Funny hill country

9-16 May

While planning our trip to Iran we came across a very interesting part in the north-east of Iran at the border with Turkmenistan. It is a desert region, and part of it are the funny hills that are the background of this weblog. I look very much forward to cycling through these strange hills that cover a big part of the province Golestan.

In Shahrud we are not yet in Golestan. We stay there with Mahmoud and his wife Mahdie. Mahmoud picks us up at the train station and we are asked to follow his car to the park where he is just having a picnic with Mahdie, mother and sister in law. Although we have had lunch in the train already (Iranian long distance trains happen to function like planes, so the steward passes every hour to bring something to eat (including a warm meal) or to drink), we are happy to eat some chicken kebab. In the evening Mahmoud  and Mahdie show us around  and finally we go to a romantic viewpoint with a superb view on the city. Mahmoud gets poetic and sings a song for us.

We go back to town, eat an ice cream, while Mahdie has an incident with the religious police because her hijab does not comply. She is furious. The next day Mahmoud is very sad we leave, while he remains behind and needs to continue his struggle of earning an income in a not-so-supportive-country.  He is however doing very well (compared to many other young Iranians) and has plans to start his own accounting company in Tehran, together with Mahdie.

We have to cross the Elbors mountains from south to north to go to Golestan. The south is arid because it borders the central desert, whereas the north side of the mountains is very green and jungle-like, thanks to the moist climate of the Caspian sea. It is a two day trip to Gonbad-e-Qabus and the first day we stay at the south side. Again the landscape is beautiful, with its reddish, yellowish colors.

A truck driver insists on sharing his tea with us

We find a very well hidden campsite and yes, this evening we remain undiscovered, for the first time. Unfortunately, the next day when we pack our stuff it starts raining and on the pass, 300 m higher it is only 5C. The road is extremely bad and muddy and we are forced to ride down at slow pace. Such a pity, we were counting on a  2400 m long spectacular record breaking ride race downwards. Strangely, even in the rain, we see Iranians picnicking everywhere. Perhaps because it is the last Friday before Ramazan starts? Indeed, the color of the landscape changes from the soft reddish tones to sunglasses requiring hard green. We are in the cloud-forest. Not only it is a cloud-forest, at the moment it is also a rainforest.

Our first campsite where we didn't get discovered

Sam's mother cooking the Iranian version

of Empanada's

When we enter Gonbad-e-Qabus (what a mysterious name) a young man invites us for tea, so we find  ourselves sitting in (not on) a worn out couch in a garage, drinking tea and eating chocolates and bread with cucumber. The young man wants to move to Germany to study and wants to practice his English with us and learn as much as possible about Germany. Unfortunately, we have little experience with applying for a scholarship in Germany but the young man seems to be happy he met us. Half an hour later we are warmly welcomed by Sam, Sahan and his parents and in the evening we visit the Qabus Tower. 

Visiting Gonbad tower with Sam and Sahan. The tower is built in 1006  to serve as a point of orientation on one of the silk routes and also served as a tomb. It is a masterpiece of architecture. It is completely built of brickstones, has a 30 meter deep foundation to prevent leaning tower of Pisa effects and required quite a lot of architectural tricks (e,g, 10 angular flanges) to enable it to bear its own weight (the construction is 51 m high and has a base diameter of 17 m).

Since Sam is an official tour guide, he explains us every single detail. We have a very pleasant evening with a couple of other tourists and we exchange our experiences in Iran. A crazy French guy complains in a funny way about all the invitations he gets for drinking tea with all of these Iranians. He is only 10 days in Iran and doesn’t want to ‘spoil’ his time drinking tea (French people are anyway not known for their love of tea parties).

The next day we head for the funny hills of Golestan and that is what we get. We also do an attempt to visit Khaled Nabi Cemetery, a site of which no one understands what these crazy stones mean, although according to a German guy Christoph, who we meet later, the meaning is very clear. They have nothing to do with a cemetery, it is a place full of huge penises. Unfortunately, we don't make it to the Khaled Nabi site because we are late and don’t wear our hiking shoes and the site appears to require some mountain hiking. We return but are not disappointed at all, because we biked up the highest point of the region and had a superb view on the funny hills.

