Bike Touring the remote Mountains of Iranian Kurdistan
Hello! How are you? Doing well? *in Kurdish I’m fine, thank you! *in Kurdish Welcome to the Amazing World Bike Tour from Kurdistan in Iran. We’ve spent about ten days cycling in this region and it’s been absolutely crazy. So let’s jump straight into the adventure of how we got here to the Hawraman region of Kurdistan in Iran. As you might remember, we already got properly introduced to Kurdish life in Saqqez. Our new friends convinced us to change our route.
We’ll do a detour through the remote mountains of Hawraman. The coming days we’ll spend on very steep roads right next to the Iraqi border. What could possibly go wrong…?! We are leaving Saqqez to explore even deeper into Kurdistan. Today is a perfect day. It’s not very hot.
Maybe there will be little rain later. But that’s ok! We’re buying some melon so we don’t starve today and … Oh, yeah, it’s starting to rain right now. Ok, we need a roof…quickly! Where are you headed? *in Farsi Tabriz? Merivan. It’s perfect! It hasn’t rained for two weeks and now the second we want to go it’s hailing.
Yeah…that’s cycling life, right? Note to ourselves: A tree is not a roof. We are already soaked when a local leads us to a pavilion in the nearby park. We’ve cycled very far… Approximately 1km.
At least we have a melon... That's something! Yeah, we’ll survive it here… or maybe not! Eventually the thunderstorm passes and we start pedalling out of the city and up the first mountain. By now we got somewhat used to being controlled by police and military.
Back in the majority Kurdish regions of Turkey they also had checkpoints around every town. We just left Saqqez, the hometown of Mahsa Amini. Entering or leaving the city one has to pass by armed masked men. They belong to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, also called Sepah, a branch of the military formed after the Islamic revolution.
However, now we’re sitting in a car of the Faraja, basically the general police force of Iran. In any case, our strategy is to behave friendly and open. Hello! We’re sitting here in this police car and it’s great, because it just started raining really heavily… Again! We were climbing the mountain here and the officers that took pictures with us before, came after us to pick us up with their pick-up. You can see, our bicycles are in the back. They are taking us to Marivan, which is amazing, because we wanted to go there anyway. It will save us a lot of time.
We’ll take a cheap room and have the perfect opportunity to edit some video material. Apparently this unit is tasked with patrolling Iran's border with Iraq. After taking us to their base, they shared a meal with us and let us rest until the rain stopped. They seem quite worried about us staying the night outside in our tent, so they drive us as far as they can. What a beauty! Amazing nature! The air is very fresh here, it’s so green! And this super old bridge… It looks to me like it's made from food and then some earth on top. I don’t know if I want to use it. Btw. have you seen Arev’s new outfit?
These are Kurdish pants. Mostly men wear it and not women. The officers will drive us a little further. Obviously we cannot show them to you. Let’s go! Very cool! Hello! This is the legendary car of Iran, a “Neysan Abi”, which literally means “blue Nissan”. All of these cars are blue and it’s the nickname. They’ve been built here in Iran for 50 years, but the design is from Japan and it’s 70 years old. They are indestructible workhorses. It’s crazy.
We needed one and after not even 5 minutes there it is. Thank you very much! *in Kurdish You are very welcome! *in Kurdish See, here is the next outpost. That’s why they couldn’t continue. We’ve just learned “zor joaneh” means very beautiful in Kurdish. It’s very beautiful here. Actually I’m a little sad that the policemen insisted that we go to Marivan today.
Obviously camping here with that view would have been amazing. The rain stopped. We would've been absolutely fine, but … It wasn't the weather that worried the police officers. This road is just 5 km from the border with Iraq, and apparently frequented by smugglers during the night. So, we took their advice and hitched another ride. Hitchhiking is very easy in Iran, even with bicycles.
It‘s already dark when we reach the next city where we get dropped off at a guesthouse. Our room in Marivan. Our room comes with an eastern toilet, but no toilet paper, or towels. As Iranians do not enter with their shoes on, they have slippers everywhere.
The room also features carpet, a blanket without a cover, and a brush to keep the carpet clean. We end up spending four nights here. While Arev is a bit under the weather, we are at least making some progress with another video. We’re leaving Marivan today and because we are going to the mountains now we need to buy some supplies, especially bread would be awesome. So let's see what we can find here. Iranians literally go nuts on nuts, and we also spend a couple of millions on nuts. Do you know where we can buy bread? This bag of nuts was a little over 2 Euros. It’s actually not very cheap, but it’s nuts!
Big convenience stores or supermarkets are not very common in Iran, especially in smaller towns and the countryside. Due to the sanctions and the terrible exchange rate of the Iranian Rial, there are not many imported goods. It makes grocery shopping a little adventure, as most shops only offer a small and specific range of local products.
