Thursday, May 4, 2006

Esfahan

After some late showers the previous night I was surprised to find a clear sky & everything dry in the morning. It soon got quite warm, more so for quite a while. Under the Sun the land around looked more like a desert, the rocky hills brown & the red brown earth between the road & hills sparsely covered in low dry thorny vegetation. Even here Spring had an effect, there was a little greenery amidst the brown earth. Every so often, where the water from a mountain stream was available for irrigation, there would be a patch of intense cultivation; fields of wheat, trees & lots of birds.

After a while I came to the town of Domab, amidst the dry country it was an oasis with abundant water gushing through many irrigation channels. It still seemed to respect its old boundaries with its surroundings, with relatively little modern sprawl. Remnants of towers that could have been part of a defensive wall could be seen, at its centre stood intact a square mudwalled castle that had long ago been colonised for living space. I didn't linger, I wanted to reach Esfahan by the evening, a long day's ride away.

As the day got warmer I eyed thirstily the piles of melons for sale in the towns along the way. The only thing that made me delay was the thought of how to carry one. Eventually I relented, getting a relatively small (2kg) red fleshed water melon. That, with a pastry & a cold orange juice came to 50 cents. The melon was delicious.

At around 3pm I realised that I'd made a mistake with my map reading & what I'd thought was a short cut actually added about 25km to the distance to Esfahan. Arrival there for the night seemed at risk. Fortunately from there to Esfahan was along a main road that gently sloped down & there was a stiff tailwind. I covered the 65km to Esfahan before dark, the longest distance I'd done this or any trip.

I found a place in a hostel & by chance met Sebastien, from whom I'd become separated when he had bike troubles. Esfahan was quite a shock to the system after the quiet spots I'd been through. It was much warmer in the evening, which wasn't so welcome in the dorm room whose only air came through a window overlooking a busy street.

I cycled 163 km in 8 hours & 16 minutes
Total so far 4248 km in 56 days

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