Day 131 (Iran): just past Chenaran - Mashhad

daily distance: 74km
total distance: 8091km
riding time: just over 3h

There again isn’t much to report. Apart from maybe that the wind picked up at night and ripped big time at the tent. Not really pretty as it made sleeping difficult. Everything had calmed down when I went to bed only to come back with a vengeance a couple of hours later. In the morning I am first given more fruit, including some very yummy grapes.

The kids were amazed at everything concerning the strange bicycle in their tree lined dirt road …

Then it was time to head to Mashhad and it was a short ride ultimately. 50km, done by mid-morning. I took some backroads and again had almost no traffic. There were trees on the sides of the road until just before Mashhad. Beauty of a ride. When I entered the city, the road turned into a washboard and traffic was crazy.

As Reza was at work until later, I put in another long internet session to move things along on my US visa application. Not without hitting up some ice cream parlors though.

Then it was time to head to his place, which was further out than I thought at first, but which is also extremely beautiful. Reza is the local couchsurfing ambassador and had two other travelers at his place from France. Cyrielle and Ludovic are siblings and are traveling by bus and other means from China back to France. Their reports are great and together with Reza, his brother and his uncle we had a wonderful evening sharing stories and experiences.