The next day we do a complicated off the road track and we cross the complete funny hill region. We are in Turkman region now and meet Turkman shepherds on motorcycles, sheep, Dutch cows, donkey’s, herds of Turkman horses, camels, dromedary and angry dogs with the size of calves, that make a lot of noise but don't bite. Also, we are followed by Khoobi the Second. We met this dog the evening before in our camp and gave him and his mate some bread for which he was very grateful. Too grateful. Khoobi II decides that we are his bosses and he belongs to our pack. He makes sure that our tent is not attacked during the night and decides to follow us the next day. Poor Khoobi. He doesn’t understand that following the dirt road we are slow but that he won’t be able to keep up with us when our bikes touch the tarmac again. He follows us through the desert, gets attacked by the calf-sized sheep dogs, seeks shelter behind my bike and then, after 30 km he must give up. We feel very bad. He lost us in the middle of nowhere, 30 km and a lot of furious shepherd dogs away from a much better spot, where Iranians use to barbecue.

Khoobi II

Martin followed by Khoobi II

The road sometimes follows the bed of a river, that luckily is dry

Dutch cow lost in Golestan

Camel at home in Golestan

We return to Gonbad-e-Qabus and have some home work to do there. In the past two days we collected quite a lot of material issues. Martin’s bike needs a repair (movement of the fork), one of my rear panniers seals is torn and as a consequence it has a hole of 15 cm long, not very recommendable in the rain. A bidon has a hole, we lost a Platiplus bottle and my new Sigma bike computer which didn’t work properly from the beginning stopped working completely after the last rain. Finally, in Gonbad we discover that our Iranian bank card refused when we try to pay for our smoothies in the local juice shop. It still has 25 million rials on it. However, in Iran these are no issues at all. Whereas there are lots of rules and a lot is forbidden, everything is possible. Our hosts patiently bring us from one repair shop to the other. Martin’s bike gets repaired in 10 seconds the same evening, my rear panier in 2 hours the next day, we find the most expensive super tape I have ever seen (1.5 million rials (around 25 Euro) for 1 meter) to make the panier repair water tight again, the bank card is reactivated already in the morning and a new pin nr communicated to us over the phone and sent per sms, a complete set of new Ortlieb bike paniers is ordered from Tehran, via an Iranian bike friend in Stuttgart and will be sent within a day to one of our destinations more to the west and finally I can even buy the exact same Sigma bike computer I already have from Tehran, which I decide not to do, because I foresee that it may have the same issues as the current one. And also the sun is shining again. Even for an experienced project manager this is a lot of problems solved in 1 day. Remarkable is also the price I paid for the panier repair, which required 2 hrs of work and some materials: only 50’000 rials (80 cts). I couldn’t believe my ears.

In the evening we have a surprising meeting. Sara, Sam’s girl-friend, shows up with a very tall blond German guy, with wild hair and beard, Christoph Rehage. He tells that he is walking through Iran. WALKING???? My God. Martin tells the guy that we have heard of a German who was walking from Bejing to Germany last year and that we had visited his Explora multivision show in Thun. Well, the guy said, that must have been me. And I am now continuing my walk, because I stopped just east of Iran. And yes, I have still pain in my feet. But if I limit myself to 20-30 km per day, it is OK. Christoph explains that he is able to make a lousy living from writing books and giving lectures. So, he is happily continuing his walk to Germany.

Surprise meeting with Christoph Rehage in

Gonbad-e Qabus. Check him out on:

www.thelongestway.com and 

www.christophrehage.com

In the park we do a million selfies and pictures with a growing group of adolescents and after that Christoph is also willing to take some pictures with the two of us. We exchange some thoughts about the mystics of travelling and that the mystic disappears once you have finally visited the place with the mysterious name. Christoph leaves us for an early sleep and we head for the Turkman restaurant where I eat some very good Momo’s (dumplings) in yoghurt sauce and drink for the first time in my life camel doogh, which is a kind of buttermilk made from camel’s milk and it also has bubbles.

The next day is long and the landscape boring. Flat and wheat wherever we look. We pass an irrigation channel and this spot is apparently good for ice cream selling, there are three sellers active. We are stopped by a man who offers us the typical Iranian yellow saffron ice cream. Although the ice cream comes from a very shaky cooling device we decide to try it and fortunately our guts are not negatively impacted.  We even manage to pay the man. In the meantime a car stops and a family from Tabriz  invites us to stay with them in June when we arrive in Tabriz. Phone numbers are exchanged, although we explain that we already have a friend in Tabriz where we stay. This kind of argument is usually ignored anyway. Another man joins the group and invites us for a tea in his office. He appears to be the head of the irrigation office and while we help him disappear a whole plate of cookies he explains that many farmers have no clue about water management and also the government doesn’t care about water management. The man states that the government ascribes the drought in the Zayandeh River in Esfehan to women making selfies along the board of the river with their hijab’s off. This is so sad. A land full of highly educated people is supposed to believe these stories?

