Life of Bicycle touring
In Iran we are really heading east. The route out of Tehran goes straight in the direction we are heading. We decided to take the longer North-east Iran route to Mashhad so we could avoid cycling only in the desert and heading to the apparently more humid and green Caspian Sea area. See latest photos: Tehran to Golestan and Golestan [...]
The days sorting out our visa in Tehran were stressful and hot. Somehow it all worked out very well for us and in two days of searching for embassies we had the visa we needed. If you wonder how and what, please read our post “Iranian and Central Asian visa Information”. Latest photos : Tehran, Desert day, Isfahan, Yazd, Shiraz and [...]
The intensity of Iran has kept a high level regarding people, temperature, headwind and experiences. The last few days we have been cycling over small roads. One Iranian said: “that way only desert and small village”, and wanted us to take the main highway. We thought: “perfect”, and continued on the small road towards the desert and, [...]
While we cycled over the last Turkish mountain pass (2250m) before reaching the Turkish/Iranian border we were imagining how welcoming Iran would be and how much would change. See all photos West Azerbaijan Iran The border crossing was a bit hectic. As they are building a new border the traffic is redirected around the building site, [...]
The thing that is keeping me back most on this trip is my mind... It is hard to say but my mind is really screwed up sometimes. The last three days have been the hardest days for me on this trip. I was almost ready to call it quits. My mental battle of bicycle touring, how did [...]
How interesting is it that we make plans along the way of our journey and still they always change all the time. We had planned to stay in Mardin to relax, investigate our route in Iraq or Mardin to Hakkari, update website and explore the town. For the photos see, Mardin and The road to Hakkari The town Mardin is [...]
Leaving Cappadocia towards the South-East of Turkey was tough after a few great days with friends and eating out a lot. At the same time we were looking forward to be back on the bike and in our bicycle rhythm. We had been looking forward to first Istanbul, then Ankara for our visa and Cappadocia because of [...]
The diversity of Turkey is huge. We have left the modern city of Ankara, cycled through parts of Central Anatolia and exchanged the city for very rural and traditional areas such as Selime and small villages south of Cappadocia. We came through Mustafapasa where traditional and modern mixes with each other in a very pleasant way. All [...]
We were ready to take on the rest of Turkey, although saying goodbye was a little bit sad because the stay at Ali, Martin's ex-colleague, had been very nice. Also we had the experience of cycling into Istanbul vividly in our minds. Luckily the way out of Istanbul was a lot more pleasant while following the old [...]
Istanbul is where we met Asia. We cycled in to Istanbul and straight to Sultanahmet, so we were sure that we were in Istanbul and get some great photos with the bikes. We were a bit tired after a bad camp spot in the outskirts of Istanbul and the heavy traffic, so next up was finding our [...]