How many? *in Persian One… Shall we take two? *in German Two. *in Persian Those as well? One! *in Persian Thank you very much! *in Kurdish Enjoy! *in Kudish Tomatoes for 10 Toman, which is 10 000 Toman, which is 100 000 Rial, which is 20 Cents. We have a staggering amount of elevation gain ahead. We expect some very tough days. The temperatures are also rising now at the end of May. We took a wrong turn and had to ride back. Now we are making this little brake before we start the real climb into the mountains.
Arev is not very fit today. Well, I was sick for 3 to 4 days. So today is the first day of cycling again. Let’s see how far we can go…with melon power. A man just came and gave us dolma. Iranian dolma,
which is without meat, with just rice and saffron, I guess, and some chicken and bread. We made the mistake of stopping here for ten minutes. We've been invaded or one can say “attacked”... By these creatures. Ok, let’s go! Come on! Go! You can jump! I believe in you! My God! They’re all over my bike! They’re everywhere. No, that’s not good! Go away! Now I’m afraid if they are in my clothes.
Could that be? The whole valley seems to be the home of an incredible amount of grasshoppers. They are everywhere. We decided to go through the mountains. It’s very very steep. It’s hot! You can see that we’re sweating a little bit. And it’s just the beginning. So we are really excited for tomorrow when we go over the mountain. It’s a Wednesday evening and in Iran it’s the equivalent of Friday evening. People that can afford it spend the evening making barbecue in the countryside.
Anywhere we go, anywhere we look we see little fires lit. And people here and here are having barbecue sizzling over a little fire. Behind these mountains is Iraq. We came from that direction. Tomorrow we will continue up this mountain to Uraman, which is supposed to be stunningly beautiful. Not like this…I mean. I don’t know how it can get better, but yeah… We’re pretty tired from this day, so I guess we’ll hit our air mattresses very soon and call it a day.
We are two or three kms away from the Iraqi border which is right behind this mountain range. We were invited for tea. It’s cooked over the fire, so it has a very smoky aroma. Or as Arev likes to call it, a slight taste of cow dung. I do not agree, I think it’s like smoked ham. Hello! There you go. *in Farsi
Thank you! *in Kurdish Not for me, thanks. I mean this is so beautiful, but also so steep. Soon we are at the top. I can see it, I think. Is this the top? I can’t believe this.
Hello! Hi! We made it! Come drink tea! Mister, where are you from? Hello, hello! Nice! On their way back out of the valley we meet three bike tourers from Iran, Hossein, Ahmadreza and Hadi. We ask if they know a place for lunch and they do, in the village another 300 metres of descent down the valley. Now take it from a cyclist that at least made it to Iran. I’m not the most sportive guy,
but these guys are nuts and we’re loving it. They did this downhill you just saw just to eat Kelaneh with us and they have to go in that direction, so back up again. They will go even further down with us to spend the night with us at a beautiful place that they camped at already. Amazing! And this guy… he took his bike up to the Mount Everest base camp.
I mean… this is nuts! I’m crazy, I know! They already had Kelaneh for lunch at this place. However, they explain that one can not eat too much Kelaneh. So this is the typical yoghurt drink. They call it here “duk”. It’s similar to Turkish Ayran, but tastes different though.
After another 200 metres of descent with the guys we camp together at the place where they had stayed the night before. The next morning they climb back up where we all came from, while we continue further into the massive gorge. Okay. Anything that looks like a restaurant? We are in Selin, which is the lowest part of the whole Hawraman valley. We really need to do some shopping, because we're out of food.
Here we can find a lot of vegetables, onions, and tomatoes. That’s amazing! Hi! Is it ok to film? Yes! Finally we found a restaurant in Selin. I saw, it has a very nice view from the balcony. What was the name of this dish? “Ghavurma” Really good! Basically it’s stewed lamb with a lot of fat, rice and tomatoes. It’s really tasty. If you followed our Around The World series from the beginning, you probably know that climbing mountains is not my strongest suit. It’s better than before, but this is really nuts. I think this is more than 10% on average and if I look ahead I just want to puke.
Believe it or not, but it’s the second time today that we climbed up from this lake. Are we masochistic? I don’t know. I really struggle climbing. But maybe I like the pain and the sweating. I’m so tired. I just want to sleep. Not so far anymore! Only 200 to 250 metres of climb and then it’s just downhill. This valley is so remote. Imagine how remote this was before they built these roads.
Even with the roads it’s pretty difficult to get here. I imagine in winter time for multiple months it’s probably almost impossible to get in and out. But before they built the road, I mean, it’s almost unbelievable how hard it must have been. So I guess someone wants to say hello again. It’s probably the twentieth time today. It’s always funny and we’re having a break anyway… What I was about to say: they speak different Kurdish here, because it’s so remote probably. So they cannot understand Kurdish people from other regions.
Mathias they are asking, where are you from. From Germany and Armenia. Hi! There is a village at the top right there. You can’t imagine what I would give for some water or shower!
