Ezhyeh

After 4 days off the bike it felt good to be moving under my own steam again. It was quite warm in Esfahan already at 6am. I wondered what it would be like closer to the desert. As I went out to get some bread for breakfast I bumped into Sebastien getting his gear ready, having just arrived back from a visa run to Tehran. I'd have company on the way to Yazd.

The ride out of Esfahan was through the morning rush hour, though now I was getting quite used to Iranian traffic. The only thing that bothered me about it was the pollution that all the cars, trucks & buses produced.

Shortly after getting out of Esfahan we turned off onto a minor road. The desert began. The land was very dry, instead of soil there was sandy clay. This didn't last long as we arrived at a strip of land watered by an irritation canal. On each site of the canal there were fields of wheat but further away the land was brown.

We stopped for the day outside the town of Ezhyeh, making camp on the bed of a dried pond. The water hadn't been long gone as the clay below the surface was soft & a little damp. On top was a crispy layer of salt & hardened clay that crunched & broke when one walked on it. Unfortunately the presence of water & the warm weather meant that there were vast numbers of hungry mosquitoes. Dinner was eaten on the move & I retreated into the sanctuary of tent as soon as possible.

I cycled 104 km in 6 hours & 4 minutes
Total so far 4352 km in 61 days
GPS Coordinates of end point - N 32°25.188, E 52°25.681