Camel man, Iranian living and 60+ years round-the-world cyclists

This is in the police office outside the Iranian Embassy in Erzurum – Eastern Turkey. I waited for my French friend to get his visa and the police kindly invited me to stay in their small house. Then this Swiss man at the left stepped in. “So, what do you do here in Turkey?”, I asked curiously since he spoke Turkish. “I am a camel man”, he answered. “Oh, that’s interesting”, I said. He wanted to live as a nomad and was waiting for his Iranian visa. He had been walking with his camels from Switzerland to Turkey and was not setting off towards Mongolia. His camels were at a provisional camp he had around 30km from the city.

In Erzurum I stayed in the house of three soldiers who I met through CouchSurfing. They were really nice people. However, I made a mistake. I mentioned “Kurdistan”. I was kindly reminded of that Kurdistan doesnt exist and that I shouldn’t really mention the expression. I apologized and everything was OK.

Wow – this was great. Very strong tail wind and that just pushed me forward in on a flat, empty road. Feeling of freedom.

Galloping horse by the side of the road.

Kids saw me and my French friend, Stephane, from far away and are running just to get a view of us and wave.

Entering Iran. A little bit crazy at the border with people and police men shouting at each other but nothing worse than expected. It took an hour or so.

This couple was incredible. We met them at the border to Iran. They are from Holland and just retired from their jobs. They were in the 60′s. Now they are cycling around the world for at least three years. They didnt have an upper limit of time. The man, William, was funny. One Turkish man stepped in the queue just in front of William and he got furious shouting in front of everyone that the Turk has to wait in end of the queue like everyone else.

When William went away to check something, his wife came closer to me and said “In fact, I carry more weight (luggage) than William, but don’t tell him I said that”. This couple was a true inspiration.

This was the first day in Iran – the man in pink shirt, Bakum, stopped with his car and invited us to stay with his family. People here are so hospatible – it is unimaginable. We had a very nice dinner at the floor in the living room with Bakum, his brother and mother. Bakum was an engineer and business man and explained everything about Iran – subjectively of course. For an instance, he stopped and asked “How much would it cost for me to go from Iran to Sweden”. “Well, 300-400 Euros with airplane, I suppose”, I said.  “Nono, no airplane, with Taxi”, he said. Haha, he only used taxi in Iran and wanted to go to Sweden with Taxi. I wonder if it is possble. Getting all the visas necessary for you and the taxi driver, and then setting off

Iranian bedroom. I slept very well.

When me and Stephane were eating, this family stopped their car and wanted to take a picture with us. Then I wanted to take a picture of them. People always stop with their cars.

This was an amazing road that went in a long valley, just along the river that separates Iran from Azerbadjan. On the other side is Azerbadjan, and guards were frequently patrolling.

6000km reached.

This is from today’s morning. It is the last day of Ramadan and people crowded up outside the biggest mosque of the city, Tabriz, to pray. They all brought their own carpet. The latecomers are running.

Women inside the blue mosque of Tabriz.

Now I am in Tabriz in Iran which is the second biggest city of the country. Tomorrow I will head further to Tehran which will take about a week. Me and my French friend, Stephane, will separate for this week and meet again just after Tehran because I want to see Tehran and he wants to climb mountains and go along the Caspean sea. To sum up, Iran is, as everyone was telling me, a fantastic country and people constantly invite us to their houses and stop with their cars to give us water melons, bread and other things. I feel very safe and welcome. Thank you.