I started cycling from rasht, a very nice city in north of Iran in Gilan province. I stayed there two days because of rain and in infact it was a great time to recover myself. My soul was a bit sick. I was not a fresh as I am used to be. I needed to spend some times with myself to underestand many things.
being alone has been always helping me to learn myself, my weaknesses and needs.
I chose this route because of winter. many people were telling me that in winter is not easy to go through mountains north of Iran, but I love ot live natural. I love to have spring in spring, fall in fall and winter in winter, so I try not to go to warm places in winter. I love to have snow and coldness.
I am sure we wont be able to see real winter in 20 years. So lets have enough now even though it is never enough.
I went through a road from Asalem by caspian sea (-27 m) up to Almas pass ( 2800 m ).
there was storm, snow and cold weather up in the mountain. But thanks to Arcteryx for their great products which gave me enough courage to go beyond my limits.
It took me 2 days of cycling to go over the pass. Honestly I was a bit scared as I heard of storm at the top but I already had my decission to do that.
I knew it will be damn cold and windy at the top, so after I reached the top I just tried to descend as fast as possible to find a secure place to camp.
There are wolves in winter almost everywhere in Iran and in that area as well. ( once I saw 5 of them )
But I didnt care and just camped by a river. I was in my tent that I heard something pulled my tent, I scared and jumped out and saw one of my shoes is gone.
I knew it was a fox. I followed his foot mark in snow which lead me to a piece of rock. when I was one meter from that, he showed up his head and ran away. My shoe was there but torn.
Next day I arrived to Khalkhal, a mountain city which is really cold. Luckily I had friends there and I could stay with them, rest and recover myself to get ready for the next part.
Mrs Sadighi and her family organized a meeting with their NGO to discuss about our projects. I was really surprised to see a woman that strong in a small city. It was great to see how she is powerful and how she can manage to gather many young people to work on environment and social problems.
After 2 days it was time to go again.
Again I decided to go through not much travelled roads through mountains to avoid traffic and of course see more beauty.
I cycled only 35 km but mostly under rain in winter. It was really cold and when I arrived to a little town called Hashjin, a Mrs Sadighi organized a host for me.
It was so pleasant to have a warm and dry place to spend a night and to dry up also my cloths.