Desert Bike Tour in Iran: Facing Extreme Heat
We just reached Isfahan in Central Iran on our bicycle journey from Germany to Korea. Before we continue following the ancient Silk Road to the east and into the desert, we have to give this iconic city a proper look. Often referred to as “half the world,” Isfahan captivates with its architectural splendour and cultural richness. At her heart lies this massive square. Naqsh-e Jahan, a proper masterpiece of Persian architecture.
Surrounded by magnificent palaces and mosques from the Safavid era, it is a vibrant cultural and social hub, reflecting the glory of Isfahan’s golden age, when she also served as the capital of the mighty Persian Empire. Jean Chardin, a 17th-century traveller, called it nothing less than “a vision of paradise.” That’s quite the statement, but he is in good company! Take Robert Byron, who, in his 1937 book ‘The Road to Oxiana’, described Isfahan as “a symphony in blue” for its stunning tile work and even “the most beautiful city in the world”.
Ella Maillart praised her “timeless elegance”, Evliya Celebi wrote that "Isfahan is a city of wonder and delight, a place where the arts and sciences flourish", and… well, I guess you get the idea. I’ve also been curious about Isfahan because of its large Armenian quarter, called New Julfa. By resettling over 150.000 Armenians to his new capital and granting them religious freedom,
Shah Abbas the Great aimed to boost the prosperity of the Safavid Empire. The Armenians then established extensive silk trading networks connecting Persia with Europe, and built over a dozen churches. The prime example is the fairly unique Vank cathedral, which at least from the outside looks wildly different from the Apostolic churches in Armenia or modern day Turkey.
Under the rule of Abbas I Isfahan became the Persian centre for arts, crafts, and trade. Its countless extravagant palaces, lush gardens and picturesque bridges over the nowadays dry Zayandeh River add further to its allure, making the city a melting pot of global splendour and diversity. While we are very impressed, our clock is ticking. We have under 3 weeks to make it out of Iran, and some great challenges on the roads ahead. It’s 6 am. Today we’re leaving Isfahan and making our way towards Yazd. This will be about 300 kms through the desert.
There will be at least two days where we ride the whole day and there is literally nothing except the road. Therefore, some careful considerations will be necessary. Today we started a little bit too late. It’s already after 6 o’clock. Tomorrow we’ll try to start cycling at least at 5 o’clock in the morning to beat the heat.
So let’s see how this goes. These are literally the first rice fields I see in my life. Next to a river that has no water. Iran and “nuclear”. Not very reassuring. Let’s pass this one quickly. It’s already evening when we reach Ezhiyeh, 80 kms southeast of Isfahan.
Our warmshowers host Abbas wants to show us a nearby stone desert. I wonder if there are any dangerous animals around. He says no, and two minutes later we stumble over this little one. The next morning we get the chance to visit a restorated traditional Central Persian desert house. One hundred years ago when a woman came to the door she used that door knob.
I’m a woman. And men used this one. We’ve just entered and it’s surprisingly cool here. This is because the walls are very thick and made from the mixture of clay and hay to insulate against the heat.
It’s really hot outside and here it's very comfortable. Also typical is the central courtyard with a little pool and garden. Intricately designed doors and windows offer shade and privacy, while the adobe construction provides insulation against the extreme heat, creating a cool, tranquil oasis.
What you can see on the roof are wind catchers. They prevent rain from falling into the house, but let the wind enter to provide natural temperature control. Not that they get a lot of rain around here these days. Anyway, with the hottest time of the day approaching, Abbas then brings us to one of the rather ominous looking buildings at the outskirts of the town. This is being used as a tea house, but traditionally this building was used to gather... bird poop.
As you can see there are tons of little holes in the wall, where they can build their personal nests. The temperature is very low, so the birds really like to come here. Before the invention of the Haber-Bosch process, pigeon and sea bird poop was used as a nitrogen rich natural fertiliser.