We don't exactly know how this happened but we started our lunch with only three of these kids...

Later when we arrive in Gorgan at Ehsan and Mahbube, Ehsan confirms this. He is working as a civil engineer but his main job is farmer. Ehsan is an intelligent man and he foresees that if water management continues to be so bad, there will not be any water left for the next generation. Most farmers don’t give this any thought and use water very inefficiently. Ehsan has just invested in a new irrigation system, not being supported in any way by the government. He tries to motivate other farmers to use water in a more intelligent way, but any attempt to organize the farmers is strongly discouraged by the government. Any form of cooperation is discouraged, because the government is afraid of organized groups of Iranians. Mahbube adds that in some parts of Iran industrial waste water is used for irrigation and that no one knows what the waste water is polluted with. Polluted water for crops that need to feed the people of Iran…

Mahbube took us for a ride to the jungle

and Ehsan showed us the way out of Gorgan to Bandar-e Gaz

Ehsan and Mahbube are a lovely couple and we stay two nights with them. Mahbube earns her living as a private English teacher and yoga teacher. She is very fit and strong and a convinced vegetarian which is not at all easy in Iran, as many of the foods are based on meat. She is also a convinced non-participant of Ramazan which will start one day later. She cannot understand how government, supported by doctors, can think that not drinking for 16 hrs in an Iranian climate is a healthy habit. Ehsan and Mahbube love biking and they have made several tours in Iran. They tell us that an Iranian couple with a 9 month old baby are cycling through Iran for a year and have just arrived in Gorgan.

'Our LifeCycle'. Watch Ehsan's moustache

The next day we meet Ehsan, Shima and little Arsalan. They are both free-lance photographers and have decided to make their 'Life-Cycle-Experience' by biking with their baby through Iran. To do this in Iran is incredibly brave, not so long ago cycling for women was forbidden and I believe it officially still is. However, they get a lot of encouraging reactions. Their biggest challenge? Truck drivers constantly honking and waking up their little child. Well, honking and shouting Iranians are our challenge as well and will become the most nerving challenge so far two days later…

But first we cycle to Bandar-e Gaz where we meet Mohammad and his brother Messi (Iranian for Messias, you can also call him Jesus). They are part of a family with 4 brothers, a sister and parents and none of them has a job. Mohammad tries to sell the stuff that is remaining from the bankrupt electricity shop of his father. And for the rest I have no clue how they survive. The brothers live in a separate apartment next to their parents, where also the inventory of the electricity shop is stored. So, this night we sleep in between the racks with lamps and plugs but first we are going to chill in the garden of a friend, hidden somewhere in the jungle outside of town. After some cups of tea they propose to invite some more friends and go back to town to buy the ingredients for a kebab party. And so we do. Of course, no chance that we can financially contribute to the party. We have a very nice evening in the lovely orchard. The boys smoke like hell and ask me to not publish their pictures on internet, because their mother doesn’t know. Ha,ha, their mother is definitely not crazy. Of course, she knows. When we return home, Mohammad tells me that he is going to repair my e-reader, that during an attempt to transfer the e-books to Martin’s e-reader completely blocked. I am bookless already since several weeks. For repair I have to load it again with the software, but you need a stable internet connection  with a VPN that is not constantly disconnected. Mohammad is happy to give it a try, he never goes to bed before 4.30 am anyway. So, when I wake up the next morning my e-reader is revitalized, my computer has a new VPN program and I can also pack my brand new rear paniers, that arrived at Mohammad a couple of days before. Mohammad looks a bit sleepy though at 7 am in the morning.

Once again my life is saved by a friendly Iranian young man. Thank you so much Mohammad!

One of Mohammad's friends is musician and plays a kind of lute during the evening in the garden

Not only Mohammad revitalized my e-reader, he also received my brand new bike bags that were sent to him from Tehran a couple of days before. The old one is also shown and has a repair at the right side, covered with super (expensive) tape.