on me...

nice 6-lane highway to Tabriz...

Enjoying the scenery...Nothing else to do!

Highway is for all type of vehicles...

The real 7 colors of earth...In Iran! and FOC...

The next day was suppose to be a short day with only a 150 km ride to Orumiyeh and turned out to be one of the worst day of the trip so far...Once again, we had decided to rely on Kevin's new map which was the latest one and which seemed to be much more detailed than mine...And on Kevin's map, there's apparently a bridge crossing the lake which would make us gain 200 km. So we headed towards that bridge the next morning and when we were about 5 km away, there was indeed something crossing the lake but it didn't look very nice and there was way too much cranes sticking out of the landscape...My bad feeling was confirmed when we reached the bridge and there was no bridge! Kevin's map was so new that the roads are not yet built or are still being built! So after the inexistent Masuleh road and the inexistent bridge, Kevin decided to throw his map away...But I picked it up to give it back to him and said that we might need toilet paper as I had a feeling that the next 3 days in eastern Turkey would not be a ride in the park...Anyway, luckily enough for us, there was a ferry organized every 30 minutes to cross the lake to Orumiyeh and we were invited to skip the long queue of cars...And they didn't want us to pay for the ferry crossing! Fantastic! Once on the ferry, we met a couple of Iranians and one of them was surprised to see me wearing my scarf...He asked me where I bought it and he told me it was really a local tradition to wear this scarf...Then when I showed him the necklace that the other guy gave me and that I had kept in my pouch, he went nuts! He actually enjoyed so much the fact that I was wearing the scarf and "acting" Iranian that he gave me a pack of cigarettes!

The bridge that doesn't exist!

The bridge is actually a ferry!

How to get a free pack of cigs? wear a scarf!

Resting and enjoying the ferry ride...

On the other side of the lake...Happy!

Once we reached the other side of the lake, we quickly reached Orumiyeh only to discover a small town with nothing really worth seeing...So we had a brilliant idea which turned out to be a stupid idea. Indeed, it was only 3 pm and we thought that we could cross the Turkish border in order to gain one day on our schedule and stay on the Turkish side that night...The Turkish border is only 50 km away from Orumiyeh and if everything goes well, by 5 pm we could be on our way to Van which is the first big town 230 km into Turkey. As we approached the border the weather was getting from bad to worse and we could see snow on top of the mountains...Unfortunately the plan to cross the border that same day went completely off track when we arrived in the Turkish side of the border. I won't go too much into the details but it was chaos...We had decided to take this border in the south as it is known to be less crowded...Especially when we were informed that the northern border could take up to 16 hours to cross. Well it took us 3 hours just to get trough the Turkish side of the border...No signboards, full of people all over the place...So while Kevin was keeping the bikes outside, I had the privilege to do all the administrative work...Well, I still have to give credit to Kevin as it was 6 degrees outside and he had to shove away a few Turks that wanted to ride the bikes around the parking...I basically spent 3 hours running around the place and even had to take out my torch light when there was a 30 minute black out while in the immigration! Worst border crossing so far...

oh oh...Doesn't look welcoming...

At the border...Bye bye iran...

Last border guy before freedom...deserved a pic...

Turkey...Here I come!

When we left the border and started riding it was 7 pm, night time and freezing cold. But no problem as I had my low beam repaired and I had gears to ride in the cold...But things turned bad straight away when we left the border and it started snowing...Snowing big time! And when I looked at my GPS, we were at 2200 meters and it was minus 2 degrees...Not good at all...The nearest town with a hotel is 40 km away...So we rode at a very slow pace for 30 km until I couldn't see the road anymore. It was snowing so much that I was covered with snow and was riding with my visor open. So when I saw a sort of guard house with a bit of light on the side of the road, I turned in. I actually entered a cement factory! The guard was nice to let us in and there was a heater...So it was a relief to warm up and dry ourselves a bit in that place. Until the whole factory arrived in the 4 m2 shelter that is...Then it became really dodgy...People where starting to touch our stuff, open our bags, ask us if we had money on us...One guy wanted me to give him my gloves! And when I turned around, Kevin had disappeared and I found myself alone in that place! So when one of the guys started kneeling down to pray and proposed me to pray with him, I disappeared as well...Prefer to ride in snow, rather than being ridden in the dry...So we did another suicidal 10 km to reach this small town where we shared a room in a crappy trucker's hotel with only common toilet...Experienced my first Turkish toilet in turkey...Not welcoming at all. We arrived soaking wet, full of snow and freezing cold...And starving! Hadn't eaten the whole day and so we went to have a Kebab...Ate 3 Kebabs in a row...And Kevin could barely eat one...I think his stomach has shrank to the point where he doesn't need to eat anymore...And he thinks I must have worms or something...

My bike enjoying a snow bath...

Kev warming up with dodgy cement workers...

No wonder my head was cold...

Our dormitory for the night...

We have another difficult 2 days where we have to take the long route to the Syrian border. The guys at the immigration told us to avoid the south route along the Iraq border and to avoid a town called Sirnak. So the detour by the north will add an extra day in Turkey before we could reach the Syrian border. Safety first...Actually to be honest we don't know how we are going to get to Syria because it's been snowing like hell here since we arrived and we don't know what will be the case tomorrow morning when we wake up. We might have to rent a truck to toe the bikes and get us further out of this mountain area...Adventure, adventure...