Bijar

Today was a very long day. I dropped back down Takab from Takht-e-Soleyman. The weather was much nicer than the day before, no squalls of rain. Though the same wind began to blow, for most of the day it did so in my favour.

I found a small bike shop in Takab which had a kick stand that would work with my bike. I don't know how I'd managed all these years without one. During the trip so far I'd been constantly bothered by having to find a place on which to lean the bike. On the trip this had inevitably this meant pushing the bike onto the muddy verge beside the road. From this point on I'd be free of this. As cool as that was the bike shop man didn't want any money & gave me a sticker of Iran which I put on my front mudguard.

From Takab to Bijar was rolling country, with the road going up & down between 1850m & 2000m in altitude. It was mostly very dry land with the flatter areas sown with wheat & the hilly slopes left for sheep pasture. When there was a river the land around was a luscious green & irrigation channels made the most of it. Usually where a river & the road coincided there was a village of mud-faced dwellings.

I arrived in town exhausted & frazzled from the wind. I'd decided to push for Bijar to stay in a hotel in order to try & find a way of communicating with the outside world. However being Friday the Internet café was closed. The hostel or Mosaferkhuneh was cheap & busy, though with workers rather than tourists. It was a friendly place but I just wanted to recover in peace. My room's window faced onto a busy corridor down which there was the toilet. The heater in my room could not be switched off. To not roast in the room I had to leave the window open & any hope of peace & quiet was gone. I look forward to camping again.

I cycled 131 km in 7 hours & 54 minutes
Total so far 3506 km in 50 days