A shower! A kingdom for a shower! I think we are already 3 or 4 days without a proper shower. We've reached the closest village and we’re taking some water from the locals. That’s amazing, because that means we can camp here at the top, we don’t have to go down, which is much better for us. Great! Very good! Thank you! I feel great! That’s like a shower! It’s amazing! You forgot your gloves! Your gloves! Oh! I forgot my gloves! That’s so great! Where did I put them? You might need them! Thank you so much! Hi! How are you? Where are you from? Thank you! Be careful! Thank you! Bye-bye! Hello! Hello. How are you? Nice to meet you! That’s my Kurdish… Have a nice day! The evening rush hour.
Look at this… Oh my God…wow! I think we found our camp spot for the night. Right ahead! If we can get the bikes up there… We’ve been cycling fully loaded on rough roads with thousands of metres of elevation gain under the glaring sun for three days now. Due to the extreme terrain the road often climbs at inclinations of 15% and more. Until around 7 or 8% we just get a lot slower, but every additional percent adds pain and suffering. I already sweat a lot in general, but here it is off the charts.
I struggle to stay hydrated despite drinking well over 7 litres a day. We are extremely exhausted. Oh! Unbelievable! It was quite the effort to get our bikes here. But now we have this beautiful camp spot.. Beautiful?! We’ll be alone… It’s epic! Look at this… It’s a wonderful campspot… The next morning, we can’t help ourselves. The area is so empty that we take the risk of one quick low altitude drone shot.
The next two days we rarely found the energy to pick up the camera. We needed rest before the next brutal mountain pass. However, we did not find proper food, nor accommodation. Here in the remotest part of the valley was literally nothing. Now, that’s refreshing! Awesome… We’re going to Paveh! Yippieh, very good. Hello?! So much stuff is going on… We are in Kamyaran… Okay, I have to update you later.
Come to our place! Thank you very much! Thank you! How did you find our phone number? That was easy! We called the police, gave them your licence plate number, and they gave us your phone number. We have relatives in Germany. We called them, so we can understand these tourists. We told them several times, they could stay at our place. Oh dear, what’s the difference between your house and my house? Everything is yours. That’s so nice of you! Goodbye! Goodbye! I can not count the times Arev has lost her sunglasses, but magically….
Okay, let’s try to put this together. We hitchhiked with this blue Nissan from a town called Ravansar over the mountain here to Kamyaran. They took us. But before we had asked him if he could take us. But in his blue Nissan is a huge fuel tank, so he couldn't take us. He felt so sorry, he came back to invite us to his home, while we were in the other Nissan. So, he followed us. When we got out of the other Nissan Arev forgot her sunglasses. But we then went with him and only found out about it later. But … He is his nephew…?!
He is your uncle?! No, my friend is his nephew. Ah, okay. So, he has a friend, of whom he is the uncle of, but they are also friends. He is working for the local police, so they could run the licence plate that we had from a picture of the other Nissan, to get the phone number of those nice people. They just gave us the sunglasses.
Okay, maybe you couldn’t follow, but the bottom line is: We are very lucky, everyone is extremely helpful, we love Kurdistan! That’s it. So, because I also lost my hat, when we were riding a Nissan pickup, we’re now buying a new hat for me. This one is good as such, I think. But we need a cor on it.
Yes, that one is better. Look, I can even do this. We can go to another shop if you don’t like this one.
No, I actually like the idea that the air can flow through this. Do you want a bigger one? Not necessarily. Arev, what do you think? I think it's ok. Mathias, do you have everything? I have a new hat and I have allergy medication for my eyes and my nose. So nothing can stop us, we hope.
Take a picture of him! Picture! The women have been preparing dinner. To pamper us, they cooked a traditional Kurdish dish that is typically reserved for special occasions. What was the name of this dish? Khoresht Khalal. Khoresht Khalal is a flavourful stew, commonly prepared from lamb or chicken, black barberries, dried limes, massive amounts of slivered almonds and even rosewater served on saffron rice, a delicious multi-sensory adventure.
We’ve had an incredible time in Kurdistan... … which we will leave today, as we are on our way to Hamedan. It’s the first city on our journey in Iran with a Persian majority population. This will be a change. Some of you recently mentioned in the comments that the stories of our journey have given them confidence or even strengthened their trust in humanity.
This means so much to us! Facing the massive challenges ahead of us and even more so future generations, we believe it to be essential to reassure ourselves that most people want to do good and will do so if they feel they can. Now, if you want to help us spread the word about our project, please share our videos with your family, friends, colleagues, and fellow cyclists. To be able to make videos a little longer, we could really use a lot more viewers, and of course… With every “like” you enable more people to discover our journey, which is fantastic. You can also join our amazing contributors and support us via buymeacoffee.com/aworldbiketour. Thank you very much! And may the wind be in your back! See you in Hamadan!
2024-07-03 15:15