Of the once thousands of pigeon poop towers all over Iran only few remain in use today. It’s 3:30 pm. The air temperature is about 41 or 42 degrees in the shade, not that there is much shade. Soon we’ll leave Ezihyeh and start riding into the desert where there is no shade, but we have a strategy. We’ll tell you later how we want to survive cycling 200 kms through the desert. I mean, if you see the video, it worked, right? Let’s go. Absolutely empty. That’s because locals think we are crazy to cycle at this time of the day.
We are a little bit. It’s very hot. We made our clothes completely wet, we soaked them in water 5 minutes ago. They are almost dry, but for the moment it feels good. More bird towers… Our first goal is to cycle to Varzaneh, which is not too far away, so it’s perfect to make it today. Apparently Varzaneh is the only city in Iran where women wear white chadors. It is an old tradition unique to this little desert town, and a sensible choice given the climate.
However, apparently many younger women do not continue the tradition for cultural, practical, and aesthetic factors, wearing a black chador instead. After stocking up supplies and water we ride into the dusk. This was the last bit of civilization for the next two days.
It is roughly 120 kms from Varzaneh to Nadushan, the next town. 120 kms of stupidly hot and dry desert. We know nothing about the condition of the road ahead, except that it includes 900 metres of ascent and that somewhere in the middle lies an abandoned ancient caravanserai, which will be of crucial importance for our endeavour. I don’t know what this is, a fox or something, never seen it before. It means we have to take care of our food tonight.
By the way we are now on the road that leads directly to the desert. So we need to find a good spot for our tent. Oh my god, there is another one, holy shit. Wow, there are so many animals, wild animals… ok! Good! We try to sleep early, which proves a bit difficult as the ground continues to radiate heat. It’s 5:30 am. 5?! No. It’s not 5:30, it’s 4:30. Oh my god, I’m still tired.
This early it’s almost chilly. Mathias is already concerned about our limited amount of water. We already used up our water bag and have about 12 litres left, which seems plenty to me. It's already 5:30 am. Not as early as we wanted to start. The sun is already up. We are now ready to follow this road that seems to be endless.
We have 60 kms for today to the next caravanserai, which we want to reach at noon, because that’s the only chance for us to get some shade when the sun is scorching. Hello. Hello, hello… It’s ok! It’s a mother! Hello. Hello. Ok! Go, go, go! Ok! It’s always a little bit intense, but I think now we’re passed this. Apparently we’ve cycled through a desert in Iran before, but that was on a big highway with loads of traffic, very smooth surface and rest stops every now and then. I do not call that a proper desert, as there were no sand dunes. We can spot some in the distance, but Arev is not convinced.
At 8 am the temperature starts rising fast. I didn’t do too well the last couple of times we cycled during extreme heat. At least it looks like we can make it to the caravanserai before high noon. We’re still in the early design phase.
This is my new style in the desert. Protects very well from the sun. I can’t see anything. It’s almost 10 o’clock in the morning.
The thermometer shows more than 40 degrees in the sun. Which is adequate, as there is no shade here. Vastness, emptiness and quietness of the desert. So we started to soak ourselves in water. Natural air conditioning. We have only a limited amount of water to use for that, but still 15 more kms to the caravanserai for some shade. The ascent has started and is slowing us down considerably.
The sun is scorching now. It feels like cycling in an oven. Managing water is very important here in the desert. Not just the water that we carry with us, but also the water in our body. This is why we regularly stop and use a tiny amount of water to wet our shirts, so that our bodies can cool down without losing too much of body fluid. We’re already drinking so much.
Everything gets dry. The lips burn even though we have a UV protection lipstick. The nose is so dry, the throat is so dry that it hurts. But luckily, just when we counted that we only had six litres of water left, a car came - there are not so many cars here - and the guy said “ab, ab”, which means water in Persian. So we gladly took the water bottle he offered. We are now up to 7,5 litres of water. Very good!
It’s 11:45 am, which for Iran means the hottest phase of the day has already started. It’s getting hard to breathe. We are still not at the caravanserai. I think there are 5 more kms and there is a slope, so probably half an hour to get there or maybe a little bit more, but it really is time to get there. The road quality just downgraded significantly. That could mean that we still need an hour to that caravanserai. Oh my God! Do you want to see something new? I think we shouldn’t go this way. Let’s first check where exactly the
caravanserai is and then decide which way to go. I’ll check this side first. Apparently they deconstructed the road to make a new one, but stopped after the deconstructing part which is amazing. This is the only building. It should be it, no?! Looks like it. Ok. Let's push the bike here. So good. I really didn’t want to go this way. No! That looked horrible. Oh f***. I almost fell.
Everything is a matter of perspective. I was never as happy about compacted gravel as at this moment. So much better than the loose sand. We made it to the caravanserai.
It’s really time. Now let’s check how we get inside. We found the main entrance of the caravanserai. Shade! You can’t imagine how happy I am that we reached the caravanserai. We were so exhausted.
Now we slept a little bit and recovered. We drank a lot of water. I think we were kind of dehydrated even though we were drinking constantly. We settled in the coolest room. There is even water here. So I will fill some empty bottles and filter the water.
Here in the middle is kind of a cistern. We underestimated how much water we need in these extreme conditions. The air is so dry that any sweat evaporates immediately. We feel constant thirst, even right after drinking. We have the unfiltered water from this cistern. I will treat it now, so it’s safe to drink. We use the system from Steripen. There is a prefilter to get the floating stuff out of the water.
In the second step after prefiltering, we use the Steripen UV light, which kills 99,9% of the bacterias and viruses. So the water is sterile and safe to drink. Press the button two times for 1 litre. Then the light turns on and while the light is on you should shake it so that all the water gets enough of the UV light.
It takes about 90 seconds to treat 1 litre, If I’m not mistaken. Now the light is off. Here you go. Let’s try what it is. Well, it does not treat the taste, that's for sure. Better than nothing.
Hello again! The day started very beautifully. We woke up early, the weather was cool. The sunrise was wonderful and colourful. The landscape here is incredible. Amazing! Very dry… In the beginning this white… I don’t know, was it a salt desert? Maybe it was a lake before. It’s also nice to be alone for some time, because… Iranian people are so hospitable, so kind. I’m really amazed and I’m learning a lot, but sometimes it takes too much energy and at the end of the day I don’t want to talk anymore.
So I really enjoy being here on our own right now. The day did not go as planned. The temperature was around 50°C in the sun. Every additional movement I had to do felt too much, you know? I didn’t have the energy for anything. And then the road was not paved anymore and it was going uphill… But again, I am walking here and looking around. These hills, the caravanserai. Us in the middle of nowhere. And yes, I am happy. I’m happy that we are doing this.
And I think this will stay in our memories for a very long time. It seems like we have guests. When we were cycling in this direction today, he came with his car and stopped to give us water. We said we were going to the caravanserai. Now he brings us food and water. What a lad?! Thank you so much!
This Caravanserai is 405 years old. There is one caravanserai every 60 kms. There are 999 caravanserais. In Varzaneh, in Koohpayeh, this one, Nadushan, and so on. 60 km. Every 60 km there is one caravanserai? Yes. Shah Abbas I.
Shah Abbas built them? Yes. In Isfahan, Shah Abbas built the Si-o-Se Pol and Pole Khajoo bridges. Yeah, yeah, we saw that. Now it is summer, it’s hot! Yes, now it’s hot.
Isfahan, hot. Yazd, hot. Kerman, hot. Bandar Abbas, what can I say… Fire! We are going to Bandar Abbas. Bandar Abbas, fire! Terrible… Where are you coming from on your bicycles? From Germany by bicycle? Yes. Wow. I mean this really is Persian hospitality… Full scale! It’s incredible… It’s hard to put in words. And, hello?! The camera. Here, here…
Shah Abbas I is also credited with the construction of 999 caravanserais across his empire as an effort to revive the Silk Road and enhance trade, travel, and economic prosperity within Persia. The strategic placement of these structures ensured safe and comfortable rest stops, significantly boosting commerce and cultural exchange during his reign. Good morning! We are leaving the Rabbit caravanserai and hope to cycle for another 60 kms to the town of Nadushan. Grinding up the dusty gravel road to an altitude of over 2080 metres takes us longer than expected. What an unforgiving and hostile environment, all the way to the horizon and far beyond. Almost everything north, east and south of us looks pretty much like this.
Thousands of kilometres of deserts. For the first time in our journey we can grasp the daring feat that travelling the ancient Silk Road must have been. Empty. Empty. This man is so nice. He leads us to a place where we can get something to eat.
Here. Thank you very much! Goodbye! Goodbye! We are very hungry. But it looks good. It’s chicken with rice, a typical dish with some sauce here. We have bread, salad and olives of course. It was literally the only dish that they had. So you cannot imagine how *angry I am. Angry or hungry? I’m hungry not angry, but when I’m very hungry I can also get angry so… Iranians really know how to make rice perfectly.
If you have watched our journey, you’ve seen this tradition before. Throwing water after travellers is wishing good luck and safe travels. So let’s get to Yazd.
Unfortunately we cannot stay in this beautiful town. We already got invited two times to stay at someone’s place. But we don’t have so much time anymore.
We should be out of the country in two weeks. So we’ll just continue, find a nice camp spot and hopefully sleep well until 3 o’clock in the morning. Arev is concerned about snakes. We’ll quickly cook something and tomorrow we’ll try to hit the road even earlier, which should be possible. It’s not as hot here as during the past nights. We are higher up and also
because of the wind it’s cooling down quickly. So I’m looking forward to a restful night here. Today, high cuisine. Broken rice with canned pasta sauce ready to serve. This will be fantastic. And don’t tell anyone that I’m a trained chef. Well, this is the desert lifestyle. It’s very hot so we cannot transport any fruits or vegetables. One onion. We have one onion. But anything else wouldn’t survive so this is our dinner.
Despite our best intentions to get up early we slept for 10 hours like the stones around us. The last few days left their mark. It’s another 85 kms to Yazd. It will be even hotter there, because we will also enjoy a perfect 700 metres descent over the first 60 kms.
Next to the power lines. Arev has a strange thing for power lines. So it’s her day! The temperature is unbearable and our late start didn’t help. We reach Yazd at noon in a state of complete exhaustion. What was that?! After resting two nights Arev’s wish comes true. Even after crossing 300 kms of desert by bicycle in the midst of summer, she continued lamenting that she had not been in a proper desert yet. You know, sand dunes…
To our luck, on leaving the city, we obviously find locals willing to take us with them on a night in the desert. We’re talking sand dunes, BBQ, music, the whole shebang! Not far from Yazd lies this strange but picturesque lake, a waste water dump. Accordingly the smell is less romantic and there is also another slight caveat: We also learn that now in July the drastic temperature drop from day to night between this particular area and the surrounding mountains leads to extreme air pressure disparities during the evening hours. Or in other words: It’s very windy, it’s very sandy, but we are very glad that we did this.
A massive thanks to our amazing contributors on buymeacoffee.com who have been supporting us for over a year now. Producing this kind of long format travel documentary takes ridiculous amounts of time, effort, money, and of course coffee! We love taking you with us and every single contribution helps us to get another episode out. Via buymeacoffee.com/aworldbiketour you can top up our budget for more coffee, desperately needed equipment, food and accommodation supporting our independently produced niche content.
Since recently you can even send all your money to paypal.me/amazingworldbiketour Links are in the description below. Finding a place for the night with less wind proved challenging, but at least we won’t need to spend money on sandblasting our teeth for a while. In the meantime you can also watch how we ended up here, by clicking on our full playlist from our first pedal strokes all the way to Iran and hopefully far beyond! In any case hit the like button and leave a comment. We and Youtube absolutely love them. All this helps tremendously in getting our project sustainable. Until next time, and may the wind be in your back!
2024-08-16 03:01
